Beasts Made of Night—Tochi Onyebuchi

I crouch down and open my mouth as the remains of the inisisa swim right down my throat. It burns. I have to close my eyes against it. Every time. And every time it feels like it'll last forever. The sorrow that rakes my skin. The guilt that grips my mind. The cold that pierces my bones and freezes my marrow. And I want to cry out, but my throat is full of sin, and the moment stretches out like a piece of rubber being pulled and pulled and pulled until finally it snaps. (11)

Taj is an aki, otherwise known as a sin-eater, one of many of the young sin-eaters living in the walled city of Kos who are employed to painfully consume the sins of others. It's not a job that any of them can keep at for long - they are rejected by their families, and the transfer of sin creates animal-shaped tattoos on their bodies until they can no longer take in the souls of others. Taj is one of the best in the business, and also one of the oldest aki's that he knows. When Taj is covertly hired to eat the sin of one of the members of the royal family, it sets a series of events in motion from which there is no return, for Taj or for the entire city of Kos.

Goodreads is full of people who seemed drawn to the idea and then just insisted that the writing was not good. I completely disagree. I do think there were some points where the writing got a little repetitive, and I also think it's clear that this is his debut novel, but I think that the concept and the tone and the worldbuilding were all pretty impressive for a first novel, and the writing and editing can get better. I can't even count the number of first novels I've read that I didn't care for, only to return to the author years later and thoroughly fall in love with their writing.

One of the things that really struck me about the society and the political/socioeconomic strata was the comparisons I saw between the way the aki are treated in this book, and the way that oregenes are treated in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. In both, people with special skills are necessary but considered among the lowest members of society. Even their own families are afraid of them. The use of their skills is physically draining, and often leads to shortened lifespans.

Nothing too specific to say about this one, because I don't want to give too much away. There is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, and while Onyebuchi is said to be writing a sequel, no information is out yet about release date, so it'll probably be a good long while before we get the follow up. I could see how it might be slow reading for some, so it might not be for everyone. But I'm pretty confident the end result will be worth the mostly expositional set up that happens in Beasts Made of Night. And I can't wait.