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The Witcher meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this debut original faerie tale of revenge, redemption, and friendship—for fans of T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and cozy fantasy with a dash of gritty adventure.

Child death, discussion of suicide.

The night Lyssa Cadogan’s brother was murdered by a faerie-made monster known as the Beast, she made him a promise: she would find a way to destroy the immortal creature and avenge his death. For thirteen years, she has been hunting faeries and the abominations they created. But in all that time, the one Beast she is most desperate to find has never resurfaced.

Until she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, a melodramatic dandy with a coin purse bigger than his brain. Somehow, he has found the monster’s lair, and—even more surprising—retrieved one of its claws. A claw Lyssa needs in order to forge a sword that can kill the Beast.

Alderic is ill-equipped for a hunt and almost guaranteed to get himself killed. But as the two of them search for the rest of the materials that will be the Beast’s undoing, Alderic reveals hidden depths: dark secrets that he guards as carefully as Lyssa guards hers. Before long, and against Lyssa’s better judgment, an unlikely friendship begins to bloom—one that will either lead to the culmination of Lyssa’s quest for vengeance, or spell doom for them both.

Don't just take our word for it...

“I devoured this book! Full of revenge, monsters, and found family, Kill the Beast is riveting and thrilling!”
– Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

“Swift’s novel falls in the twilight between melancholy and adventure, punctuated with brutality, occasional gore, and shocking moments of joy. The foreshadowing is excellent, stringing action scenes and a delightful berserker/sunshine dynamic on a thread of delicious tension…. An excellent recommendation for all fantasy readers.”
– Library Journal (starred review) 🌟

“I wholly adored this fun, bloody, and phenomenal fantasy debut. With a queer friendship story, a feral bisexual main character, and a lot of heart, this is definitely one you’ll want to get your hands on!”
– M. Stevenson, author of Behooved

Taste the very first page

Lyssa hefted the bloodstained burlap sack and shoved her way through the door of the Kingmaker, tracking sooty slush on the expensive carpet. She bypassed the line of patrons waiting to be seated, ignoring the ripple of protests that followed in her wake, and made her way to where a pinch-faced headwaiter stood by the entrance to the main dining room. He glanced her way with an automatic, “I’m sorry, miss, you’ll have to…” then faltered, his expression landing somewhere between disgust and horror as the sight of her sank in. The trio of ladies he had been speaking to turned—as well as they could in forty pounds of petticoats, layered skirts, steel-boned corsets, and starched collars, anyway— and glared at her. Their eyes skated right over the bloody bag in Lyssa’s arms, seeming to find her mud-spattered pants and unkempt braids far more objectionable.

It was too bad no one had ever figured out how to feed off the disdain of the rich; the downtrodden would never go hungry again.

“Servants’ entrance is ’round back,” the headwaiter barked at her before apologizing profusely to the women. “I am dreadfully sorry about that, they never seem to learn…”

Lyssa trudged back out into the frigid air, where her bullmastiff, Brandy, was waiting. His tail started up like a metronome when he saw her.

“Around back, I guess,” she told him, and together they picked their way carefully down the dark side alley, the pavement made treacherous with ice, until they reached the servants’ entrance. Lyssa rapped on the door and waited until it was thrown open by…

November 2025