Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi Published by Razorbill on October 31st 2017
Pages: 304
Goodreads
In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts – lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt.
Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family.
When Taj is called to eat a sin of a royal, he’s suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos. Now Taj must fight to save the princess that he loves – and his own life.
A gritty Nigerian-influenced fantasy.
2.5 Nuts
You know that feeling when you want to love a book and you just can’t? When your expectations have been dashed at you feet and you just stand there sadly, mourning what could have been? That’s what this book is for me.
First, the cover is absolutely gorgeous. It’s a big part of what made me pick this book up in the first place. Penguin has been absolutely on point with covers this year and I am so glad because book by its cover” situation as a stunning cover does not a good book make.
The premise of this book is awesome. Just reading the description had my attention in seconds. Sadly the pacing of this book struggles to keep that attention and I found myself bored to tears and starting to scan the pages rather than reading in depth. I felt like I wasn’t given any reason to care about these characters or what happens to them because there was nothing there to make me love them. They’re just so blank.
The main character Taj is alright, except that I’m a little annoyed at times by how much the author talks up his abilities. You don’t need to tell me how great he is at sin eating 500 times before he even does a major eating. Sheesh, let the character show me. The ability of the sin eaters is really cool, and I would have loved if the book focused more on the mechanics of it.
Bo and the other characters really don’t have much to do with the story, in fact more than once I mixed them up or forgot their names. Bo has a great twist near the end of the book but it feels like it comes out of nowhere with no build up at all. And that’s the biggest fault of the book.
So many things are left without a support to back it. The book meanders its way through the story without building on anything to shape the conclusion. It’s like the author really wanted a gotcha moment, so they purposely kept all the important information from you. They don’t let you discover, they just tell you. I’d rather the story be laid out for me to follow, show don’t tell.
There is a romance building, I think. At one point it seemed like there might be two or three possibilities for the main character, which I did kind of like. Unfortunately I feel like he goes with the blandest of the options. I would have rather had him have no romance at all than go with a character made of spit and cardboard.
Lastly, you have the villain. The real villain, not the fake out. At first I felt like none of it made any sense, and part of me does still agree with that original feeling. However I do believe this villain has potential, and it’s the only thing that has me semi curious enough to pick up a sequel. Maybe.
That being said, I don’t think this book, or a sequel is really for me. It had so much going for it but it missed so many important points that I need in the stories I enjoy. The World building was alright but the characters are bland. The plot is so forced when there is plenty of filler that could have been skipped in favor of character and plot development. I might read the sequel just for the villain but knowing my TBR pile, I’m not convinced it would be worth the time investment.
What are your opinions on BEASTS MADE OF NIGHT? Share them in the comments below.
From my shelf to yours,
Erin
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