Tomorrow We'll Be Prey

by Anna Polonyi

A riveting gothic debut about family, power, and beasts—both real and imagined—told by two women centuries apart, for fans of Sarah Perry and Charlotte McConaghy

Ava, an archivist at Paris’s National Library, spends her days digitizing rare manuscripts, carefully avoiding thoughts of her ex-girlfriend and her strained relationship with her mother back home in Boston. Her quiet life is upended when she discovers the Book of the Beast, an eighteenth-century manuscript recounting the story of Marie-Jeanne Valès, a maid who faced the infamous Beast of the Gévaudan. Believed to have killed over a hundred women and children, the Beast’s true nature has remained a mystery for centuries.

The tale is eerily familiar to Ava, who was told from childhood that one of her ancestors encountered the devil in the form of a beast in the woods and bested it in a fight, triggering a generations-spanning curse on the family. Driven by curiosity and haunted by her past, Ava steals the manuscript and embarks on a journey through France to uncover the truth behind the Beast and her family’s dark legacy.

Centuries earlier, Marie-Jeanne Valès works as a housemaid for the local vicar, eavesdropping as the men of the town discuss what to do about the Beast terrorizing the countryside. As the death toll begins to climb and the woods become more dangerous, her family arranges for her sister, Thérèse, to move into the vicar’s house for safety. Long close with her sister, Marie-Jeanne is unsettled by the new jealousy between them. As the village succumbs to communal panic, Marie-Jeanne begins to learn that the monsters lurking beyond the forest’s edge are rivaled only by those within her own walls.

Lush, heady, and fiercely feminist, Tomorrow We’ll Be Prey is a haunting meditation on the stories we inherit and the monsters we create.

Genres: Fiction, Lesbian

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication February 16, 2027

Reviews

[takeeveryshot]

the present day sections of this book felt like listening to your friend explain how hard their life is but you’re slowly realizing it’s all their own fault

[rebeccareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomorrow We'll Be Prey is a moody, triple-timeline take on the tale of the Beast of Gévaudan. It's my second Beast of Gévaudan retelling this year (after The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan), and I liked Polonyi's different focus - on the women affected, both in the past and present.

The primary past timeline has a natural edge by proximity to the action surrounding the Beast, and it has a more interesting narrator in Marie-Jeanne. She's fierce, a bit wild, and knows her own mind, which always makes for a good heroine, and I enjoyed her perspective.

I appreciate Polonyi's inclusion of themes of sexual hunger and bodily control of women, but this is done with a very light hand, too light to come together into something meaningful by the conclusion. She also seems to be trying to say something about the stories we craft and the people - particularly family members - we share them with, but this too I found underwhelming. Perhaps relatedly, I didn't feel that the present-day timeline added much, and while I enjoyed the secondary past timeline more, I'm also not convinced it was needed.

(And a final nit: I don't think books with on-page hetero sex, or with one seemingly entirely hetero POV, should be marketed as lesbian.)

While not really for me, Tomorrow We'll Be Prey will certainly be right up the alley of plenty of readers, particularly those that enjoy slower-paced historical fiction, or sapphic fiction fans that don't mind a hetero POV.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 rounded up to 5 stars

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the arc!

This was such a lovely novel about memory, truth, and what stories actually endure, set during a fascinating time - the reign of the Beast of Gévaudan. The triple timeline narrative follows two women, Ava in the present and Marie-Jeanne during two different periods of time during the 1700s. This structure plays with the facts of what happened between Marie-Jeanne and the Beast, letting the reader wonder along with Ava if there really was some family curse or not.

Ultimately we get the truth about the Beast and the family curse, but by that point of the novel we the readers know that the facts aren’t necessarily the point; rather, it’s what we choose to believe and how we act that results in what endures and passes down.

I really loved this one, not only because the Beast of Gévaudan is a fascinating topic, but because Ava felt adrift in a way that resonated with me. Her search for the truth felt like an escape attempt, but eventually she ended up where she needed to be.

[Josh Escandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Ecco and Netgalley for an eARC of Tomorrow We'll Be Prey by Anna Polonyi. I loved this historical literary novel that dealt with an archivist named Ana who uncovers information about an individual who is believed to be her ancestor, Marie-Jeanne. I loved the alternating mirroring timelines, as both Ana and Marie-Jeanne work to help mitigate the danger around them. While the plot is a bit slow, the unsettling gothic atmosphere more than makes up for it. When the reveal comes about what really links the women and what that means for the message the book wishes to bestow, it is made all the more impactful. I will be thinking about Tomorrow We'll Be Prey for a while.

[Anna O’Connell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this early read! The tale of the Beast of Gevaudan intrigued me as a topic for the book due to the mystery that still remains today. I liked how Polonyi constructed a story that leads the reader to question what the true “beast” is. However, I felt the story very disconnected in spots and the writing making large gaps in time and knowledge that I had to fill in as a reader. I felt the underlying theme of sex and power made sense but was introduced and included very suddenly.

[Emily Monaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This voicey, gothic début wends together two narratives: a historical one set in 18th century France in the midst of the real-life havoc wrecked by a mysterious "beast" in the Gévaudan and a contemporary one following one woman's discovery of this legend – and its potential links to her own family story. The stories are expertly woven together to explore themes of femininity, family, and the stories we choose to believe.

[Lydia Hephzibah]

Dnf

Setting: France
Rep: sapphic protagonist

Based on the cover and the synopsis this should be right up my street but a third of the way in, I feel nothing for either timeline and have no desire to go back to it after putting it down so unfortunately I'm calling it quits.

[Hannah “Hanny” “Hannie” Kim Kimmie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh bless thou hearts and et cetera!

[Ronnica Fatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of discovering family history of an ancestor and her beast. I wanted to spend more time in the present.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

How many of us grew up with fairy tales about maidens who sat home while men faced danger? Anna Polonyi researched the true story of a Frenchwoman who didn't wait to be saved. She accomplished what the kings' men could not. And that's when the problems start - for her village, for her family, for herself. Polonyi brilliantly weaves together regional legends, generational trauma, and our hope for the future. She underscores the beauty of nature, the cost of corrosive jealousy, and the wilderness of the human heart. Ten years in the telling, Tomorrow We'll Be Prey is a novel to savor.