Hello humans! Merry October! Hope it’s going well for everyone! Today I’m reviewing one of the many October new releases that I’ve been excited for…most of the year! Beasts Made of Night was an exciting adventure with a lot of elements I wasn’t expecting!
Goodreads Summary:
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.
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.
What say you? Is this something on your TBR? Let me know in the comments below!
J
Chain Interaction 