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OLDER FICTION
Gray, Ayana

Beasts of Prey

496 pp. | Putnam | September, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-593-40568-0 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-593-40569-7 $10.99
(2) YA Strong-willed and emotional sixteen-year-old Koffi, an indentured beastkeeper at the Night Zoo, has been working off her father's debts since she was a child and longs for the day she and her mother will be released from servitude. Anxious seventeen-year-old Ekon is poised to follow in his father's and older brother's footsteps as a Son of the Six, a warrior of the city of Lkossa; he dreams of gaining respect and leaving behind a dark moment from his past. An eventful night brings these characters together and changes both of their destinies when Koffi attempts to escape during a fire (and discovers a power she didn't know she had) and Ekon fails to foil her plan. To get their lives back on track, they form a fragile partnership to catch a demon who has terrorized the Lkossan citizens for nearly a century. Gray's Pan-African fantasy is filled with monsters, mythos, and Black girl magic. Her characters are well developed, and the plot is filled with African lore, expanded upon in an extensive author's note. Fans of Forna's The Gilded Ones and Ifueko's Raybearer will enjoy this engrossing debut novel.
Reviewer: S. R. Toliver | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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