While most teenagers probably don’t have to face quite the same familial expectations that he does, there’s certainly a lot of pressure on teens about their futures, where they’re going to fit in the world. What do you want young people to take away from this dynamic?Įkon struggles with a burden that I think many teens in particular have to contend with: the constant anxiety of trying to live up to the expectations of the people we love most. In my personal opinion, this can create really unsafe expectations and goals for young readers in their personal lives, and so I set out to write a story in which two characters develop feelings for each other more slowly and organically.Ī post shared by Ayana Gray pressure that Ekon feels to be like his father will likely be familiar to many young people’s experiences. I’m grateful to have had access to so many great titles in my teens, but one thing I came to regret was how many stories perpetuated this idea of “insta-love,” the idea that you could be madly in love with (and willing to die for!) someone you barely knew.
I was fortunate to grow up during literature’s “YA boom,” a time in the mid-noughts when young adult literature really skyrocketed. We loved the subtle growth of the love between Koffi and Ekon, what was the inspiration behind this? She’s #goals, and we love a powerful Black woman who kicks butt.ġ0 must-read books to add to your (and your kids’) summer reading list
I think it’d be pretty cool to be Badwa - a goddess of jungles and animals sounds pretty cool to me! If I could be any character ever, I would be Storm from the X-Men. If you could be any character in Beasts of Prey, who would you be, and why? Taking time out of her busy promotional tour Ayana recently spoke exclusively to Melan Magazine about her remarkable new book. The hunt begins – but are they the hunters or the hunted?Įxcitingly for Ayana, mere weeks after it was released, Beasts of Prey secured the coveted honour of being a New York Times bestseller and the book is currently being adapted as a major film by Netflix by Melody Cooper, according to The Hollywood Reporter. One night their paths cross in an unexpected way and they find themselves in the Greater Jungle, a world steeped in wild magic and untold dangers, and the tentative alliance between them is tested to the extreme. Ekon, the son of a decorated hero, is a warrior in training seeking the opportunity to prove his honour. In the broken city of Lkossa sixteen-year-old Koffi, a beast-keeper in a magical zoo, is kept against her will despite desperately seeking freedom. In the same vein as those that came before her like the Children of Blood and Boneseries and The Gilded Ones/The Merciless Ones, Ayana Gray’s novel is an extraordinary adventure inspired by Pan-African mythology and the first in a standout new fantasy trilogy weaving together monsters, myths and magic.
Beasts of Pray by Ayana Grayīeasts of Prey is the highly acclaimed debut novel from exciting new talent Ayana Gray who has been heralded by critics as ‘the next big thing in YA Fantasy’. Ayana Gray bestselling author of Beasts of Prey, soon to be made into a Netflix film, talks exclusively to Melan Magazine about her book’s plot and what inspired her to write it.