IBR - Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

[Ashley, The Tipsy Challenger]

Members Starting the BR: Sammy, Jenny, Angie, Judith, Donna
Challenge: Book Quest Adventures
Book: Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

Anyone is free to join in this Buddy Read! Happy Reading!

[Sammy]

Starting this one today! 😁

[Sammy]

Yikes. I really don't like one of the female narrator's voices. Very close to what will normally set off migraines. Fingers crossed I can get through without! But the male voice is beeyootiful!

[Sammy]

Now I know I said above that the male narrator's voice is lovely, and it is, but I have to admit I'm a bit baffled at his choice to make Ekon's mentor sound like a slightly glitching AI...
At first I thought it was my phone playing up, but nope, it was a concious choice and I don't understand why 😆

[Sammy]

I'm afraid I didn't hugely enjoy this one. The first half of the book bored me a LOT, though it did pick up once they entered the Greater Jungle.

One thing that did interest me though, was when they encountered the (I'm guessing at spelling here) Groot Slang. Now, the pronunciation of the audio was wildly different, and it is terrible in terms of grammar, but Groot Slang is Dutch for "large snake" (although grammatically speaking, when using "groot" as an adjective, you would add an e, so the correct usage would be "Groote slang".) . Possible a south African influence creeping into the story there? Sorry, /lecture 😆

But then the ending annoyed me. (view spoiler)[ I don't mind a cliffhanger if the book is really good and I fully intend to read the next one (and the author actually commits to writing it - naming no names...), but in this case, when I didn't really enjoy the book, it is just annoying and I would have preferred some closure.

Once upon a time I would have been compelled to read the next book too, because I couldn't stand to leave it unfinished, but the above unnamed author has long since cured me of that compulsion 😂 (hide spoiler)]

[Jenny]

Ok, so I listened to this one today. It was a reread, and I liked it a bit better this time around, as I was able to follow the story a bit better, but overall, I am not a huge fan.
The audio wasn't bad, but I did like the male voice better for sure.

[Jenny]

One thing I really would like to see is the night zoo. Weird animals, some of which I have never heard of? Sign me up. As long as I don't think about the fact that the zoo is enslaved animals being cared for by people in servitude, then it sounds like a great place to visit!

I liked the description of the magic in the beginning of the book, but the story in my mind didn't really live up to its promise.

[Jenny]

I am struggling to write a review of this one. I will put it off until the very last minute maybe.
Anyway, I'm with Sammy here, in that I will not be reading the sequel. I might dip into someone else's spoiler review to see what happens, but it won't be right now, as I just don't care that much.
I really wanted this one to be better than it was. There are so many afro-futurism books that I have read that were just great, and they can't all be that. I wish I could put my finger on what didn't work for me in this one, but I can't.

[Angie ☯]

I agree with both of you.

The book was just okay in my opinion. I had high hopes as it sounded like it would be much better!

[Angie ☯]

Didn't care for the ending, either.
(view spoiler)[
Cliffhangers are tolerable with books that I enjoy and know that I'll continue reading the series. But they are seriously annoying when you don't really want to commit to the rest! If I get really bored with nothing else to read, I might pick up the next one....but that is probably a very slim chance. (hide spoiler)]

[Angie ☯]

I'm struggling with reviews for all of my books this month!!

[Jenny]

Well, you kind of have a good excuse. You were out of town for a long time.

[Angie ☯]

True! Lol

[Judith]

This book had been staring at me for a long, long time from my bookcase and I was glad to finally have a good spot to place it in a challenge.

But overall I was disappointed. Like all of you it didn't quite deliver what it was promising. I'm likely not going to continue the series. Too many other books I'm more excited to read.

[Judith]

However, I would visit the heck out of that Night Zoo

[Jenny]

Right? If this is made into a series for tv, then that part of it would be amazing to see. And maybe a good screenwriter and director could deliver what we all seemed to want and not get from this book.

[Benedicte, Bookmark First, Ask Later]

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