Sin-Eating and Cliffhangers in Tochi Onyebuchi’s Beasts Made of Night: ARC Review
This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review edition is an ARC and may differ from the final edition.
I have given Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi a ☆☆☆ rating. It belongs to the Young Adult Fantasy genre with some Romance and Adventure elements. Razorbill/Penguin Random House publishes it. It was published October 31, 2017.
The blurb reads:
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.
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Quick life update: I’m sorry I’ve been so quiet as of late, especially to publishers and publicists who send me ARCs. Thank you for putting your faith and trust in me. I’ve just recently quit my job and taking a break from work life to focus on developing my passion project: this blog and my bookstagram.
As we near closer to the end of the year, you can expect more frequent reviews as I churn them out like a factory because I’ve missed so many that my calendar is obsolete. I’m already preparing for next year’s releases and let me tell you, they are stunning!
As always, my reviews may contain spoilers. I say may because what’s a spoiler to you may not be a spoiler for me.
Verdict:
It’s always disappointing when a diverse read’s future hangs in the balance, especially when it ends on an equally disappointing cliffhanger. I didn’t DNF it because I did like it. But, no sequel has yet been announced for Beasts Made of Night, unusual for a book that has received this much attention and hype. And I can see from a business point of view why. The Goodreads score is low and the reviews lean towards negative as opposed to positive.
I’m afraid that mine is no different.
Beasts Made of Night follows Taj as he struggles with being the only sin-eater who’s sins do not fade from his skin. When a sin-eater eats a sin, it appears on his skin in the form of an animal (the sin also appears as an animal) like a sort of tattoo and fades away slowly. But Taj’s sins do not fade and he is left with almost no visible “skin”, only tattoos. Because he is unique in this sense and also highly-skilled and trained, he is called upon by the royal family to serve as teacher to new sin eaters. But of course, there are more malicious reasons than simply training young ones. There is also a plot against the royal family and a massive twist that no one sees coming.
Beasts Made of Night made lofty promises: diverse, Nigerian-inspired, sin-eaters! It’s everything that a YA fantasy needs to fulfil these days and I was excited when I received the ARC. I’ll admit, I didn’t know what sin-eating was and only found out later that it is an actual belief and practice rooted deeply in many cultures. And Beasts Made of Night brought this spiritual practice to life.
The general plot was interesting enough that I kept on reading despite it being one that’s overdone. You know, “servant” boy falls in love with princess and she loves him back.
The landscape that Tochi Onyebuchi crafts is striking and intriguing, bringing to mind settings like that of The Wrath and the Dawn and The Star-Touched Queen (both are Indian inspired so, it seems similar and not the same. Don’t get me wrong). It is also evocative and it really makes you feel like you’re right there alongside Taj.
And, I love the sin-eating and politics and culture surrounding the practice. The worldbuilding is absolutely beautiful. It’s worth to pick up Beasts Made of Night only to read how the author has taken sin-eating and turned it into a way of life. It is surrounded by so much politics and societal norms, kind of what our world is like today. For example, sin-eaters are called upon by the royal family to purge them of their sins as the royal family is supposed to be “pure” and “untouched”, essentially guiltless and clean. And so, they remain pure and clean in the eyes of their nation.
But, in the end, it failed to deliver.
It rode too hard on it being a diverse read and its Nigerian influence. Beasts Made of Night couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It lacked a plot structure, jumping from one twist to another. It lacked proper flow. The plot twists while taking my breath away also left me incredibly confused. There was no prelude, no warning. Just wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.
Plus, the romance between Taj and the princess seemed incredibly forced and had no purpose at all being there. Firstly, it popped out of nowhere. One moment I’m reading about Taj and sin-eating and the next, he is madly in love with the princess and dreaming about her. The princess is also madly in love with him! It made absolutely no sense and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I hope this isn’t a fault of the ARC but poor editing.
Not to mention, the princess had absolutely no personality. Who is she? What is she? What does she like? Nothing. I can’t even remember her name cause she’s that forgettable.
And suddenly, Taj is “dying”. No warning, whatsoever. But the sins are on the verge of consuming his body and “eating” him alive aka Taj has burnout.
The pacing was also incredibly slow. I was 70% into the book and Taj was still moping about.
Note: Taj is always moping and lamenting about his life. While I get that it’s because sin-eaters are seen as trash in Kos, it lends an extremely somber tone to the entire book.
Perhaps the worst crime Beasts Made of Night could commit is that it.didn’t.end.the.book. The cliffhanger wasn’t even a fucking cliffhanger. It’s like someone took a knife to the book and sliced it in half. It’s exactly how ebooks end when they want you to purchase the next book in the series. It’s despicable, especially coming from a reputed publisher such as Random House.
But all is not lost!
The plot twist that comes at the end (finally thank you oh great book lords!) sets the pace for the rest of the series. A government overthrow and rebellion. Plus, I absolutely love Taj’s scholar friend, Aliya. She’s such a gem and I would love to see more of her. She’s blunt and honest and needs a little more tact but she’s got such a heart of gold and she’s so intelligent. I would definitely love to see more of her!
Conclusion:
Beasts Made of Night definitely falls into the trap of the Order of the Debuts and Order of the Firsts. If you can put up with all the negatives, I promise you, it’s worth it. It was engaging and interesting even though it forced me to keep up because of all the plot changes and it’s slow pacing. Plus, Aliya is such a gem. All hail Aliya.
Thank you to Tor Teen for providing me this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review edition is an ARC and may differ from the printed edition.
I have given this book ☆☆☆☆. It is the second installment in the Vicarious duology. It generally belongs to the Contemporary Young Adult genre but also features elements of Science-Fiction, Romance and Spy fiction. Tor Teen publishes it. It is published 15th August 2017.
The blurb reads:
“Paula Stokes returns to the world of Vicarious in this sequel, a high-action psychological thriller with a protagonist out for vengeance.
When Winter Kim finds out that her sister is dead and that she has a brother she never knew about, only two things matter—finding what’s left of her family and killing the man who destroyed her life. Her mission leads her from St. Louis to Los Angeles back to South Korea, where she grew up.
Things get increasingly dangerous once Winter arrives in Seoul. Aided by her friends Jesse and Sebastian, Winter attempts to infiltrate an international corporation to get close to her target, a nefarious businessman named Kyung. But keeping her last remaining loved ones out of the line of fire proves difficult, and when all seems to be lost, Winter must face one last devastating decision: is revenge worth sacrificing everything for? Or can she find a spark of hope in the darkness that threatens to engulf her?”
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Ferocious releases today! And though my timeline says this should have been done and ready a couple of days ago but I’ve had a couple of medical emergencies to deal with.
Verdict:
Ferocious is slaying the 2017 publications game. It picks off immediately where Vicarious left off. While the plot in the first installment is centered around Winter finding out about how Rose died and finding her killer and then learning that she has a dissociative disorder, Ferocious is what Winter does next. It’s about avenging Rose and Gideon, it’s about coming full circle and going back to the events and people that brought the sisters into the United States, it’s about exorcising your demons and it’s about moving forward.
Ferocious is incredibly fast-paced, moving exactly like a double-episode special of Criminal Minds. It’s a lot of spy work, kicking ass, going undercover, using her senses (we’ll get to that in a bit) and basically accepting all the help that she rejected initially. Except, this time, they’re in Korea! Yes, you read that right. Ferocious is set mainly in Korea and I loved how there were little details about the culture and people included from Winter’s love for Korean food, the cosy guesthouses, different districts and their unique personalities and more. I think one of the biggest things that sets Ferocious apart from Vicarious as a stronger and more equipped Winter is knowing that she has multiple personalities. And seeing her utilise them, whether she expects it or not. I would have definitely loved to see a lot more of her disorder explained and broken down instead of just experienced like a film. But I do very much love that Winter, Jesse and Bas are now a team and they trust each other. They’re the only family that they have now that Gideon is gone. I also think it’s beautiful that Ferocious really explores Winter’s aversion to intimacy and how she develops her relationship with Jesse, allowing him to slowly come closer and really let him support her.
To break it down,
[may contain spoilers]
The Good:
Winter is a lot more aware of the kind of person she is and wants to be. She takes charge but is also willing to work in a team and share strength. I think that’s the strongest quality anyone could have.
It’s set in Korea. Although it’s not written by a Korean, and neither am I Korean so I have no right to speak about it, I think it was well-done and although, viewed slightly through a white-person’s lens, it wasn’t overly fetishized (see next section for more info on this) and a lot of the plot and story kept away from Korean culture and focused on it as a setting.
Teamwork!!! I love teamwork and I love solitary characters engage themselves as part of a team and see the value and strength in having people to support and lift you up.
I’m a sucker for romance so Jesse and Winter’s romance is bomb-diggity because unlike other YA romances, theirs took time to build. There first needed to be trust and understanding and caring and building boundaries and taking tiny steps. It’s not the mad head-long rush into hearts and kisses and sex. There are a lot of cute moments of them just holding each other and listening to heartbeats which is so powerful.
Winter is Korean and Jesse’s parents are from Mexico, so hello POC romances.
I like that mental illnesses, particularly Winter’s condition, are being brought to light and treated seriously. I’m not a fan of it being used as a plot device but the fact that it’s being brought up and it’s not a punchline, checks a box in my list. I particularly love that she sought professional help in the end because it’s so important to see it as a sickness, not something to be brushed off.
I like how Gideon’s character evolves eventhough he’s gone. Spoiler alert, bitches.
The Bad:
While the author has said she’s spent a good amount of her life in Korean, I find that placing your MC’s nationality and place of origin as something Asian becomes a point of orientalism because no matter how much time you’ve spent in for example, Korea, you’ll never be truly Korean because you can’t understand what it’s like to be Korean and hence, you’d be unable to capture what a Korean person is like. It’s handled well in Ferocious and Vicarious but it still bothers me. Winter, Rose and Gideon end up feeling very white-coded and the audience needs constant reminder that they’re not white girls, they’re pure Korean people. For example, readers are constantly reminded that Winter loves to eat gimbap, a type of Korean food, and that her name isn’t really Winter: it’s Ha Neul.
It’s too dark and gritty to be considered Young Adult. I’d definitely place it at New Adult. While the writing style feels very YA, easy to digest and uncomplicated, the subject matter (with Rose and Winter being survivors of sex trafficking) is overtly mature and the actions that Winter has taken, particularly flying halfway across the world to seek revenge and retribution seems actions of an adult, not a teenager. Although, Winter sits on the cusp between seventeen and eighteen.
It should come with trigger warnings sighs it’s 2017 why don’t books have these
More light could have been shed on dissociative disorders. Winter’s disorder manifests itself by taking over her senses when she desperately needs them and the chapters indicate which personality is in charge, which is great. But, it felt too much like a film. Her personalities seem to appear on command and when she really needs them rather than interrupting her life (except in the past) and in fact, saving her life. I get that YA books shouldn’t teach a lesson but if a mental illness was to be included and made a major part of the story, I’d love to see it handled a little better.
The writing is a little stifled. It’s harder to make an emotional connection with Winter. Rather, I am watching her life unfold before our eyes and going along with the ride. It’s like watching a movie.
Conclusion:
Ferocious is an awesome close to the Vicarious duology, tying up loose ends and answering questions readers had in the first installment. Winter is stronger and more badass this time around, and a lot more vulnerable. It’s incredibly fast and the action comes at you from every corner. I refused to put it down until my eyes literally shed tears because I was so exhausted. I think it’s a point that a lot of reviewers make that Ferocious (and Vicarious) is a little too old to be categorised into YA but we’re all equipped to handle such dark matters. Get Ferocious now and witness the conclusion to this incredibly dark, gritty and raw story.
