A Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone
Title of the book: Children of Blood and Bone
Author: Tomi Adeyemi
Publisher: Henry Holt Company
Publication Date: the 6th of March 2018
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Why I picked up this book:
So I recently read somewhere that people who suffer from anxiety and who don’t nowadays prefer re-reading or re-watching books, series, and films because they know what will happen already. It is less stressful for them as they know what to expect, they won’t be surprised and can brace themselves for emotionally taxing moments. Now I am certainly no psychiatrist, so I have no clue whether it is true or not. It would explain though why I had a sudden urge to re-read some books I absolutely adored. You know, with everything else that is going on in the world at this moment.
About the author:
Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating from Harvard University with an honours degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 3,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
Synopsis:
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.
Review of the book:
I have to hand it to Adeyemi, before I even opened the front cover, she had me buzzing with excitement at reading the words:
“They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.”
I don’t know how she managed it, but she reached a primal part of me that felt wronged. That felt cheated and ignored. A part that was rearing to break free and throw off the chains that bound me. Even if you know, the only chains to speak of for me are a 9-to-5 desk job. Either way, the book had ignited a spark, a spark that would grow into an all-consuming wildfire as the book progressed.
If you think you’ll be reading just another Young Adult novel with star-crossed lovers prevailing against all odds, who can do no wrong, you’d be wrong. Of course, there are parts of the book that read like this, but underneath that, there are much dark themes. The parallels the author draws with systemic racism and the prison systems in modern-day society are extremely hard to miss. Yet at no point do they feel ‘preachy’ or a bit ‘too on the nose’. They offer us a slightly distorted mirror through which we get to view or treatment of those who are ‘different from ourselves.’
Something thing the author excels at is character development. We fall in love with the impatient and quick to anger protagonist, Zelie. We cheer as we watch her powers grow, through all the stumbles and mistakes, through self-doubt and self-loathing. She comes out the other end, a scared child, cloaked in the awe-inspiring force of nature. However, she is not the only one to cherish. Amari, who starts out as a girl who is forever occupied with thoughts of sweets and fulfilling her mother’s expectations, blossoms into a fierce some warrior, a ‘lionnaire’ without equal. The friendship between these two characters, who could not have been more at odds, in the beginning, is something I could not get enough of off. From strangers forced together by the will of the gods, they end up being sisters.
Now I could hardly talk about the characters without mentioning the big elephant in the room. The romance. As I mentioned this isn’t your standard doe-eyed star-crossed lovers tale. Zelie and Inan are not your prince charming and the damsel in distress, destined to have their existence interwoven. The romance serves a purpose, it exposes the naivete of our heroine. It shows the flaws in her thinking as we experience the thoughts of the ‘villain.’ Yet part of me couldn’t help but wonder if it was needed. If all of these things couldn’t have been achieved through different means. Did we really need these two to come together, only for them to be ripped apart again moments later? Was a love-interest the only means to achieve this goal?
I guess we’ll never know, besides it’s not my book so in the end, it doesn’t really matter. If I wanted a book that fits all my criteria – I better go write my own.
Now, to end on a high note. I would not do this book any justice if I don’t mention the interesting take on Nigerian Mythology and the Yoruba beliefs. Yet another part of a culture we may not be exposed to enough in our reading and writing. Pair that with a magic system that is unique, without it’s equal among many of the books written today and you’ve got yourself a fantasy novel that ticks most of my boxes!
What are your thoughts? Are you itching to get your hands on the sequel - well good news it’s out already, waiting for you to crack the spine? Or was this just not your particular cup of tea? Let me know in the comment section below, but until then - just one more page!