Children of Blood and Bone

This coming of age fantasy immediately grabbed me.

Filled with heartbreak, adventure, twists, turns, redemption and romance, it is a beautiful story deserving of all the praise and hype.

It’s always refreshing to see more diversity and a message of strength and hope while reflecting on ugly truths that can be hard to face.

The writing, characters, and creativity were incredible. This is a must-read for lovers of epic YA fantasy and magic. I loved it!

There has been a lot of buzz about Children of Blood and Bone, and it is well deserved. The writing is beautifully descriptive and emotional. The characters come alive through their inner dialog and relived memories. I enjoyed the developing friendship between Zèlie and Amari, and Tzain’s growth from big brother to fierce protector. I would like to get inside Tzain’s head more, especially considering how this book ends. Not many authors can pull off heartbreak and amazing action in the same sequence, but Tomi Adeyemi does it, and she does it beautifully.
This is one of the few times that I’m glad I was late to the game on a book, because now I only have to wait a few months for the next book. Children of Blood and Bone is a terrific book.

A super-powered, fast-paced fantasy that feels like what Black Panther might have been with a strong female magic-wielder at the helm. While it’s not the most unique YA fantasy in terms of plot (the chosen one amongst the oppressed, gods-touched lower class reminded me of a recent read, An Ember in the Ashes, but also called to mind Red Queen), and while the romances were disappointingly weak (I didn’t like the male lead at all), I found the magic system wonderfully intricate and was such a fan of the princess-turned-warrior. The strongest parts of the book by far were the moments of raw emotion – the moments exploring grief and fear and shame. The visceral realities the author threaded through this story of magic and kingdoms at war are undoubtable, and for that alone, it’s a powerful read worth picking up.

Stories are great at developing empathy in their readers…

Fictional stories allow readers to live in the minds of characters and “walk a mile in their shoes.” Fantasy Fiction goes even further. Fantasy creates alternate realities where our prejudices might get lost under the thick layers of color and magic and difference. Fantasy allows authors to talk about difficult topics like racism and inequality to people who might otherwise not be receptive to it. Such is the power of writing fantastical fiction.

Tomi Adeyemi doesn’t waste her opportunity to teach us something about empathy while taking us on a wild and magical ride into a faraway kingdom where those who can wield supernatural powers are oppressed, prosecuted, and killed. People with amazing gifts are made to feel inferior to those who have none, for fear of difference have always haunted humankind.

This story was particularly resonant for me because the book I’ve read just prior to this one was “Time Is the Simplest Thing” by Clifford Simak, one of the great fathers of science fiction. He wrote his story about the paranoia and fear of people who were capable of traveling to other worlds, far star systems using only their minds alone. Those who couldn’t tried to kill those who could. It’s a very similar tale written in a widely different style. I guess I just got lucky reading both of these novels back to back.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, so when I saw it on sale, I grabbed it. Normally a book this long would be a little daunting to begin, but once i started I couldn’t put it down. This fantasy is true to form with good vs. evil at its core. But the lines get a little blurred when magic gets involved. They say absolute power corrupts absolutely and the King is the perfect example of this. Because he fears loss of power, he wants to eradicate anyone who might be a threat – perceived or real- to him. The atrocities he orders and commits trying to get rid of magic are hard to read and imagine. Enter Zelie – she has been tasked with saving magic. Her journey involves fear, anger, trust, betrayal, torture, the desire for revenge, guilt, love – all the emotions. Aside from the nonstop, intense action, the characters are what really drew me in to the story. With chapters alternating between the four main characters’ points of view, the reader gets to know them well – their struggles and hopes and desires.

Now I need to read the second book in the series!

This book has been celebrated so much and after reading, now I know why. Adeyemi weaves a brilliant story. Zélie Adebola grew up with magic. It is in her blood. But then everything changed when magic was outlawed by a ruthless king in a uprising which costed Zélie her mother and many of her people.

With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie gets the chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy; she outwits and outruns the crown prince, who is his father’s instrument for eradicating magic for good.

Orïsha becomes an even more dangerous place in which to live, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Zélie realizes she has a desiny to fulfill, but first she has to learn to control her powers and her strong, confusing feelings for the crown prince, who is by all accounts, her enemy.

Amazing, beautifully written, full range of emotional highs and lows. The well developed characters, warmed and broke my heart. The story had so much modern truth while delving into fantasy. It is hard not to see and feel the connection to the world around us. I encourage you to read the author’s note at the end her words are important.
I loved this, I laughed and cried and will think about this story for a long time to come

I’ve been waiting to read this book since I first started hearing about it early last year. It lives up to every single piece of hype I’ve heard.

This is a story about how tangled power and fear are. It’s about faith in the stories family has told you, the struggle when you begin to question those stories and the ramifications of that struggle. Choices. The fallout. The opportunities.

I felt every emotion as the story pulled me into the hearts and minds of the characters, then into my own as I stepped back out to acknowledge parallels between what was on the pages and what is in our reality right now.

Power. Fear. Family. Culture. Sacrifice. Hope.

I read this as an actively-working-on-my-wokeness white lady, and couldn’t not see how the power and fear that played out in this story rang familiar to the power and fear that has played out here with race in America for far too long. Now that I have read the book and thought on it for a few days, I’m going to seek out what black readers/book reviewers have to say about it. There are likely pieces of the story I do not see—I cannot see—on my own, and have a feeling that after their reviews/thoughts, a re-read would uncover even more layers. Layers I hope more than just I want to understand.

This is a book I will keep on my shelf, sharing with my kids and then anyone else who lets me press it into their hands. More than just a story, it felt…important. Pertinent. Timely.

Rich world building, believable character interactions, enthralling magic and action make you insist, “okay just ONE MORE CHAPTER and I promise to sleep/work/participate in life.” I don’t think I breathed for at least two hundred pages. Adeyemi is an incredible writer, and I don’t know how I’ll be able to stand waiting for her next book.

My review is: stop what you’re doing and read Children of Blood and Bone. Or listen to the audiobook, which is incredibly performed by Bahni Turpin, who is now one of my favorite narrators as I’ve listened to this book twice and am keeping it on my phone to listen to it again in the near future. That’s also the reason I’ll be sharing fewer passages from the novel this post.

Esteemed Reader, this book will change lives. I’ve heard the usual online grumbling from some of the usual folks about another young author (Adeyemi is in her early 20s) making it big on the second book she ever wrote (seven figures and a pre-publication movie deal), and doesn’t that just go to show that publishing is a lottery? You’ll never hear me argue that publishing is a fair business and I might’ve grumbled myself about a few other young writers who won the lottery despite their books being less than amazing. But once in a while, the system still works.

Adeyemi is a better writer than me and many, many other writers and if there were ever a book that should shoot to the front of the line, it’s Children of Blood and Bone. It really is that good. Sometimes in life, you encounter someone who is just plain smarter than you (happens to me all the time) and better at something than you. People have said some nice things about my stories and sometimes I get to thinking I’m the bestest (or periodically, the other extreme), so it’s helpful to remember there are next level writers like Tomi Adeyemi in this world. The rest of us should tread lightly.

People have and will continue to compare Children of Blood and Bone to Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and other YA fare, as well as The Lord of the Rings (both have spirit army battles), and Black Panther (both are examinations of race and culture within the context of an epic narrative with heavy influences of African mythology). There are fantasy genre staples along the way and clear influences from other works, but Children of Blood and Bone is its own thing.

This is not a book about a plucky white protagonist and his black friend, or even a black protagonist and his white friend. Near as I can tell, there are no white people in Orïsha (and I better not see Martin Freeman cast in the movie). This is a story primarily about two black girls with explicitly dark skin, at least one of whom has magic powers (though I found it hilarious to learn that one of the key inspirations for Adeyemi was the Lindsey Lohan version of The Parent Trap). But don’t miss the detail that those in the palace have lighter skin than those outside it and Princess Amari is made to lighten her dark skin while in the palace.

Our main protagonist, Zélie Adebola, is a magi warrior in training, although her people have been subjugated since their magic was stolen from them. Zélie’s earliest memory is of her mother being hung because of her magic. Soldiers collect taxes too steep to be paid, beating, raping, and sometimes killing the magi, who they call “maggots.” It’s not insignificant that Zélie’s power is calling on the strength of the dead who came before her and whose previous resistance fuels her own.

Meanwhile, the occasionally obnoxious and exasperating, but ultimately lovable Princess Amari steals a scroll with the powerful ability to return the magi’s power and flee’s the palace after her father kills her best friend. There’s a lot of murder and cruelty in this story as Orïsha is a very difficult world for everyone living there, which is compelling and probably why they swear so often. But make no mistake, this is a YA novel, and in no time some handsome male characters are also introduced for our heroines and so it goes–do you want an epic fantasy with some romance in it to take you away to a magical place, or don’t you?

Me, I preferred the many battles and relentless bloodshed to the dancing and psychic romancing (it takes some explaining, but Zélie hooks up with a sexy enemy because they can chat on the spiritual plane like Kylo and Rey and see each other’s souls). But there’s plenty of action and one super awesome sequence with a sea battle with all the explosions and bloodshed to make up for the kissy parts:)

Tomi Adeyemi is writing a meaningful tale with beautiful language and imagery, but she never forgets to show the reader a good time. It’s entirely possible to read this story and miss some of the deeper significance of certain events, but still be enthralled in a the magic of Orïsha and of a great story well told. Children of Blood and Bone is the first novel of a planned trilogy, so don’t expect to have all your questions answered, but that’s okay. I can’t wait for the next installment. Should it become five more books instead of two more, that would be just fine as well.

My father-in-law has frequently recalled with a special bitterness that the only book with a black character for him as the only black boy in a Mississippi classroom in the 1950s was Little Black Sambo. “That wasn’t any kind of book,” he’s told me on more than one occasion, his face going dark like a storm moving in. “And I could tell the white teacher was making fun because all the other kids were laughing at me when she read it.”

Never been a big reader, my father-in-law (he’s still smarter than most), but he encouraged his daughters to read and he sometimes wears his Banneker Bones T-shirt with pride. I wonder what his opinion of books might be if Children of Blood and Bone had been available to be read back then. I wonder what future writers and artists Tomi Adeyemi is inspiring. These are dark times we’re living through, Esteemed Reader, but the world is getting better. A novel as wonderful as Children of Blood and Bone is proof.

So good I couldn’t put it down. Hooked from the very first page and I can’t wait for the next book