#Beasts of Prey

[art-of-tek]

Adiah fanart from the "Beasts of Prey" trilogy. I envisioned her as a hairless (except for the tail tip) lioness with pitch-black eyes.

[ID: A traditionally done lined drawing of a lioness-like creature without fur. She is in a walking pose in the direction of the audience and has pitch-black eyes and long claws. The text "ADIAH - The Shetani" can be seen below her. End ID.]

#fanart #beasts of prey #ayana gray #digital art #artists on tumblr #lion #lions #lioness #adiah #shetani #my art #art #sketchbook

[amythegloriouspond]

#gothamedit #oswald cobblepot #the penguin #dctvedit #gotham #my gif #mine #beasts of prey

[caihosreads]

My take on Koffi from the Beasts of Prey trilogy by Ayana Gray.

I can’t wait for the third and final book to come out! So many questions were answered but so many new ones popped up 🙀 it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out …📙 also interested in seeing what new creatures will come into play, the entire series is filled with creatures from African mythology.

If you’re curious about how her story starts…

The first book follows a warrior in training and a beast keeper as they enter a magical jungle ( filled with fantastical creatures) to hunt down an ancient monster.

Side note : it was fun doing a relatively “quick” character painting in between all the big splash scenes currently on the go. Will definitely be scheduling in more of these.

#caihosreads #beasts of prey #beasts of ruin #Ayana gray #bookish #book fanart #book art #african mythology #african stories #ya fantasy #ya books #young adult #young adult fantasy

[verathena14]

tfw you’re reading a novel and then suddenly, out of nowhere, a scene starts reading like a fanfic. this isn’t negative btw, it was just really startling cuz the rest of the novel read like a novel. but this one scene read like a fanfic. and I don’t know how to feel about it

#this is about #beasts of prey #btw #had to read it for class and the kiss scene caught me off-guard LMAO #athena rambles

[jvzebel-x]

"He liked books, generally speaking, because they could be trusted to be consistent. A book could be read a thousand different times, a thousand different ways, but the words on the page would never change. Unlike people, books couldn't be disappointed in you. They couldn't abandon you. They couldn't fail you."

x. "Beasts of Prey", Ayana Gray

"Joy is a fleeting thing, though, as I have since come to learn. It pools in cupped palms, then seeps through the cracks no matter how tightly one might press ones fingers together in the hopes of preserving it."

x. "Beasts of Ruin", Ayana Gray

#Beasts of Prey #Beasts of Ruin #Ayana Gray #📚 #i really liked this series&im so incredibly biased about that lmaooo. #one of the protags has tics. in fact we have tics in common lmao. he counts his steps+has a very specific attachment to the number 3. #finding ppl who dont find his tics weird is in fact a decent chunck of his character arc thus far so like between those details #+the myths incorporated i was probably gonna like the series no matter what LMAO.

[ya-world-challenge]

Book Review: Beasts of Prey (🇨🇫 Central African Republic *inspired)

[image 1: book cover: a teenage Black girl looks ahead with a determined face, beside her, a teenage Black man faces us with a softer look, they are surrounded by jungle-like fauna, tagline says “The hunt begins”; image 2: map showing the Central African Republic; image 3: Mbeli River falls - whitewater rocky falls surrounded by lush greenery; Source: wikimedia commons]

Beasts of Prey

Author: Ayana Gray

YA World Challenge read for 🇨🇫 Central African Republic

Seeing as I could not find a book for the Central African Republic, I chose Beasts of Prey as a fantasy world to represent this region. The author’s notes indicate that she wrote the book as a pan-African world, without narrowing it to a specific region of the continent and using inspiration from various areas. CAR, with a myriad of ethnic groups and smack in the middle of continent, seems a fitting enough setting.

First line

Baba says only wicked things happen after midnight, but I know better.

Review

Koffi is an indentured servant at the circus-like Night Zoo, working alongside her mother to pay off her late father’s debts. Ekon is a candidate in training to become one of the city’s elite guard. They are of different peoples, different castes, but their fates collide when they both decide to undertake a common goal, each for their own personal reasons. The goal: to track down and kill the Shetani, a beast responsible for hundreds of deaths that lurks deep in the Greater Jungle.

I do love the world in this book and especially the jungle. And this gorgeous cover!! I wonder if reading so many diverse books is spoiling me into not fully appreciating the uniqueness of these worlds. Many of the various beasts / inhabitants of the jungle that Ekon and Koffi encounter are based on African folklore and I love the colorfulness there. (Arachnophobia trigger warning for a brief but creepy scene with spiders!)

The narrative goes back and forth between Koffi + Ekon, and a girl somewhere in the past named Adiah. I found I liked the Adiah chapters more. I feel like the first-person view with her made her more accessible and interesting than the third-person chapters with the other two. For that or some other reason I never really connected well with Koffi and Ekon or their motivations. I found the ending sort of jumbled and anti-climactic as well. It does end on a cliffhanger, so warning, if you are reading and enjoying the first book, get ready to have the second on hand!

It was unexpected to find another OCD rep. At one point, Ekon gets unreasonably angry at having plans change, and as someone familiar with the condition I could appreciate this honest portrayal - that there is a dark side beyond the “quirky counting”.

I did like Adiah and the worldbuilding and I wanted more adventures in the jungle. I just didn’t connect with the rest of it and wasn’t excited at the ending. It is definitely interesting enough to give it a try, though, and I would pick up the second book out of curiosity if I had the time.

★  ★  ★    3.5 stars

Other reps: #mental health (anxiety / OCD) #straight

Genres: #fantasy world #adventure #magic

Read it at  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon

#book review #central african republic #ya world challenge #booklr #book lover #diversity in fantasy #diverse books #beasts of prey #ayana gray #mental health #ocd #straight #fantasy world #adventure #magic #africa

[kdragon1209]

Beasts of Prey Warnings

I recently read this book and I am currently reading the second one, but thought I would share a list of potentially triggering things in this book while I’m thinking of it. And also this book apparently has two different covers? Same book though.

Anyone is welcome to add anything that I missed.

Things to Heed: Minor character death Major character death Indentured servant Fire/burning Racism Classicism Anxiety PTSD Panic attacks Survivor’s guilt Poisoning On the run Gore/blood Trauma Perfectionism Monsters in the forest Betrayal Weird man-spider dude Death Drug use Discrimination/prejudice Manipulation/lying

#triggering stuff #beasts of prey #trigger warnings #book warnings

[andipxndy-writes]

7, 14 , 15 ?

End of the Year Asks

7. Favorite actor of the year?

Pedro Pascal, no question. i do a lot of rping off-tumblr now, and one of my partners uses him as a fc for a character and i. have ended up binge watching a ton of interviews with him in. he's so cute i swear. i love him.

14. Favorite book you read this year?

oooooh, that's tough. but it's got to be A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A Brown!! i honestly loved the book (and it's SEQUEL OH MY GOSH I LOVE THE WHOLE DUOLOGY). actually, i think i love A Psalm of Storms and Silence more? i don't know, i really loved both books.

but i wouldn't have got into either of them if i hadn't read Beasts of Prey by Ayana Grey first, which is also so good oh my gosh i loved it. it introduced me to black fantasy and??? i wish i'd had these books as a kid. just seeing people who look like me in stories means a lot, you know?

anyway lemme move on before i ramble too much about how these books changed my life for the better and gave me the comfort that i didn't know teenage me needed until this year.

(also not my fave but shout out to The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix which also fuckin slapped oh my gosh????)

15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year?

i don't think this is a habit i particularly picked up, but more like one that's just gotten worse which i think is a testament to how anxious i've felt this year: i pick at the skin on my lips a lot when i'm on edge. and i've been doing that so much more. but this year has been stressful for me so. lmao.

#aj: ask meme #aj: about me #asks #not writing #asowar #aposas #roseanne a brown #roseanne brown #bop #beasts of prey #ayana grey #towb #a song of wraiths and ruin #a psalm of storms and silence #the ones we burn #rebecca mix #i've read so much more this year than i have in forever #i'm on my 13th book #beasts of ruin here i come!!! #pedro pascal #anon

[razreads]

A book can be read a thousand different times, a thousand different ways, but the words on the page would never change.

Ayana Gray, Beasts of Prey

#razreads #book quote #beasts of prey #ayana gray #books #words #stories #interpretation #queue have a good day now

[bookishlyvintage]

Beasts of Prey, Ayana Gray

#beasts of prey #ayana gray #ya fantasy #fantasy #mini review #book review #book sleeve #shop small #small business

[yaworldchallenge]

🇨🇫  Central African Republic

(*inspired)

Region: Central Africa

Beasts of Prey

Author: Ayana Gray

492 pages, published 2021 - Part of a series

Original language: English

Native author? N/A

Age: Teen

Blurb:

Magic doesn’t exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts and secure their eventual freedom. But the night her loved ones’ own safety is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn’t fully understand–and the consequences are dire.

As the second son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become a Son of the Six–an elite warrior–and uphold a family legacy. But on the night of his final rite of passage, a fire upends his plans. In its midst, Ekon not only encounters the Shetani–a vicious monster that has plagued the city and his nightmares for nearly a century–but a curious girl who seems to have the power to ward off the beast. Koffi’s power ultimately saves Ekon’s life, but his choice to let her flee dooms his hopes of becoming a warrior.

Desperate to redeem himself, Ekon vows to hunt the Shetani down and end its reign of terror, but he can’t do it alone. Meanwhile, Koffi believes finding the Shetani and selling it for a profit could be the key to solving her own problems. Koffi and Ekon–each keeping their true motives secret from the other–form a tentative alliance and enter into the unknowns of the Greater Jungle, a world steeped in wild magic and untold dangers. The hunt begins. But it quickly becomes unclear whether they are the hunters or the hunted.

Other reps:

Genres: #fantasy world

My thoughts:

Okay, that was a long blurb and I can’t parse what’s going on there at the moment but I see magical creatures and a gorgeous cover so what else do you need, really.

This book isn’t specifically related to the Central African Republic as far as I know. Since there wasn’t anything I could find for CAR, I chose an African-inspired fantasy book.

Review to come.

Link to buy

#central african republic #ya world challenge #ya books #ya fantasy #poc author #fantasy world #africa #bookish #book challenge #beasts of prey #ayana gray

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Beasts of Prey | Author: Ayana Gray | Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books (2021)

#books #Beasts of Prey #Ayana Gray

[the-worlds-between-pages]

Beasts of Prey by: Ayana Gray.

Published by: Penguin Group Publication date: June 28 2022 Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for access to this e-book. I received it in exchange for an honest review. This was a good book. If you like rich, detailed stories with rich, complex characters, this is for you. Now, I’ll admit, I had a hard time at first remembering all of the characters because there are quite a few. And we get…

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#Ayana Gray #Beasts of Prey #Black characters #book review #book reviewer #kind of grey characters #magic and goddesses #multiple characters #ya #ya fantasy #ya fiction #young adult

[lez0mbie]

Beasts of Prey was really good! i bought it ages ago and i wasn’t really looking forward to it bc it’s YA and i’m more into adult books for the moment. but it’s just full of adventure, magic, creepy beasts and twists i couldn’t predict. loved it!

#lez0mbie posts #books #reading #beasts of prey #i read it bc i pick my next reads randomly

[autistrix]

[https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/50355249] Striped Owl || Asio clamator Observed in Brazil

#ornithology #owls #birds #nature #wildlife #birds of prey #raptor #air beast #who cooks for queue? who cooks for queue all?

[aroaessidhe]

2022 reads // twitter thread      

Beasts of Prey

YA fantasy set in a world where magic is hidden

a girl indentured to a zoo of monsters and a warrior in training venture into a magical jungle to find the monster menacing their city

African mythology, plot twists, dangerous creatures

#Beasts of Prey #the first half ehh but when they get in the forest? hell yeah #the spider guy.... #instalove tho. ya'll JUST met #the plot is kinda random idk #i liked a bunch of the elements justt the way it's put together didn't grab me? #cool spooky forest. cool plot twists even tho i feel like i could have known more about the context beforehand #aroaessidhe 2022 reads