Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
5/5 STARS
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Author: Tomi Adeyemi
Published: March 2018
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 531 {paperback}
Thanks to Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review
Initial Thoughts Upon Finishing
GOOD LORD, WHAT A CLIFF-HANGER! I’m positively gasping for the sequel. I must know what happens next! That was an amazing rush of a read filled with glorious magic, diversity and kickass characters. Amari is hands down my favourite (sorry, Zél, love you too). Bring on book two!
Children of Blood and Bone
This is an amazing fantasy story that has graced us all with its presence this year. It’s a West African influence story and has a delectable cast of characters, a tyrannical king, a conflicted prince and suppressed MAGIC. Also, magic that isn’t surprised. But MAGGIIC.
Not everyone is born with magic, but those who are have different abilities depending on heritage/which god they’re blessed by. There are heaps of different gods and no, I couldn’t list them for you – I mostly just nodded, went along with it and remembered one or two names. But I loved it.
Those who have magic have white, curly hair and only develop their powers at the age of 13. Except, the current king hates magic. Think of the king from Throne of Glass and then make him worse. That’s this king. Big, fat meanie. He took away and ‘destroyed’ three sacred artefacts that stripped the magi of their powers. Except he’s useless and didn’t actually destroy them because MAGIC – and thus we have a storyline.
Zélie is our MC and along with her brother, Tzain, the princess who runs away and joins forces with them by accident, Amari, and a few others, we go on a wicked adventure to restore magic. This all happens after a series of events take place, setting it all in motion. But you gotta read it yourself to find that out.
Why it Lives Up to the Hype
I wasn’t sure, truly, picking this up whether the hype would totally ruin it for me. But thank god, it didn’t. There’s just so much that happens that’s unique and wonderful, it’d be impossible to turn your nose up at is. I also loved the diversity of the character’s personalities. We’ve all basis covered here and it’s never confusing. Unless you’re like me and forget to read who’s perspective it is in the chapter title. I definitely did NOT read Inan’s chapters as Zélie’s sometimes and get confused. NOPE.
I’m a big fan of stories where you go across long stretches of land – like Lord of the Rings (but not so boring *gasp*). It was just so refreshing to see so many different types of landscapes and explore different cultures and GAH, just everything. In particular, I loved the nod towards the Colosseum in one of the desert places they visit, when the arena is flooded with water and they battle on ships. Coolest part of the book? Yes. Someone, quick! Make a film out of it so I can watch that.
Just to quickly brush up on why you need these characters so much in your life. Amari is amazing, a princess who’s been pushed around all her life and abused who finally finds the legs to stand up on and challenge her father by bringing back magic. With the support of Zél and Tzain, she really blossoms into something amazing. Tzain is a beautiful, worrisome brother who would go to the ends of the world for Zél. Zél herself is a conflicted, fiesty girl who has magic. She dives right into trouble and is quick to judge but loyal to the end. Inan, I really liked, despite being SO CONFLICTED THE WHOLE TIME. He’s got so many layers going on with him. I loved that whilst you thought there might be some instant-romances, we’re misguided and Adeyemi plays with us for a while. Things are on, things are off, then things are complicated. SO good!
Summary
Highly recommend! Even though this is a chunky book, it’s so worth the read to explore the richness of it and all the amazing characters. It’s a heap of fun and the CLIFF HANGER (ahhhh) I so need the sequel so that I can find out what happens next. If you haven’t read this yet, you NEED to!
Grab a Copy!
I am an affiliate with these companies. By using these links to purchase books you are supporting Upside-Down Books!
Get free worldwide shipping and great prices with The Book Depository and Wordery!
Support an Australian company with Angus & Robertson and get free shipping on orders over $60!
Support an Australian company with Booktopia and enjoy flat rate shipping for AUS/NZ!
You might also like . . .
Have you read Children of Blood and Bone?
Share your thoughts below!
~~ Kirstie ~~
Upside-Down Books 
This sounds AWESOME and the kind of read I am after!! I love books where theres magic, theres some kind of recognisable way of knowing if a person has magic and all! I used to imagine and hope that I would be one of those lucky ones 😅 i cant wait to read this book! Thank you for the lovely review 💕
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha didn’t we all!! It’s such a great read so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 💫 thanks!
LikeLike
Yay! So happy to see you enjoyed this one too.
I LOVED that this fantasy book was heavily influenced by African (west) culture & how the author built the world & magic system.
My only negative of the book would be that I would have preferred it to have been told in single perspective – Zélie’s, or by Amari & Zélie’s perspectives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know! It’s such a wonderful spin on what could otherwise be a fairly standard fantasy story. Gave it its own nice flare! I wouldn’t have minded if it was just Zélie and Inan – but Amari was a bit confusing to add in, I kept muddling her with Zél!
LikeLike