Usually, reading a fantasy novel transports me—like it’s supposed to—into strange worlds with different customs, social issues, technologies, and histories. But as I read Beasts Made of Night, by Tochi Onyebuchi, all I could think was, “If any group of people need to go on strike and seize the means of production, it’s the aki in this book.” I wanted to lob a copy of The Communist Manifesto into the book like a Molotov cocktail.
Taj and his fellow aki are a shunned underclass in the city of Kos. They have the ability to do a necessary job that no one else wants: they can eat the sins of other people. If they don’t do their job, it’s possible that sin beasts will attract even worse monsters that could kill everyone. Despite this, they are underpaid, often hungry, their jobs will eventually kill them, and they are sneered at by everyone else. The fact that they wear the sins they eat like tattoos doesn’t help. It’s a reminder to everyone else that they are sinful, too, and that’s it’s just pure luck that they’re not aki themselves.
Taj is a justifiably angry character. He feels the guilt of other people’s sins constantly. But it doesn’t seem like there’s anything he can do to change things, until he is blackmailed into taking permanent jobs at the palace. Once that happens, the plot of Beasts Made of Night kicks into high gear. Before long, Taj is up to his ears in other people’s plots and conspiracies. The mere chance of changing the status of the aki (and saving his family’s lives) keeps him going until the exciting conclusion—which is also an infuriating cliffhanger.
I would recommend that readers who are interested in reading Beasts Made of Night wait for the next book in the series. It’s an original read, but the way the book ends is hugely aggravating because it ends at the absolute peak of the plot. I am…peeved.