Beasts Made of Night
Series: Beasts Made of Night, Book 1
By: Tochi Onyebuchi / Narrated By: Prentice Onayemi
Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
Winner of: The Michael J. Sullivan Boooo! Award…
Oh gosh, even were it NOT for the riDICulous Michael J. Sullivan-ish: “I’m gonna hook you in by TOTALLY twisting things around for the last few minutes AFTER writing writing writing and making you listen for HOURS” ending?
I STILL would have trouble recommending Beasts Made of Night for anyone exCEPt those wanting something new and different in their Teens Dark Fantasy. Yessss, author Tochi Onyebuchi brings us a fraught action-packed (Except where it’s not) story with a huuuge cast of developed (Except where they’re not) characters.
-But-
Man, is the guy craaaazy into his Worldbuilding, or what?!
The city of Kos is where our Hero Taj is the most accomplished and possibly famous of the aki, young sin-eaters. Think: Powerful and corrupt mages draw forth the sins of palace royals! Sin-beasts! Battles! Slay or be slayed! If victorious? Aki swallow the guilt, swallow the remorse, and sin-spots like tattoos forever stain the skin marking these individuals as something tainted and worthy of scorn! Think: Privileged committing sins haphazardly and wantonly, knowing they’ll be purified by the suffering of the lowly aki.
And then? Palace intrigue and plots! The love of a fair Princess!
Ooooooh! What’s not to love, esPECially as Onyebuchi crafts everything so lovingly from the smells of teeming city streets, to the fragrances and luxury of clothing. No detail is too great or too small in his estimation, so even tho’ this is barely only 9 hours, please believe that, while I savored every detail? Criminy, was I ever sooo bored. The details of such miNUTe Worldbuilding get in the way of, saaay character development. At no point did I ever give a rat’s patoot about Taj, or any of the aki, except perhaps the littlest ones.
Musings on Class? Sure. Contemplations of Justice? Plenty. There’s a whole heckuva lot here that could be pondered and supposed. This could be an important work and could conceeeeeivably pack a wallop for Teens to contemplate. That said, they’d have to be very old Teens to grasp such concepts. That said? They’d have to be very YOUNG Teens to tolerate not giving a hoot about any of the characters in favor of action. -But- THAT said? Maaaaybe this is for ooooolder Teens cuz Onyebuchi wins his “Michael J. Sullivan Boooo! Award” with his decision to do an enTIREly plotless first novel in favor of The CHEAPest And LAZiest Way To, he hopes, Get Readers To BUY The Second, thereby using the Older Teens’ Penchant for Poor Impulse Control: Buy NOW!
Prentice Onayemi gives the performance of a lifetime with his grand use of accents, his rising and falling pitch for action sequences. But even he falters when it comes to the ending, favoring the melodrama of the Grand Shocker of the Ending instead of staying true to the characters as they’d been written thus far. Yeh yeh yeh, ‘tain’t his fault: That’s the way the writing and the story developed. Character one way the whole way and then BOOM! Nooooooo, get used to a new reality and RUN don’t walk to BUY the next book.
Boooo!
I tried, dear Accomplice, I tried. But for the life of me, tho’ I attempted a MULtitude of Listening speeds, at nooo point did I become fully (Nay, I woulda settled for even ‘partially’!) invested in this tale. Onyebuchi commits the grievous sin of Telling rather than Showing, yeah, but even worse? Mostly, he shows show shows EVERYthing for HOURS and says nothing. Plotless. Unengaging.
But hey: At least it’s different…
…So there’s that…?
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