A solid YA novel that was a good purchase for my library. Students have read and enjoyed it, and I purchased it because of this review copy.

I absolutely loved this atmospheric novel set in Trinidad. The description and the characters' dialect took me right into their world. It's sad and quite charming at the same time. I will read more books from this author.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a copy of the ARC.

...Did I read the same book as the other reviewers? Everyone seems so enamoured by it, while it was a completely underwhelming experience for me. I thought it was dull and slow, it was a drag to keep reading, while the characters had no depth and just made stupid decisions all over (I really shouldn't read books with kid protagonists anymore) It didn't even provide much of a cultural insight of Trinidad, something I was hoping for.

In the end, I still have no clue what happened to Dumpling.

This is perfection. YA mystery thriller amateur sleuth set in Trinidad. Own voices story. It was atmospheric the tension and danger was felt right up to the end. I loved the ending, this almost never happens in books. The writing is precise, no fluff. The dialogue is sharp and clear I could hear and feel Trinidad in this story.

Rune Mathura ha quindici anni e vive a Trinidad, in un villaggio, con il fratello maggiore, perso all'alcool, e il nonno Sam, che si prende cura di loro con pazienza e saggezza da quando la madre è stata brutalmente assassinata.

Rune è un'outsider: scura, bruttina, appassionata di telefilm gialli, preferisce stare sola che frequentare chi non le piace, o uscire con Tiki, il suo migliore amico (e solo quello!).

Finché l'omicidio di Dumpling, una compagna di scuola che le aveva mostrato gentilezza e simpatia, non la induce a prendere la bicicletta e avviare una sua indagine, certa che la ragazza verrà ben presto dimenticata, come tutti coloro che scompaiono nell'isola. Come sua madre.

Ma non è preparata alla ragnatela di interessi, minacce, torbide relazioni che avvolge l'apparentemente tranquilla cittadina, e che la porta a capire che niente è davvero bianco o nero, e che tutti hanno mille facce, come una divinità hindu.

Un romanzo appassionante, dall'ambientazione insolita e precisa, con una profondità che parte da un'indagine per omicidio per esplorare i recessi molto più oscuri dell'animo umano.

Rune stessa è credibile: un'adolescente confusa, spesso arrabbiata, testarda, tanto, tanto umana, circondata da un coro di altri personaggi a tutto tondo.

Una scoperta magnifica, che mi è restata nel cuore.

I enjoyed the characters, setting, and plot line. Book was well written and a good distraction from the real world.

Kevin Jared Hosein’s The Beast of Kukuyo is an engrossing and unique read with well-written characters and a fascinating setting. While I enjoyed this book, the plot could have been better crafted.

Our protagonist is fifteen-year-old Rune Mathura who lives with her brother and grandfather in the rural Trinidadian village of Kukuyo. When her classmate Dumpling Heera disappears and is found murdered, Rune launches an investigation into the death. This isn’t her first brush with brutal murder and she knows how quickly the police and her village will forget about the crime. As she seeks to unravel the truth behind Dumpling’s death, Rune uncovers the seedy underbelly of her tiny village.

Although this book can be classified as young adult, I love that Hosein avoids most of the genre’s stereotypes. While Rune’s journey is a coming age of story, Hosein avoids tropes like instant love and predictable characters. Instead, the plot is layered, providing an unflinching look at darkness and trauma but there are also moments of lightness. The characters are well-written and complex, realistically illustrating the unpredictability of people. There is an extremely minor romance between Rune and her best friend, Tiki. However, it is well-handled and both characters are fully formed outside of their brief romance.

I love the relatable and spirited Rune. My other favourite characters include Rune’s sweet but practical grandfather Sam, and Tiki whose life is painfully authentic. However, I would have liked more female characters because the book is very male-centric and the lives of the few female characters are particularly tragic and violent.

The book is interesting and nicely paced. I like that the narrative is in Trinidadian dialect which authentically grounds the setting and characters. The small and enclosed village is excellently crafted. I love the gritty and tense atmosphere of the novel.

However, while the mystery is fascinating, it could have been more developed. There are a few plot points which are left hanging. The mystery surrounding Dumpling’s death is practically forgotten by the end of the book. While I do appreciate the harsh reality that the book conveys and I understand that many things go unresolved in real life, I would have liked the plot to be more fully resolved.

The Beast of Kukuyo is an original read with well-developed characters and a captivating mystery. Although I wish the mystery plot was better written, I really like this fascinating book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blue Banyan Books for this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book has me confused. For most of it I couldn't make any sense of it, but there was something about it that kept on drawing me forward. I thought it was about the murder of a schoolgirl, but that was just a way of starting the book, it is much blacker and grimmer than that. There is so much going on that isn't explained. The people are very alien to me, I've never met anyone like them and from reading the book I would say that I have missed out there.

I love book set in the Carabbean and this was a perfect book.
It's full of the smell, colours and whatever you expect from a Carabbean book.
I loved the main characters, the plot - even if there's some loose threads, and the setting.
A wonderful reading.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Blue Banyan Books and Netgalley for this ARC

First of all I have to say that I know practically nothing about Trinidad. All I knew before going into this book was that it used to be a British slave colony and that it is in the Caribbean. And this book isn't really about Trinidad, but it is set there, so you can say that I had to Google many many things in order to understand what was going on. But that was actually one of my favourite things, as the author used Trini slang and hindu words to authenticate Rune's perspective.

One of my favourite aspects of this book is that it is just as much character driven as it is plot driven, so it's kind of perfect for me. I loved watching Rune grow and learn and really just become who she needed to be. The other characters are also really well written and each one has their own complexities. Nothing is black and white. Nick, for example, is irresponsible and an alcoholic but as we see him through Rune's eyes it's clear that he's not all bad.

There is only technically a romance element to this book and that's really just an awesome friendship that could lead to more at some point in the future. And I liked that. It was realistic, not all fifteen year olds have ever been in a relationship, in fact most haven't.

My one gripe (except it isn't really) is that we never get to find out who kills Dumpling. Rune laments that people will forget about Dumpling but along the way she stops being fueled by that death as well (in her defense she does have some crazy other shit going on).

"For the second time in her life, 15-year-old Rune Mathura comes face-to-face with a brutal murder when her classmate Dumpling Heera goes missing and is eventually found dead."

Somewhere between a Trinidadian slice-of-life and a gritty YA thriller, The Beast of Kukuyo is a remarkable novel. Full of heart and evoking the village of Kukuyo in brilliant colour, it also upends the conventions of crime dramas in a really clever way.

The death of Dumpling is the catalyst for Rune's introduction to Kukuyo's criminal underbelly. Instead of delving deeper, Rune quickly recoils when she recognises that real life is nothing like TV. Far from being a hive of activity, the local police station is a boring office, with paperwork stacking up as crimes go unsolved. The bad guys are actually scary, and Rune, while retaining her natural inquisitiveness, also has a healthy sense of self-preservation overriding it.

The ending is a little messy, almost feeling like the author felt obliged to provide readers with a climactic showdown, despite leaving many threads loose. But I liked the way the workings of the law and order system were shown to be confused and unreliable.

The Beast of Kukuyo is a coming-of-age story with the suspense and tension of a thriller, and a reminder that real crime is never cozy.

For Rune, investigating Dumpling’s death is her way of fighting back against the cycle of violence that has infected her community, the ‘beast’ of the title. There’s a running thread about how when someone dies, like Dumpling or Rune’s mother, their deaths are briefly mourned before their lives are seemingly wiped away and never spoken of again. Therefore, as no one is confronting the issues that led to these deaths or talking about them, violence begets violence and young people like Rune’s brother Nick perpetuate the cycle of destruction and self-destruction.

I read this book all in one sitting, and found it exhilarating and brutal and joyous. There’s a tense crime/mystery plot of sorts but the book is really a series of vignettes centred around Rune and her family’s life.
The characters and relationships are engaging and interesting, particularly the sweet and supportive relationship between Rune and her best friend Tiki, and her grandfather Sam.

I found it really interesting to read a novel about the Indo-Caribbean population of Trinidad, as it’s a subject that I’ve never come into contact with before. The novel is written in dialect to an extent, which gives a further sense of the place and context. I liked the references to Murder, She Wrote which felt strangely incongruous and also fitted in perfectly.

The plot gets a bit confusing towards the end, but the most significant part of this novel is the atmosphere it creates, the sense of injustice and disintegration that is being fought against.

I would recommend this book to people interested in reading about different cultures and darker subject matters.