Children of Blood and Bone Book Review

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

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

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and 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 the enemy.

I woke up the other day to a tweet from Stephen King to Tomi Adeyemi, praising how good this book is. I will repeat STEPHEN KING LIKES THIS BOOK. Okay, now that my fangirling little heart has restarted, I can finally get round to talking about what is most certainly one of the most anticipated YA reads of 2018. And for good reason. I’ve been sitting on this for a good few months now, long enough for Netgalley to pretty much give up on expecting me to review this book, but I was just so worried that it wouldn’t live up to the hype. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen [and fellow maji] I am pleased to inform you this simply isn’t the case.

Children of Blood and Bone started quite slow. There was a lot of build up, a lot of scene setting, and a lot of me pulling faces and wondering if I could squeeze in a few minutes of Magikarp Jump before I started the next chapter. This continued for about 30% of the way through the book, and then the characters got so mired in a shit-storm of action that it took me at least five minutes of internal screaming to realize that, somewhere along the way, I had grown to love them all and now feared for their lives. So thanks, Tomi, thank you very much for that. Congrats, you must have taken at least ten years off my life. Zelie [excuse my lack of accents please, silly keyboard] is so strong and powerful, and if you’re a fan of Sarah J Maas, Susan Dennard and Leigh Bardugo’s kick-ass heroines, this book is definitely for you. Zelie shoulders all of the monumental responsibility heaped on her shoulders with tenacity, wit and poise. That’s not to say that she never struggles– in fact part of the reason I love her character as fiercely as I do is how she constantly seemed to be conflicted about what she has been tasked with, and how it could lead to apocalyptic failure. There’s a strong sense of grief, and the memory of her mother’s brutal death plays a significant role in how Zelie views the world [and the people in it] around her. Her brother, Tzain, is also highly likeable, and I think Adeyemi manages to weave in an impressively strong familial bond very well, using lots of action and emotion to show, rather than tell us how we’re meant to feel about these characters. He’s also not without his faults, but again I think the author does a superb job of tempering his brilliance with these flaws to make him human enough to cheer for.

Same goes for Amari. I was a little concerned in the opening chapters of the book that she was going to be very much the princess stereotype found in fairytales– beautiful and passive, with a touch of courage to keep her interesting. But Amari was actually a very unique character. I thought sometimes her voice could have come across a smidge stronger, but really she held her own, even against some of the clearer voices in the novel. I thought her morals were really what made her– and I liked how she always stood up for what she believed in, even when others around her wavered. Also, there are key moments in Children of Blood and Bone where she is pure bad-ass. No quibbles here. Which brings me to her brother, Inan. Possibly one of the most complex and intriguing characters of the book. At times I loved him, at others I loathed him. I promised a spoiler-free review, so I won’t say too much, but urgh. That boy! Still, I thought what Tomi did with his character was very impressive, and her deft touch at moving him through all these thoughts and emotions was simply masterful. I can’t wait to see how book two turns out in regards to the characters. I won’t give too much away, but the ending is sure to leave readers hooked, sobbing ugly, ugly tears. Have tissues on hand, preferably a box of them.

The other thing that I think worked really well was the magic system. We don’t get to learn too much about how it works in this book, mostly because the plot is all about how to bring magic back, but even the glimpses we’re allowed are breathtaking. The different types are the most interesting to me right now, and I like how, much as Dennard’s Truthwitch series has done, Children of Blood and Bone mixes familiar powers such as control over elements and healing, with new ones [or at least twists on old ones]. The concept of Reapers, which would mostly be considered a kind of dark magic, sounds totally fascinating, and again I’m curious to know what kind of direction the series will take this in as it pans out. The questions raised about magic in general are also very refreshing– I’m used to magic based worlds where either magicians are all powerful, or they are repressed and forbidden. The latter is kind of true in CoBaB, with the diviners [again, sorry for the lack of accents] being labelled as ‘maggots,’ forced to pay taxes or risk ending up in a slave-system known as The Stocks. Adeyemi paints a horrifying scene of the danger being a diviner actually puts a person in, and of course it raises some interesting points about the prejudice at the core of this hatred. Because, of course, these people were once more powerful than the others around them, and again and again the characters in the novel ask what will happen if magic gets into the wrong hands, if it can’t be controlled and contained, if someone decides on revenge rather than peace? All of these are interesting questions, and I sense they will crop up again and again throughout the series.

Of course, there were moments when the novel flagged a bit. I was a bit irked by the insta-love relationships sprouting up like daisies throughout the plot, and I feel these could have been handled with a little more panache. I’ll always value the slow-build over the immediate explosive love. I like that the author again tried to balance it, and there is always that voice at the back of my head which grudgingly admits that, given the high-stakes and tension circumstances, it isn’t so surprising that the word ‘love’ is bandied around so quickly, but as of right now I am a cynical 23 year-old, typing away on my laptop in my student flat. So I’m going to call it as a point against the book. But hey, that’s me being picky. Besides that, and the sluggish opening, I really can’t fault this book at all. The characters and world were so well written, and it honestly feels like something I’ve never read before. Which is all kinds of impressive, given my obsession with YA. Also, can I just point out how refreshing it is to have a whole novel that is POC? I can’t remember the last time I came across something like this, and since I’ve started researching representation in YA, I’ve found myself growing more and more frustrated.

9.5/ 10 stars. If you haven’t pre-ordered this book yet, you’re missing out.