Nat, unlike Pat, who is literally lost in the woods for 70% of this book, sticks by his sister, promising to help her so she doesn’t get eaten. Because the player that’s the Beast from the East when that happens? Well, they get eaten. The only thing she’s able to get out of the beasts before they run off is that she has to tag someone else before the sun sets. As this school yard inspired game of “nuh-ah, you have to play, you’re It” goes on, Ginger (again, understandably) loses her shit and says she’ll play but she doesn’t know the rules. These things not only speak English but are playing a game of tag? They try to say they’re not playing, but the beasts insist they have no choice. Understandably, Ginger and Nat are confused. It tags her, exclaiming how she is now It, or as they call It in their game: the Beast from the East.

Ginger and Nat think they’re dead for sure as one raises its massive fist and brings it down onto Ginger… except it doesn’t maul her and eat her bones. They’re big, they’re blue, and maybe also have John Goodman’s voice if imagining Goodman threatening to eat you is your thing. , so just imagine them physically looking like him. Pat has the cowardly idea that just running further into the woods is the best thing he can do and takes off, leaving Ginger and Nat cornered by said monsters.įYI, the monsters are kind of described like Sully from Monsters Inc. The foliage is all weird and there are big, horrible monsters sneaking through the woods. Because as the three play hide-and-seek, they wander somewhere that is definitely not on this plane of existence.

The family of five finds a nice spot by a stream and while mom and dad struggle to pitch a tent, Ginger (our twelve year old protagonist) is ordered to amuse her two younger, twin siblings Nat and Pat in the woods.

The story opens with the Wald family hiking through the woods, looking for a place to set up camp. It’s time to play a rigged and deadly game of tag in the woods called Beast from the East and to flashback to any particularly colourful drug trips you’ve had! Then Ginger and her brothers meet the beasts. Still, there’s something odd about this part of the woods. After all, Ginger did go to that stupid nature camp. Ginger Wald and her identical twin brothers, Nat and Pat, are lost in the woods. Did I Read It as a Child? : Yes The Story On the Back

Beast from the east goosebumps