Children of Blood and Bone by Toni Adeyemi

 

Series: Legacy of Orïsha #1

Title: Children of Blood and Bone

Author: Toni Adeyemi

Published: 2018

Genre: Fantasy

Grade Level: YA

-Trigger Warning: Grief, violence, and racism

-Movie Rating: R for violence

Audiobook

Read by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 18hrs and 9min

Recommend: YES!! It was amazing!

Blurb (from goodreads):

They killed my mother.

They took our magic.

They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.

My Scores:

Writing Style: Good

This book is written in a very straight forward style which I appreciated because there were so many things going on. Plus, it was over 500 pages long, so the simple way it was written helped to speed the process along.

The writing was full of African inspired words such as the African inspired incantations. Had I not listened to the audiobook, I would have just grazed over these words, but hearing them in being delivered in such a cool, realistic, and sometimes urgent way made the jargon interesting instead of annoying. They added so much to the world that was built in this book.

I gave the writing style a ‘good’ score because when the perspectives changed there wasn’t enough difference in the word choice and voice for me to instantly figure out who was the ‘I’ persona, had I not been told.

Characters: Absolutely Amazing

These characters are the best that I have read about in a long time.

The childhood trauma they went through follows them into adulthood and takes a drastic effect on their character as a whole. It is so refreshing to see grief given the full respect that it deserves in a fantasy novel. A genre where so often characters seem to become wholly unaffected by whatever trauma happens to them only a chapter or two ago.

This book is a multi-perspective novel. The three MC’s are Zeile, Amari, and Inan. They each have distinct and complex personalities that make them feel like true, flawed human beings. The multi-perspective style allows the reader to love each of them in a different way.

Throughout the book their relationships change and grow, then falter and break, and then mend together again. It was an awesome and heartbreaking ride!

Side note, Zelie’s brother, Tzain, also played a major role in the novel. It’s confusing why none of the novel is told through his POV. There’re at least two scenes in particular I would have preferred his POV.

Plot: So Many Plot Twists

The plot was a classic: Find all the magical items to restore magic to the world. Even so, there was no possible way to predict the ending of this novel.

It was fast-paced, action packed, with subplots of romance and politics. The romance is not the driving force of the plot. Far from it, in fact. Instead, it’s more about family ties and cultural ties being plagued by a racist (or anti-magic) government.

Overall: Totally Obsessed

Overall, I’m totally obsessed with this book. Yes, it was quite long, so get the audiobook. It was amazing! It really added to world-building. Bahni Turpin has an awesome African accent. 

The characters are so well done, with a true mix of multiple personality traits with traumatic backgrounds and magical and/or political responsibilities. What’s not to love?

 

Messaging:

From the author’s note:

Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, woman, and children being shot by the police… But if this story affected you in any way, all I ask is that you don’t let it stop within the pages of this text.

Extra Notes: To my knowledge, this is the first novel that I’ve ever read where every character had a dark skin tone and it was interesting to hear all the different ways the author described it.

Goodreads Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!