A little too YA in execution and tone, but I liked the concept: a girl with mysterious talents and a boy who longs to be a warrior come together in a hunt for a monster that is terrorizing their city. Of course nothing is as simple as it seems and their conflicting loyalties and goals begin to complicate their wary relationship. I liked the monsters drawn from pan-African folktale and the relationship between the kids founded on mutual respect, and some of the plot twists actually took me by surprise… but the writing and dialogue were a little too simplistic for me; don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel despite the dramatic cliffhanger ending.