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.



( )

HOLY MOLY!! Great characters, interesting premise, strong female protagonist of color. Whew--this book has it all. Cannot wait to read the next installment to see what happens in Orisha! If you decide to read this book, DO NOT skip the author's note at the end!!! Seriously. Don't.

( )

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. ( )

I rarely read books aimed at teens or young adults (except a few brief readings of extremely popular books, usually before I see the movies they've been made into) but I'm extremely grateful I made an exception for this one. What initially caught my eye was the overwhelming positive buzz around the book as well as plans for a feature film and after reading the synopsis I was more than intrigued; and this book more than lived up to the hype and expectation.

After reading I was floored to put it mildly, this is leagues past most of the young adult fiction phenomenon we've seen in the past decade or so, hunger games who? divergent series what? Sorry, this isn't meant to disparage Suzanne Collins or Veronica Roth, only to express how amazing I think this book was (and full disclosure, I have only read the first couple books of the aforementioned authors so maybe I'm not quite as informed as I could be). All that being said, move over Twilight / Hunger Games / Divergent there's a new YA powerhouse in town and this one is breathtakingly readable, with detailed and vivid world building and, best of all, populated with deep, conflicted, messy, intimately human characters.

I won't spoil the ride for you because I think everyone needs this experience for themselves but I will attempt to back up why I'm so enamored with this work. To being with, and perhaps most importantly, this is a teen novel that doesn't pander to it's audience, there are no comfortable cliches or familiar tropes we can put our trust in, the novel is just as unpredictable and dangerous as the real world. This is something I appreciate and I think this generation of teens, perhaps more than any other, can appreciate as well, it's a teen novel that doesn't soften, sugar coat or simplify, it's as raw and demanding as any adult book. Additionally, the novel is set in a richly storied and complex world complete with different cultures and a vibrant, if sometimes bloody history. Think Westeros or Middle Earth but instead of a fantasy medieval Europe, Orisha (the nation the book takes place in) is a fully realized African land with it's own unique customs, peoples, and mythology, we're talking THAT level of intricate world building; and it's expressed masterfully, details are shared organically through discussions and stories, no clunky exposition to be found here. For anyone wishing for a fantasy novel not set in some facsimile of a bygone European country, this is book for you. The crowning achievement of this world building is without a doubt the magic and religion of the nation, the two are inextricably linked and each is fascinating and fairly different from anything in fiction I've read before. As I said, I won't give out spoilers but rest assured the magic in "Children of Blood and Bone" is on par with Rowling's witches and wizards, it's that cool, I promise. Finally, the characters. I love these characters, our protagonist is flawed, impulsive, and sometimes makes choices we the readers disapprove of and I adore that. The other characters don't lack for detail, humanity, or growth by dent of not being THE main character either, they're all just as well written and have as much of an impact on the story, no one feels like a side kick or plot device. Even the characters we despise and root against feel like real, human villains.

To sum up, this is an excellent and worthwhile book. If, like me, you rarely or never read YA lit then make an exception and read this one. If you are a fan of the genre you then absolutely need to experience this book to see how far the bar has been raised. I haven't been this impressed by ANY book, adult, teen, or otherwise in a long, long time and I couldn't be more thrilled that it seems to be part of a planned series (Legacy of Orisha #1). I, and the world, need more of Tomi Adeyemi brilliant writing as soon as possible. ( )

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but it was an absolute pill to trudge through this book. While I enjoyed the premise and attempts at worldbuilding, the characters were flat, trivial and downright predictable. The bits we do discover about the world of the book are told, rather than shown and implied rather than executed. Additionally, this thing fell so deep into a YA Romance that at one point I could only read a few pages at a time before I had to put it down in disgust.

Ultimately, I think this book has no idea what it wants to be and I definitely would NOT recommend giving it a read. ( )