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.

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.