Under a Carnivore Sky
Brianna Jett
Page Street YA
Published August 18, 2026
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Under a Carnivore Sky
I’m the only one left hunting the monster, the only one left with a chance of saving us all.
Raised in a town surrounded by a labyrinthine, man-eating swamp, Lili craves nothing more than to track down the monster lurking in its depths and kill it.
The monster’s curse claims the flesh and bone of every adult in town, stealing them away, piece by piece. For generations, people have tried to kill it or escape the town altogether, but every path out of town leads them right back in.
Caleb, a bookish boy with dreams of freedom, is hungry to escape. He thinks that with Lili’s help and knowledge of the swamp, he can make a map to freedom. And Lili hopes that with a better sense of its territory, she might finally find and kill the monster.
Together, they chart the swamp’s shifting terrain. Sharing in the danger and the beauty
of the landscape sparks a friendship between them—and then something more. However, what they discover disrupts everything Lili thought she knew about the town, her father, the monster—even herself. The truth at the root of the curse could devour them all. And Lili must decide if risking her life to be the town’s savior is worth sacrificing her own chance of escape.
My Review
This verse novel is dark and intense. The setting reminded me a little of They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran or The Forest of a Thousand Eyes by Frances Hardinge, in that nature itself has become dangerous. Lili talks a lot about the danger of being hungry, or acknowledging hunger or longing in herself, as something that puts her at risk. But she isn’t like the complacent townspeople who squabble over what little the community has and blame the swamp and its monster for their troubles. Like every good protagonist, she wants more.
I think my favorite part of the story is Lili’s evolving relationship with the swamp monster. She wants desperately to understand why it feeds on people and where it came from. Is killing it the only way to make it go away? She wrestles with some feeling of kinship or understanding that she has with this creature that has literally been eating her father.
I struggled with the disdain that Lili has for depression. Her feelings about her situation make sense, and I think being angry when she discovers some of the things she does is pretty reasonable. I just didn’t like that her emotional processing kind of stopped there.
I wasn’t a big fan of the ending. Again, I think it makes sense for her character, and sometimes the path she takes is the only one possible. I think this was a really hard story to tell in verse. So much of the story happens between the lines in a verse novel, and I think I wanted more information and more scenes showing her fight to help her community.
On the whole, I think readers who enjoy eco-horror will connect with the story and its dangerous, creepy setting. Give this to fans of dark dystopian stories.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used twice.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing. References to arousal. References to sex.
Spiritual Content
A monster lives in the swamp near the town and literally feeds on the bodies of the townspeople, leaving them without limbs or with holes in their necks and faces.
Violent Content
Carnivorous plants try to catch and eat characters. Strange, mimicking monsters attack. Lili is tasked with killing the monster in the swamp and freeing the town.
Drug Content
None.