Anna is 33 years old, and she still believes in monsters, magic, and the mythic power of words.

Spring 1994: the Rwandan genocide, Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain’s suicide, and the eternal season of Anna’s discontent. Anna has everything—it’s the not-Anna who wants to die. Blame “the Beast,” her pet name for the faulty wiring and chemicals that misfire in her brain. The Beast is legendary muse, family curse, inciter of tantrums, and devourer of Gods. Heralded by falling veils and darkening skies, it annihilates all potential for happiness. Part Madonna and Medusa, Medea and Magdalene, Anna is a storyteller who must greet each day with the uncertainty of its authorship: is it the Anna or the not-Anna moving the narrative forward?