Beasts Made of Night
#8433.31 adjusted 3.40 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 2 books Status Complete 2017–2018 Reading commitment Low Tochi Onyebuchi Last reviewed 2026-08-30
Overview
Beasts Made of Night is a completed two-book young-adult fantasy duology by Tochi Onyebuchi, comprising Beasts Made of Night (2017) and Crown of Thunder (2018), set in the walled city of Kos and drawing on Nigerian folklore and Yoruba-influenced cosmology. Kos maintains an appearance of purity for its pious and corrupt alike only because aki, children marked with keloid scars and cast out to the city's slums, can magically draw the physical sins of nobles and priests out of their bodies and into sin-beasts, monstrous manifestations that the aki must then destroy at grave cost to themselves. Taj, one of the most skilled aki in the city, is pulled into a conspiracy reaching the royal family itself after he is made to eat a sin far larger and stranger than any he has faced before, one that threatens to consume him from within. The sequel widens the story into open rebellion against the caste system that has exploited aki like Taj for generations.
Mythic fantasy · For YA
Core Canon: Reading Order (2 works) counts toward ranking
Beasts Made of Night Tochi Onyebuchi
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Beasts Made of Night | 2017 | 1 | core | 3.26 (5,393 ratings) |
 | Crown of Thunder | 2018 | 2 | core | 3.56 (1,202 ratings) |
Complete YA fantasy duology set in the walled city of Kos, where sin-eaters called aki draw the physical sins of others into their own bodies as sin-beasts. Confirmed a separate, unrelated universe from Tochi Onyebuchi's Harmattan Season.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Beasts Made of Night? Beasts Made of Night's Core Canon is 2 books.
- What is the reading order for Beasts Made of Night? Publication order, starting with Beasts Made of Night. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Beasts Made of Night finished? Complete (2017–2018).
- How much reading does Beasts Made of Night take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 2 Core Canon books · ~607 pages).
- How is Beasts Made of Night ranked? #843 in this site's official ranking, based on 6,595 reader ratings across 2 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #843?
Ranked #843 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.31 across 2 core books.
- A smaller readership (6,595 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- 0.15 behind #842, The Atlas Six.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 2 books · Complete · 7k ratings · Ranks #843 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment mythic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (2 Core Canon books)
- Beasts Made of Night (2017)
- Crown of Thunder (2018)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Nommo Award (Novel), 2018: won: Beasts Made of Night; Nommo Award for Novel by an African, 2018.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.31 across 6,595 ratings on 2 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit Beasts Made of Night (Tochi Onyebuchi) accepted 2026-08-30
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-31
Rule: Core Canon = both novels: Beasts Made of Night (2017) and Crown of Thunder (2018), the complete duology.