Beasts of ruin by Ayana Gray

Readers will be thrilled to follow the adventures of Koffi and Ekon after the cliff-hanger ending of Beasts of prey. Koffi has been taken by Fedu, the god of death, to Thornkeep where he intends to try and use all her powers as a daraja. Here she learns about her inheritance and meets the other darajas, some of whom become her friends. Meanwhile Ekon is determined to rescue Koffi and joins a caravan of traders travelling towards the realm of death. Both will have their powers and loyalties tested and learn much about themselves.

The story is narrated in separate chapters, in three distinct voices, that of Koffi, Ekon and Binti, Koffi’s mother. Koffi gradually learns about her gifts and what she can do with them, while gathering a group of darajas around her, all determined to escape from Thornkeep, even though it means forcing their way through the dangerous Mistwood. (A fabulous map of Thornkeep is provides at the front of the book.) The reader is kept in suspense, holding their breath, as the allies face action and danger. Ekon has to face that he is no longer a member of the elite fighting group from the Temple, and his loyalty is torn when he has to face his brother. He finds friends in the caravan, but again his loyalty is tested and he must decide which path he will take. Binti’s story is perhaps the most harrowing and memorable as the reader learns about the discrimination that she and her mother faced, and the trials that led to her and her family working as indentured servants in the Zoo.

Thrills and suspense pervade the story as Koffi faces the undead in Mistwood and tries to hide her powers from Fedu. Ekon must evade the soldiers from the Temple and fight his way out of the city, while Binti’s gradual fall into the hellhole that is the Zoo is heartrending. In the author’s note Gray details the African origin of some of the mythical and fascinating beasts that feature in the story and which add so much to the interest of the narrative.

Beasts of ruin ends on a cliff-hanger that will have the reader waiting for the next in the series. 

Themes: Magic, Monsters, Travel, Hunting, Good and evil, Fantasy.

Pat Pledger