The Prey of Gods was an afrofuturistic & chaotic & bloody adventure with an enchanting cast of characters and overarching themes of identity, love, and the messy combination of technology and humanity. 

Also, so many dik-diks. Like, way more dik-diks than you would think. 

In South Africa, a demigoddess is desperate to rise back up to her former glory. She has the perfect opportunity to feed on humanity once a new hallucinogenic drug begins unlocking hidden powers and causing curious animal transformations. We follow a 10-year old girl with immense, unchecked power, a queer teen boy navigating his grandfather’s approval and his love for his best friend, a politician with a controlling mom and a secret double life, and a mega pop star with a hidden chronic illness and some complicated family history. 

If you think all that sounds like a storm, throw in an emerging AI uprising, too. This book is overflowing with seemingly overwhelming narratives … that click together in wild ways.

There’s a lot of humor infused into the writing, and it feels almost playful at times – like Drayden is just having fun and maybe toying with us a bit. It feels like many short stories fused into one, with overflowing creativity that eventually brings our narrators together.

Every character is on their own journey with their identity – they’re all withholding parts of themselves and they all have secrets. Most of their secrets involve shielding their hearts and true selves from their familial mentors. And most of these characters did have really heartwarming and satisfying arcs. 

I felt the worldbuilding was quite atmospheric, but also a bit inconsistent. The rules of the magic changed in hard-to-follow ways, and the characters also had massive shifts that sometimes felt unearned. There was just SO much going on. 

There was an upsetting incident in the beginning that was never truly resolved, with an instant redemption arc that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I couldn't figure out why we were just letting it go. There’s also a trans character who is repeatedly misgendered in her ending scene where she has finally embraced her identity, which saddened me. 

And - this doesn’t impact my rating - but I am a bit confused by the cover, because there are no human-sized robots in this book like the one depicted. 

Overall, I had a lot of fun with this futuristic fantasy. I thought the mythology was fascinating and the identity arcs were charming, but it definitely had its stumbles, too. 

 

CW: murder, death (child/parent), blood, child abuse, drug use/addiction, rape, deadnaming, transphobia, animal cruelty/death, body horror, grief, chronic illness, confinement, vomit, pedophilia, self harm, torture, kidnapping, fire, fatphobia

Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!