I freely admit that I went into this book with certain expectations, and all of those expectations were turned on their head.
Koffi is a wonderfully independent character who knows what she wants and is going to go after it. Ekon is more reserved, but wants things just as badly as Koffi, even if he is more hesitant about jumping into things. I was delighted by the way they had to help each other out in the jungle. Even when they weren't getting along they didn't abandon each other, and neither one of them was better at surviving than the other. Each of them had their own strengths that helped them in some situations but they both had to rely on the other as well.
But then we come to the part of the story where Koffi and Ekon find someone to help them out and learn new information about the shetani. And suddenly nothing is as it seemed. This is the part where all of my expectation about where the book was going went up in flames. Ayana Gray took the usual fantasy tropes and shuffled them. Nothing that came after this point was entirely new but it was put together differently than anything I've seen recently and it was wonderful. For a brief moment I thought everything was going to slow down, but instead the pace picked up, throwing several new twists into the mix as it went.
The ending was not a surprise when I reached it but the road that got us there was new and fun. I am looking forward to book 2!
Koffi is a wonderfully independent character who knows what she wants and is going to go after it. Ekon is more reserved, but wants things just as badly as Koffi, even if he is more hesitant about jumping into things. I was delighted by the way they had to help each other out in the jungle. Even when they weren't getting along they didn't abandon each other, and neither one of them was better at surviving than the other. Each of them had their own strengths that helped them in some situations but they both had to rely on the other as well.
But then we come to the part of the story where Koffi and Ekon find someone to help them out and learn new information about the shetani. And suddenly nothing is as it seemed. This is the part where all of my expectation about where the book was going went up in flames. Ayana Gray took the usual fantasy tropes and shuffled them. Nothing that came after this point was entirely new but it was put together differently than anything I've seen recently and it was wonderful. For a brief moment I thought everything was going to slow down, but instead the pace picked up, throwing several new twists into the mix as it went.
The ending was not a surprise when I reached it but the road that got us there was new and fun. I am looking forward to book 2!