Welcome to my stop of the Beasts Made of Night Blog Tour! The book is one of my most anticipated reads of 2017, and I am so excited to share a guest post by the author, on the inspiration behind this intriguing fantasy.
What inspired you to write Beasts Made of Night?
It was
ultimately a fantasy novel that made me want to be a writer, that made me
realize that one could be a writer in the first place. Up until I’d read The
Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan, telling stories had been something I had
fun doing on the side, and a way to get good grades in my creative writing
classes. But when I read that book in high school, I had this feeling at the
end that I was still in the story. It made me dizzy. I could still see the
characters like wisps of smoke in front of my eyes. I just lay on the couch and
let that last scene replay over and over again in my head. I wanted to give
this feeling to someone else. I wanted to be a writer.
I grew up very
Americanized, and it wasn’t until I got older that I became more interested in
my heritage as a Nigerian. The bits and pieces I would hear of my mom’s story
were fascinating. How, as a child in Lagos, she once watched a plane fly
overhead and, in that moment, made the decision to come to America. Arriving in
JFK not having seen snow in real-life for the first time and walking out
through the doors into cold she’d never felt before, then darting back inside,
shocked to her core at the very concept of winter. What life was like for her
growing up in the village back in Nigeria, how they would make food, what trips
into the city felt like. Beasts Made of Night is, at its core, an attempt to
reconnect with that and to better learn my mother and her story.
Beasts Made of
Night is also an exploration of sin and punishment and guilt. I spent my years
during and after law school working in America’s criminal justice system. I
worked with people incarcerated in jails and prisons, and I worked on civil
rights enforcement in the State of New York. And these issues are immensely
important to me. In our criminal justice system, we see so many issues mixing
together. We see how racism interacts with socioeconomic status. We see issues
of gender played out. We see discrimination and its consequences in very, very
painful fashion. And I wanted to write about that too.
I’m so
fortunate to have had the opportunity to write this book. So many things I care
about and so many issues I think about constantly, I’m finally able to talk
about with others. And, in the process, I get to fulfill this dream I’ve nursed
ever since I was a kid.
Title : Beasts Made of Night
Author : Tochi Onyebuchi
Release Date : October 10th 2017
Publisher : Philomel Books
Synopsis:
Debut author Tochi Onyebuchi delivers an unforgettable
fantasy adventure that powerfully explores the true meaning of justice and
guilt. Packed with dark magic and thrilling action, Beasts Made of Night is a
gritty Nigerian-influenced fantasy perfect for fans of Paolo Bacigalupi and
Nnedi Okorafor. In the walled city of Kos, corrupt mages can magically call
forth sin from a sinner in the form of sin-beasts—lethal creatures spawned from
feelings of guilt.
Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters
indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj’s livelihood comes at a
terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his
skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are
driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to
provide for his family.
When Taj is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal
family, he’s suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy
Kos. Now Taj must fight to save the princess that he loves—and his own life.
Giveaway
Enter for a chance to be one (1) of three (3) winners to receive a hardcover copy of Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi. (ARV: $17.99 each).
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on October 23, 2017 and 12:00 AM on November 13, 2017. Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about November 15, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.
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