Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi | ARC Review

Title: Children of Blood and Bone

Author: Tomi Adeyemi

Series: Legacy of Orïsha #1

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy

Publisher: Henry Holt Books

Publication date: March 6th, 2018

Pages: 448

My rating:

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.

“With magic come the gods, thrust into the center of my life are eleven years of silence. I barely picked up the shattered pieces of me after the Raid.

If they abandon me once more, I won’t be able to do it again.”

To be completely honest with you, I knew even before I read this book that I was going to like it, because everything about it was right up my alley, but I didn’t know that it was going to be that good. Oh, my my, guys, it was a really powerful and amazing debut novel, and I cannot wait to read more about those characters because they were honestly, awesome.

Like I said before, I immediately added this novel to my TBR as soon as I knew about it, and I feel that lately I’ve seen it everywhere, but I DIDN’T KNOW THAT I HAD A COMPLETE ARC OF IT. Crazy, right? Well, this girl was beyond happy once she knew about this. So, of course, I started to read it. And I loved it.

“Courage does not always roar, she said that day. Valor does not always shine.”

It was super easy to get into, which surprised me the most, because I usually struggle a bit when I start reading a new high fantasy with all those new elements and the world building, but with Children of Blood and Bone I had no trouble at all.

I really loved the characters and how realistic they were. Of course, this book dealt with very important topics, but I was super happy to see that all the characters were black (I’m pretty sure the author said somewhere it was a Nigerian inspired novel), so A+ to diversity. Also the interactions between them were done so well that took the story to a whole new level. I especially really loved that the friendships or romances weren’t rushed and took their time to happen, because I don’t particularly enjoy when everything happens that fast in a story, and that made me connect more with what each character was going through.

Zélie was a really awesome main character. She was the type of hero that was flawed and scared, but still pushed herself towards the edge of the cliff and jumped so she could make the world better. I loved reading from her perspective (even though the book was told in 3 different ones), because through her I learnt a lot about their history and magic system, and their gods. And let me tell you the magic system was super interesting and unique, and though I feel that in this installment though it was one of the main focuses of the story we didn’t get to know that much about it, I think that would change in the sequel.

“Unable to resist, I step in closer, pushing past a few girls. This is our story. Our history. A truth the king tried to bury with our dead.”

And like I mentioned before, I was so happy to see an amazing and supportive female friendship in this story, because I think every book needs girls supporting each other. And it was done in such a realistic way, that even though you see something like that would happen sometime in the book, it was still a really beautiful one to read about, and I was so happy to see it develop in here.

The book was super action packed. I feel like there was always constantly something going on that kept me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen. And let me tell you, THAT ENDING. Oh, god. That ending was equal parts amazing and annoying. I mean, I knew something like that might happen, but I was a bit mad with a certain character that I’m not going to talk about. But still, it was a really powerful one.

Overall, if you’re mildly interested in this story, just pick it up and read it, because you’re not going to regret it. Children of Blood and Bone was a really well written first book in a series, and a really strong and intense debut novel.

I recieved an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This doesn’t change my opinion whatsoever. All thoughts are my own.