I saw book three at the bookstore and it instantly spoke to me, however they didn't have book one. So I ordered book one and now is the time to check it out! Spoilers ahead.
We follow to teenagers in the city of Lkossa. Koffi is a girl who is a servant at the Night Zoo. But a fire at the zoo causes her to realize her magical powers as a daraja, a magic user. Ekon is a boy destined to become a Son of Six, a warrior, but when his test goes awry he will have to find another way to prove himself. He and Koffi team up and head into the Greater Jungle to hunt down a creature known as the Shetani, in order to hopefully buy their freedom and warrior-hood.
An interesting premise, and I really like what Gray did with it. It's an at times dark but also very imaginative fantasy with creative and neat world-building inspired by African cultures and concepts, while also being its own thing. The characters were also rather great and I had a good time especially with out protagonists and a revelation regarding the Shetani, who turns out to be an another old daraja trapped inside a beast form.
Is the book perfect? Eh, I wouldn't say that. The romance between Ekon and Koffi wasn't bad or anything, but it was very predictable that they were going to be romantically interested in one another from the start. There also is that painful third-act-breakup that happens in so many stories where the characters temporarily hate each other, in this case because Ekon briefly betrayed Koffi and Adiah (the Shetani's true form). Which was predictable but also just kind of feels illogical, because by doing this Ekon is going against the word of a literal god who gave him the mission to restore the Shetani to Adiah. Ekon isn't the most pious character out there, but he still has a lot of respect for the gods, so it felt a bit random for him to suddenly change his mind on the mission.
Finally, the twist of Brother Ugo actually being an evil god was also a bit predictable. He was among the Sons of Six portrayed as the only really jovial, nice and non-corrupted character, which instantly made him suspicious to me, especially as he vanishes sometime into the third act. Turns out he's the evil god we've been fearing all this book and has manipulated Ekon and the other Sons of Six to do his bidding. This in and of itself is not a bad twist, but I'd have liked it if it was a bit more subtle while also not coming completely out of left field. It was pretty subtle already, but also not subtle enough that I wasn't unable to pick up on it pretty soon after Ugo was introduced. I obviously didn't instantly know he was the evil god, but something was suspicious about this character.
Overall I still had a great time reading this book, however! These gripes I have are all things considered pretty darn minor, the story overall is great and I look forward to book two.
Rating: 4/5
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