The Wild Hunt happened every three years, when the monster Wyn appeared from fuck knew where and swept across the country, massacring humans in seemingly random fashion. But a creature that old always has something else up his sleeve, and it’s not long before he’s out, and, to Danny’s surprise, has brought him along, too.

As the sole survivor of his unit, Danny is pressed into trying to get answers from the Soul Eater. Of course, it’s not the last they see of each other. The soldiers with Danny are killed, but a strange thing happens – the Soul Eater is captured, and he let Danny live. There’s not much for a young boy to do, so Danny’s a soldier, sent out on his first mission to serve as cannon fodder to catch the attention of a creature known only as the Soul Eater. People are crammed into cities in the so-called safe zones on either coast, and the wide swathes of the centre of the country are known as the Wastes, full of monsters and raiders and general unsavoury types. They flooded in, the army responded, and now much of the USA is uninhabitable. Sometime in the future, a tear has opened up between our world and another. Lily Mayne’s Monstrous series starts here, with Soul Eater, the story of soldier Danny and the death monster who takes a shine to him. “I decided to give you a chance at survival.” What do you do when you come face-to-face with a death monster? “You were the first human to treat me with something other than contempt or disgust.” My breath caught in my chest, and I went still as Wyn spoke.

Lyri by Lily Mayne