Tomi Adeyemi

The best thing about Children of Blood and Bone was the very relevant political statements it made about race and prejudice. With this being said, my favorite part was the part at the very end, after the story was over and I was reading the author’s note. This note was only a page and a half, yet it was charged with emotion and clearly defined the passions of the author as well as her purest of intents behind the message of this novel. And while there were a few points where this intent beautifully shone through the novel, for the most part I didn’t enjoy the actual plot and characters that much.

This book focuses on the perspectives of three different characters: Zelie, Amari, and Inan. Zelie seems to be the primary focus, and the one who appears to be chosen by the gods to restore magic to her people, the diviners. The Diviners are the children of the once powerful Magi, who would come into their inherited powers when of age. When Zelie was a child, the emperor massacred all of the Magi, leaving only the children who had never aged into their magic. Then, he took magic away. The emperor destroyed this people based on a hatred fueled by fear and it becomes the goal of his daughter, Amari, to oppose her father and what he stands for. Meanwhile, her brother Inan holds fast to the poisonous teachings of their father and struggles to track down Zelie and her group before they can restore Magic to all diviners. Zelie, a diviner who has lived through the tragedy of the raid and prejudice against her people, has gotten a taste of what her fully restored magic could be like and works with learning and understanding her new abilities along their journey. As she does so, she also must come to terms with what will happen at journey’s end- whether she succeeds or not.

The part I enjoyed the least about Children of Blood and Bone was the characterization and the romance aspect. The characters never felt well fleshed out and I found myself wishing that maybe the author had just stuck with one point of view instead of the three given (from Zelie, Amari, and Inan) so that I could have learned more about any one of them. As they were, there were certainly parts of Zelie’s character that I really liked and appreciated but she never seemed to make much of a change throughout the book. I enjoyed the parts when Zelie would work with her magic in particular.

However, the parts that developed the romances in the book, particularly the bit that carried on for multiple chapters in a row and only focused on that and nothing else, were tiresome. Since I didn’t really connect with the characters, I also didn’t connect with this romance. Inan’s character was also extremely naive so it made it very difficult to like him after coming to understand this about him. There were parts of the novel that I felt like had they been explored more than this romance, it would have made for a much more enjoyable read and would have even brought across more of the message that was intended from the author’s note.

This book was hyped a lot and my prior experience with Young Adult books that are this hyped is one of at least mild disappointment while I wonder what the hype was about. With Children of Blood and Bone I definitely saw something at the core that would have made for a passionate, vivid tale of a fight to overcome prejudice and regain the power that was striped from the main character and her people. However, the execution of this tale left some things to be desired— primarily character development and maybe a bit less romance. If Goodreads could give me half stars, my rating for this book would be 2.5 stars.



… (lisätietoja)

While waiting for a series of delayed trains, I picked up this book from the station's little bookshop.

I love the background, the culture, the world building, the way magic works. Very, very well done, and a refreshing change from standard white American/European fantasy.

That said, I'm SO over the 'romance' in YA. The obsessive moping, unnecessary drama, not communicating to 'protect' the other - it just isn't for me. That's not on this book, it's a genre wide thing.

The other thing I didn't like was the endless wallowing in guilt by all parties, and the very repetitive memories. We get the point, it was terrible, and I appreciate the attempt at conveying how such memories stay with you and pop up unbidden. But they drained the story of momentum, which was a shame.

All in all, I never really felt for the characters, but I did feel for the world. I'd love to see more books with backgrounds like these.… (lisätietoja)