80. Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray

The Library Coven

It’s episode 80!! That means we’ve done 80 of these long-form book reviews and discussions over the past 5+ years. Whether you’re just finding the show or have been here since the early days, we’re glad to be in your orbit.

In this episode, we discuss Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray. Koffi, an indentured beastkeeper with hidden powers, and Ekon, a warrior-in-training with an empathetic side, decide to work together to find the shetani, a dangerous and powerful beast living in the jungle. Of course, what they’ve been told by society is complete BS, and the two teens have to choose between old dreams and their new understandings/relationships.

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• Recommend if you like…
  • Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (episode 2!)
  • The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta (episode 74)
  • Zahrah and the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor (episode 71)
  • Hafsa Faizal’s We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars (episode 32 and episode 54, respectively). Book 1 in particular also fits into the subgenre of enemies-t0-lovers-looking-for-something-in-the-woods.
• kelly mentions the “erotics of unmasking” section of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s book The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs. k just looooves this work in general and can’t recommend it enough.
• Jessie mentions the article from Schalk and Kim – “Reclaiming the Radical Politics of Self Care: A Crip-of-Color Critique — that she read for a class about what self care is and what it isn’t.

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