Taj, an aki, unwillingly battles and eats sin beasts. The royalty of his country must be free of sins, in effort to accomplish this, Taj is tasked with training a new generation of aki. How can Taj save others from experiencing his fate and stop the royalty?

This was a fresh new fantasy novel, with Nigerian influences. While the story became dry at times, the uniqueness of the characters and story will keep the interest of the reader.

I really liked this book. Ever since I read about it, I loved the synopsis and the cover! They are just so mysterious and fascinating! This is the first book I read with a Nigerian-inspired setting and I'm hooked!

It's such a fascinating world! I loved the magic system. In this world, sins can kill. They consume you if they are not taken out of your body by a mage and then eaten by an aki. Aki is the name of a person that can eat sins. They have to battle them in their animal form and literally eat them. They will then appear in their body in the form of a tattoo! How fascinating is that?!

Akis are awesome, right? Well, people in this world don't see it that way. Akis are seen as lower than humans. They have the duty to cleanse society (meaning who can afford it) of sins, but because they carry it in their skin, people are repulsed by them, as if the sins and guilt were theirs. It got me so angry! Being an aki is not chosen neither is it easy. But they are amazing, especially our main character Taj!

Taj is an amazing character and an amazing aki. I loved seeing him battle and seeing the way he thought. He is a person that doesn't pity himself, he tries to protect others, even if his life is in danger because of that, and he is incredibly strong both physically and mentally. He is just a very pure person (got it?... Sorry, my jokes are always this bad...). I also really enjoyed some other characters. Especially Omar and several female characters! There are some really bad-ass ones here!

This book was much more emotional than I was initially expecting and I really connected with the characters. All the injustices in this world made me so angry!

This world is absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed the writing and all the Nigerian words and expressions. The characters were awesome and the plot fascinating and action-packed. There's nothing I didn't like other than I wished this book was a bit bigger.

Although the beginning is slow-paced, it starts getting faster and faster. The world development was absolutely fantastic, but I wanted a bit more of the plot. I wanted to see more of the characters and their life. I love this world, I find it fascinating and I hope to see more of it, I can hardly believe this is the author's first novel. Starting with such an amazing idea?! I definitely recommend it.

Taj is an aki - a sin eater. Aki are shunned by "regular"folk, except for when the regular folk need a sin removed from their body. Sins take the shape of smoky somewhat corporeal animals (they can do harm), and are eaten by the aki, which then causes the aki to get extremely sick and leaves a semi-permanent or permanent tattoo on their body. Taj, as a very powerful aki, is recruited by the palace to eat the sins of royalty. While there, he discovers the royals are more corrupt than he could've dreamed, and he decides to do what he can to stop their nefarious plans.

That synopsis was nearly impossible to write because this book was short on plot, but more on that in a minute.

I went into this book really wanting to like it - the setting (alternate-Nigeria) is fairly unique in YA, and I was really excited to read a fantasy loosely set in an African country. I thought the premise of sin-eaters was super cool, and I was eager to learn more about it. Unfortunately, the premise was the best thing about the book. The book has a lot of promise (and I was reading an advanced reading copy, so some of these issues could've been rectified), but doesn't deliver on much. The first 35% of the book is worldbuilding, but a lot of the worldbuilding could've been incorporated into the plot instead of being presented as what more or less amounted to an info dump. Even worse, the worldbuilding doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense. For example, the "sins" are determined by lawmakers, which, just...how? And then...the magic follows the lawmakers wishes? Is it even magic? I'm not really sure. More will likely be revealed in the next installment as this book ends on a massive cliffhanger, but unless it gets amazing reviews, I probably won't be there to check it out.

Another issue for me was the lack of character development. We learn a lot about Taj, but little about anyone else, and so when side characters died, I found myself feeling pretty apathetic. There was also immense potential for development of the villains, but all was unrealized. A lot of plotting and scheming had to be happening behind the scenes, but as Taj was neither privy to nor interested in it, we don't get to see the villains' machinations, which could have been really interesting. Part of this, I think, was to hide a twist at the end, but as that twist could be seen from about a mile away, I don't think the decision to keep the villains' motivation a secret was worth the payout.

There's not a lack of action in this book, so I can see a certain reader really enjoying it. For me, there was too much wasted potential - the action and the cool worldbuilding didn't make up for the absence of plot and character development. This book could've been great, and I wish that it had undergone a few more drafts in the writing process. As it was, it was just ok. 2 stars.

I received an electronic advanced reading copy from Netgalley and Razorbill for review consideration. This in no way affected my opinion or the content of my review. Beasts Made of Night will be available on 31 October.

The world building is interesting, and the ending obviously leaves room for a sequel. A bit predictable at times in terms of who will betray him in the end, but there are several interesting characters who I would like to meet in the next book.

It’s funny how ingrained ideas get in your head. When I read the word ‘sin eating’ I was worried this would be just like The Sineater’s Daughter and wouldn’t feel new at all. Instead I was greeted by a story the like of which I don’t think I have ever read before!

Happy face.

This was actually the beginning of my reading a series of books with male main characters, which is unusual for me, I feel like a lot of the YA fantasy I read has a female main character by default. I think it’s great to have female characters as I am all for more representation of women but it was a pleasant diversion to read through the voice of a man for a change.

Taj was a cool character, he’s fun to read and believable as well. There are a few moments where he get’s a little ‘teenage boy’ and lusts after some ladies. But I can’t fault that, he is a teenage boy after all. No, all in all Taj was a well written complex character, you get the sense of someone living with an injustice but also somehow thriving which is always a powerful story to read.

What’s probably the best element of this book is the worldbuilding. By which I don’t mean the geography or the topography of this fictional world but the magic system. This idea of literally calling out sins and making someone else bear the guilt was phenomenally powerful and exceptionally well written. It did remind me of The Sineater’s Daughter in the way certain beasts compared to certain sins but it never feels like imitation. Since that was one of my favourite aspects of TSED I’m not going to complain about it!

I think this is a great book, not quite perfect, there are a few plot elements that moved a little too quickly for me to make sense of them and I could have done with the introduction of a few more characters and elements just to flesh out the world a little more. However, the lasting impression I have from this book is that it is exceptionally entertaining and incredibly inspiring to read.

My rating: 4/5 stars

Beasts Made of Night releases on the 31st of October so keep your eyes peeled for it!

By the way, I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was expecting a lot of this one (I mean, a Nigerian-influenced fantasy where most characters are black and the mythology is incredible? Sounds amazing) but it sadly fell flat for me.

First of all, the world is gorgeous. I loved the concept of sin-beasts and aki and Mages, and all of it was done really well. At some points I got pretty lost because the author doesn’t waste time trying to explain the world or how everything works, but I got used to it and the story started to flow. But then came in my biggest problem with this book: it is too slow and the villains aren’t interesting enough.

Now, I like slow books. I’m a fan of adult fantasy after all, where things are usually less fast paced than in YA, but Beasts Made of Night didn’t draw me in. I didn’t get a sense of cause and consequence in the book, so to speak; things happened almost as if the character had to wait for them to happen and not because the plot advanced or because the characters themselves made it move. At one point, for example, Taj, the main character, is chosen as the royal aki aka the royal sin-beast eater, but…. he never does anything while in the job. He is called zero times to Eat and spends most of his stay in the palace eating, sleeping and talking with the princess. Then he leaves to train the young akis but out of nowhere weeks have passed and he’s already used to training them. Like, what? He left the palace literally in the last chapter.

The ending is…. well, it could’ve been great. Have I talked about how wonderful the worldbuilding is? Because it is awesome and in the ending that is made quite clear. But the antagonist ends up being super disappointing. Can’t say who because spoilers, but they were cartoonish, almost childish, and I couldn’t take them seriously. Same for the plot twist re: one of the characters. I didn’t see it coming, but it didn’t feel believable.

Honestly, this one feels more like a draft than a polished, published book. Beasts Made of Night has incredible ideas and characters that could’ve been great, but all that is buried in a story that drags and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. The writing, while good, also wasn’t engaging for me, maybe because of Taj’s voice. In the end, I could see how wonderful this book could’ve been, but the execution failed and most of its shine was unfortunately lost.

I don’t think I’ll be reading more in this series. Again, I loved the premise and the world, but the writing and pacing did ruin Beasts Made of Night for me. 2.0 stars.

This book was okay. The world building was amazing, and was unlike anything else out there lately. It's nice to see some diversity in fantasy, as well as for a country as underrepresented as Nigeria featured by a new author. I just don't know that the characters really worked for me, and it felt like the plot dragged a bit at times. But I will still be recommending this to readers of fantasy who are looking for something new and exciting.

I've already told the school librarian and several teachers about this glorious book.

I’m gonna keep this short since I don’t really care enough to write a rant about this book. If you want my advice, keep your hands off this debut. Beast Made of Night starts out with a compelling idea. Taj is an aki, a Sin Eater. In Kos, a city whose cultural mix and layout are influenced by ancient Arabian and Nigerian cities, people get ill because of the sins they commit. Mages have the power to extract sin from the body after which it transforms into a magical beast. It is the aki’s job to fight and consume these beasts and make it their own. The sin is gone but remains visible as a tattoo on the aki’s skin. However, the aki also has to live with another person’s sin. Although aki are very useful, they are also looked down upon mainly because they are regarded as sinful. Taj is somehow unique. He doesn’t seem to be as affected by the sins he consumes as his fellow aki, but his tattoos also stay on his skin, whereas others’ fade after some time. When Taj helps out one of his friends in fighting the king’s sin beast, he is offered to remain in the Royals’ service. But why? What are the king and his closest Mage planning?

I so wanted to like this, but I just found it boring and confusing. Some plot holes make it incoherent, and concerning the language and the characters, there was nothing exciting to be found. It all felt like jumping from one scene to the next, a bit like a movie script. There was just not enough story telling to make a good story. There are so many things that just don’t make sense at all, and I wanted to put the book down after reading two-thirds. While it felt kind of interesting at the beginning, it just went downhill from there. A pity really since the whole premise was great, but its execution is just a hodgepodge of different cultural elements and rather bland characters. Unfortunately, nothing exciting to see here.

This book opened new doors to a completely different world with diverse characters. The plot was really compelling and fast paced. I absolutely liked everything about this book and can't wait to read more titles by this author. Furthermore, the powers of the characters and of the manifestation of sin as a physical being and entity made it such a wild ride.