Scan barcode
A review by carissatheluca
Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
4.0
The cliffhanger was the best part of the book.
In all seriousness: Beasts of Prey was good. I honestly only kept reading because of the incredible worldbuilding. The plot itself lacked… oopmh. I wasn’t super partial to any of the narrators, which it made it difficult for me to care about their constant, pages-long emotional asides. They were fine, as far as protagonists go, but their voices were so indistinguishable that it hardly mattered whose POV had come up.
This is a great example of why multiple POVs should be used far more sparingly. Even though they were supposed to be completely different sexes, classes, and on opposite sides of a culture war, Koffi and Ekon talked like the same narrator. You’d think that would mean the book would be a bit more omniscient then, written like JRR might. Nope, third person limited for two and first person for the third that just pops in every once in a while to throw in a completely unnecessary century-old backstory!
I’m a bit more disappointed by the novel than I thought.
Anyway, it is well written. I really loved the world building; the history of their religion and region kept me interested during most of their endless trekking. Even though Koffi and Ekon were stylistically indistinguishable, they were both charming characters with fantastic motivations. The last quarter was thrilling and FINALLY escaped the snail’s pace- plus the conflict finally got more complex and therefore riveting.
I think this is a just a case of the First Book. I’m really confident the sequel (please God let it be just a duology) will be better. Perhaps I was expecting too much from a book I saw on booktok… it was good but not great.
In all seriousness: Beasts of Prey was good. I honestly only kept reading because of the incredible worldbuilding. The plot itself lacked… oopmh. I wasn’t super partial to any of the narrators, which it made it difficult for me to care about their constant, pages-long emotional asides. They were fine, as far as protagonists go, but their voices were so indistinguishable that it hardly mattered whose POV had come up.
This is a great example of why multiple POVs should be used far more sparingly. Even though they were supposed to be completely different sexes, classes, and on opposite sides of a culture war, Koffi and Ekon talked like the same narrator. You’d think that would mean the book would be a bit more omniscient then, written like JRR might. Nope, third person limited for two and first person for the third that just pops in every once in a while to throw in a completely unnecessary century-old backstory!
I’m a bit more disappointed by the novel than I thought.
Anyway, it is well written. I really loved the world building; the history of their religion and region kept me interested during most of their endless trekking. Even though Koffi and Ekon were stylistically indistinguishable, they were both charming characters with fantastic motivations. The last quarter was thrilling and FINALLY escaped the snail’s pace- plus the conflict finally got more complex and therefore riveting.
I think this is a just a case of the First Book. I’m really confident the sequel (please God let it be just a duology) will be better. Perhaps I was expecting too much from a book I saw on booktok… it was good but not great.