"Original, exceptional, and a fun read from start to finish, "Animals Rising" showcases author D. J. Panec's genuine flair for the kind of narrative driven storytelling style that will fully engage young reader's full and riveted attention from first page to last." - Midwest Book Review

Offering heart-stopping adventure and forbidden romance, this break-out young adult novel delivers a story as shocking as The Hunger Games with a provocative allegory about the casual acceptance of slaughtering animals for food.

In the world of Animals Rising, most animals became extinct hundreds of years ago, leaving only humans and the giant ones. The book alternates in perspectives between Hawk, an 18-year-old boy, who lives in a human village deep in the forest, hidden from the giant ones, and Mira, a 17-year-old girl, whose people came to this land several generations ago and were told by their gods that hunting the small human animals would save them from starvation.

Mira has grown up in a medieval town in this new land, and she is now at an age when she is being pressured to find a boy to marry. But when she learns that the human animals in the forest are rapidly being hunted to extinction, she sets aside any thoughts of settling down and becomes determined to save the wild humans from the hunters--and the butchers.

Her resolve is tested when she comes face to face with Hawk, who has secretly entered Mira's town on a terrifying mission. Mira's involvement with this wild human boy could have far-reaching consequences--it could help save humanity . . . or end it.