Beasts of Prey

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: mentioned physical punishment, fire, implied mass animal death, implied animal sacrifice, prejudice, drugging, torture
3.3

Koffi and her mother's long indentured servitude in the Night Zoo will be over soon- or, it would have been, before Koffi's mistake ruined everything. And worse, Koffi managed to do something impossible, something that seemed like magic... Now the only way to get her, her mother, and the boy she thinks of as family, free from the Night Zoo is to catch the legendary and deadly Shetani, a beast that has killed many and who would be a perfect new addition to the zoo.
Ekon is about to join his family's legacy as a Son of the Six, protectors of the people. But a run in with the Shetani changes all of that. No one sees the creature and lives to tell the tale- but thanks to the run away servant who intervened, somehow they both managed to live. But letting the girl run means he is not suitable to join the Sons of the Six. Ekon is certain if he kills the Shetani that will prove him worthy of the brotherhood- a task seemingly impossible, until his paths yet again cross with the girl who saved him and is looking for the Shetani herself.

This book has gotten a lot of hype and professional praise, and personally I was lured in with the idea of the Night Zoo itself, as well as a mythic hunt that seemed a bit like a pan-African version of [b:Written in Starlight|51796779|Written in Starlight (Woven in Moonlight, #2)|Isabel Ibañez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1590077998l/51796779.SY75.jpg|71412797]. However, much of this book fell flat for me.

What I do like is the mythology. The stories told are interesting, and the way they directly interact with the actual story of the plot. I like what we know of their myths and gods, and the magic there feels very real.
In fact, a lot of that is because it borrows from folklore and cultural stories from all different African cultures. It's blended well, and it does give it enough weight and realism to feel like an actual magical world. There are a lot of cool magical moments and magical entities that make this an interesting read.

The ending is also good. I think the last fifth or so of this book really picks up and delivers interesting new ideas and directions. Because of that that portion read quickly, and the sequel has some hope of being better than this one. There is definite pay off, and it promises more pay off to come.

Unfortunately, nothing else really worked for me.
The pacing of this story is painfully slow, to the point where I was dreading reading it. It takes so long for the plot to take off, and then even once it's technically started moving it continues being slow in order to describe every thing they come across with so much detail it's impossible to tell what's actually supposed to be important. There is far too much time, as well, given to nothing bonding these characters in an attempt to make a romance happen- which, personally, did not even slightly work for me.

The romance is built on nothing but the fact that these two people are now working together, and as a YA book we can assume a romance arc has to happen. There's no real chemistry, they jump directly into Koffi acting like she has a crush on him for no real reason (particularly in the context of their lives, roles, and the prejudice of the land), and it does absolutely zero for the plot except add to that horribly slow pacing. You have to come into this story with an understanding of how these books "work" in order for this romance to make real sense.

And, actually, that's the problem by large. Most of the things brought up here for character or world building are not supported on page, they depend on you having a certain modern understanding or bias. The world building is so flimsy it doesn't even stay consistent, they constantly throw around modern words and ideas without any thought to the setting, and they never explain the intentions, pros and cons, limitations, etc of any of the things in this book, they expect you to know "brotherhood good" and the like without telling you anything about it.

There's also little things like the beginning throwing you into what reads like a 2009 romantic fantasy, the dialogue feeling forced- particularly where they're, for some reason, joking around-, and how half hearted the secondary characters were.

This book just didn't feel like anything new to me, and it relied way too much on pathos it didn't even sew the seeds for. I know I'm most likely going to be in the minority with my opinions, but this simply wasn't a book I spent much time enjoying.