Review: Children of Blood and Bone

Children of Blood and Bone

Tomi Adeyemi

(Legacy of Orïsha #1)

Publication Date: March 6, 2018

Hardcover, 544 pages, Henry Holt

Genres: YA, Fantasy

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 Review

So this was my recently-created high school book club reunion’s book club pick for July. I’ve had it on my shelves for about a year or so, and I’ve just been waiting to dig into it once the last book is closer to being released. And I can definitely say that I’m happy we read it. It’s a super fun and inspiring fantasy world.

Zélie, our main character, is rebellious, and she can also be super stubborn. That stubbornness was actually refreshing, especially with how it took her time to trust people versus other main characters in fantasy series who trust waaaay too easily and end up paying for it in the end. However, Zélie did make some strange decisions, like stopping for a party when she had a limited amount of time to complete a task. As for Inan, he’s the brooding prince with secret magic. I should love him. And I do. But I’m also mad at him. But at the same time, I get where he's coming from. He’s definitely got a Prince Zuko possible redemption arc thing going on. It intrigues me.

The third point-of-view we get is Amari, Inan’s sister. She started out as a kind of a meh character, but she actually grew into a fierce protagonist. I’m excited to see how her role expands in future installments, and I’m glad she isn’t just another spoiled, rich princess with no skills. And the final main character, who doesn’t get a POV chapter, is Tzain. He’s the overprotective big brother. He makes me think of a squishy-soft deadly grizzly bear. Cute, fluffy, and friendly, but deadly.

As for the big bad of the book, we have Saran, Inan and Amari’s father. He’s kind of a cross between a stereotypical villain and yet not at the same time. He gets a lot of his characterization from his children’s flashback scenes, which I very much enjoyed and wanted more of. Towards the end of the book, when he’s seen on page, he just wasn’t as intimidating. I think the fear his children had for their father really made him seem monstrous. Through other POVs, he just wasn’t as terrifying.

There’s plenty of action between these four characters and all the chaos of Adeyemi’s world. I was only slightly bored during one scene, which I think was just because I was having issues picturing what exactly was going on. It was a boat, gladiator-type scene that I just couldn’t seem to wrap my head around. And that’s also where I have to admit that the magic could be a tad confusing. Not in the abilities, but the actual scope of the powers and how they could/couldn’t be used. There wasn’t a limit explained (or maybe I just didn’t understand it), as to what each power could do. Honestly, because of the lack of limitations, the battle magic was the least interesting part to me. I preferred when they all fought with regular weapons or were on the run.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this, despite some nitpicking. There’s plenty of action, a ton of magic, and some romance that has me ready for books two and three, though I’m nervous about the sequel, as I’ve heard not-so-great things.