Beasts Made of Night by: Tochi Onyebuchi Review

SYNOPSIS:

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.

Review

CONS:

1. For some reason this was a book that I put down and didn't pick back up for a few months to finish. I can't pinpoint a specific reason as to why I put this book down. I think it had to do with pacing.

2. It felt like after the main conflict was revealed, that they story just kind of skipped a bunch of content. Like the Tochi just couldn't wait to write the conclusion of the story and skipped over a bunch of (possibly boring) character development sections. The specific part I speak of is after Taj Eats a particularly large sin-beast of a particularly high profile character, he suddenly is a teacher of some aki school. There's maybe one scene of him actually training these students and then suddenly we are swept into a time whirlpool where months go by.

3. The ending just kind of lingers. It's not even an open-ended type ending, it just kind of sits there. I didn't like it. I found it to be kind of annoying.

4. Taj, the main character, and his love interest, whom is WAY beyond his social status, just kind of seems to "happen." I don't know. Seemed sudden and didn't feel authentic.

PROS:

1. The concept of people having sins inside them that can be pulled out of their bodies as sin-beasts and "Eaten" by aki, is awesome!

2. There was a pretty epic battle at the end that I thought made the whole thing pretty worth it.

3. I loved the concept of the sin-beasts forming into tattoos on the akis' skin after they are Eaten. This isn't the first time tattoos appear in a fantasy book where animals are involved with being consumed or absorbed into the body, but it's still a cool concept. Creates a very cool visual.

4. I loved the social structures of race and class. I loved how the very people that saved royalty from their own sins, are the people they fear and oppress. It's like their society was built on the fact that aki have power, but the royals didn't have power, so the royals needed to quickly oppress the aki to control them. It's a classic structure of power within a society. But it worked in an interesting way here, because the aki were responsible for Eating the royals' sins.

3/5 Stars