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gggina13 's review for:
Beasts of Prey
by Ayana Gray
Damn, this book was hella long to end up just being okay. I feel like any time I find myself watching the clock on an audiobook and seeing how much time I have left, it's just really not that fun of a read.
Koffi is an indentured servant at the Night Zoo along with her mom - a position they've been in for the last literal 11 years. The Night Zoo is a sort of touristy attraction with some scary beasts, and Koffi and her mom help handle them. They're super close to paying off their debt until something bad happens.
Ekon is a kid with either anxiety, OCD, PTSD, or just a mix of all of it. His dad was a Son of the Six, part of the sort of militia where they live, and he died in the jungle when Ekon was a kid. Ekon was there, and since then, he suffers from some personal issues, obviously. Ekon's older brother is a Son of the Six, and Ekon himself is working towards becoming one. He feels it's the best way to get approval from his community, his brother, and maybe even prove himself in his dads' memory, as well.
The night something goes down at the Night Zoo, Ekon is there with the Sons of the Six stopping chaos, but also stopping the indentured servants from running away in the clamor, because legally they're the property of the Night Zoo's owner. Ekon and Koffi have a moment as Koffi's running off, and they both see the deadly legendary beast, the Shetani. The Shetani killed Ekon's father, and lots of other people, and Ekon is so stunned that he ends up letting Koffi go. It gets him a lot of scrutiny, and oh yeah, cancels his chances of joining the Sons of the Six.
Not to be anymore spoilery, but essentially they both find themselves in a position in which hunting down the Shetani is just about their only chance of their life paths turning back to remotely what they were before that night at the Night Zoo. They end up teaming up, because logically it just makes sense to go with a buddy into the deadly jungle that literally no one goes into because they die.
Now, I was told this story was enemies-to-lovers. Not that I need that in my stories to survive, but if you promise it to me, I'm going to look for it. They weren't ever really enemies - they just didn't get along that well. Like, if anything, they kinda just aggravated each other. And, frankly, they weren't really lovers either. They ended up liking each other romantically, yeah, but I just felt a lack of depth needed to really be convinced that it was actual chemistry, and wasn't just because they survived a bunch of scary stuff in the jungle together.
Because survive it all, they did. And there was quite a bunch of it. Scary spiders, a scary man-spider, a weird scary dream fog, a poisonous tree, a really fucking odd elephant-headed snake... basically, my pals went through it out there. And to avoid spoilers yet again, I'll just say it didn't get any easier when they got home.
I think I'll read the sequel, because I did like the way it ended. And there was nothing offensive about the story at all, nothing I hated or thought was awful. It really just was a lot of pages that left me not disappointed, just unimpressed. But I definitely think the story has a lot of space to expand in the next installment and think we could see the characters finding themselves more and also exploring their relationship a little deeper.
Koffi is an indentured servant at the Night Zoo along with her mom - a position they've been in for the last literal 11 years. The Night Zoo is a sort of touristy attraction with some scary beasts, and Koffi and her mom help handle them. They're super close to paying off their debt until something bad happens.
Ekon is a kid with either anxiety, OCD, PTSD, or just a mix of all of it. His dad was a Son of the Six, part of the sort of militia where they live, and he died in the jungle when Ekon was a kid. Ekon was there, and since then, he suffers from some personal issues, obviously. Ekon's older brother is a Son of the Six, and Ekon himself is working towards becoming one. He feels it's the best way to get approval from his community, his brother, and maybe even prove himself in his dads' memory, as well.
The night something goes down at the Night Zoo, Ekon is there with the Sons of the Six stopping chaos, but also stopping the indentured servants from running away in the clamor, because legally they're the property of the Night Zoo's owner. Ekon and Koffi have a moment as Koffi's running off, and they both see the deadly legendary beast, the Shetani. The Shetani killed Ekon's father, and lots of other people, and Ekon is so stunned that he ends up letting Koffi go. It gets him a lot of scrutiny, and oh yeah, cancels his chances of joining the Sons of the Six.
Not to be anymore spoilery, but essentially they both find themselves in a position in which hunting down the Shetani is just about their only chance of their life paths turning back to remotely what they were before that night at the Night Zoo. They end up teaming up, because logically it just makes sense to go with a buddy into the deadly jungle that literally no one goes into because they die.
Now, I was told this story was enemies-to-lovers. Not that I need that in my stories to survive, but if you promise it to me, I'm going to look for it. They weren't ever really enemies - they just didn't get along that well. Like, if anything, they kinda just aggravated each other. And, frankly, they weren't really lovers either. They ended up liking each other romantically, yeah, but I just felt a lack of depth needed to really be convinced that it was actual chemistry, and wasn't just because they survived a bunch of scary stuff in the jungle together.
Because survive it all, they did. And there was quite a bunch of it. Scary spiders, a scary man-spider, a weird scary dream fog, a poisonous tree, a really fucking odd elephant-headed snake... basically, my pals went through it out there. And to avoid spoilers yet again, I'll just say it didn't get any easier when they got home.
I think I'll read the sequel, because I did like the way it ended. And there was nothing offensive about the story at all, nothing I hated or thought was awful. It really just was a lot of pages that left me not disappointed, just unimpressed. But I definitely think the story has a lot of space to expand in the next installment and think we could see the characters finding themselves more and also exploring their relationship a little deeper.