Children of Blood and Bone / Tomi Adeyemi

Title / Children of Blood and Bone

Author / Tomi Adeyemi

Publication Date / 2018

Genre / YA fantasy

Series or standalone / book 1 – Legacy of Orïsha trilogy

Page no. / 531

Overall Rating / ★★

Goodreads synopsis: 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.

 

So I’d been debating about whether to pick this book up for a while. There’s been quite a lot of hype surrounding this book but after hearing a lot of good things about it I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately this one didn’t work for me. Firstly, I think it’s fantastic this is an African-inspired fantasy, because that’s not something that I’ve seen a lot of in the fantasy genre. I enjoyed the setting and mythology of this book, although at times it felt quite shallow. Although I love that it introduces the reader to Nigerian mythology and culture, I can’t help but feel that it was pared down for the masses. I’m not criticising this, however I would loved to have more depth to this world. There is minimal world building in this book but it had so much potential. To me world building is an important part of a fantasy book and unfortunately it’s lacking in this book. There are so many details missing that could have given the reader a better understanding of the world and characters. Speaking of the characters, I was not a fan of the protagonist, Zélie. She consistently makes bad decisions and likes to lament the fact that no one understands her. Cue eye rolling. Amari and Tzain had potential but were underdeveloped in my opinion, and all I’m going to say about Inan is that he bugged me all the way through the book. Generally the characters and their relationships lacked depth.

 

OK, onto the main issue I had with this book – the romance. From the moment the love interest is introduced, you just knew how it was going to play out and it bugged me all the way through. To me the romance felt very forced and manufactured. There wasn’t any connection between them and I just couldn’t get behind it. They literally hate each-others guts and then within like 5 minutes of meeting they love each other. I’m sorry but no. This was a huge instance of insta-love. I don’t mind the whole enemy to lovers idea when it’s done right but this romance had no time to develop naturally. At one point Zélie is tortured and the first thing she does after being rescued is have dream sex with the love interest. Seriously? Get your priorities straight. Basically I really disliked the romance and it detracted from the story. The other main issue I had was the writing. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the short sentences and I found the writing to be so repetitive. Not only did this mean that I struggled to get into the flow of the writing, but it also meant that it dragged for me. I read a lot of long books so 531 pages shouldn’t be an issue but due to the writing this book felt longer to me. I thought about DNFing it multiple times. The pacing is uneven throughout, which also means the book drags a bit. Some parts are so slow and then it suddenly switches to about ten different things happening at once, which can be quite confusing. The plot had potential but I found it to be predictable and I wasn’t the biggest fan of how it progressed.

 

Overall I wasn’t a fan of this book. To me it felt like quite a generic YA fantasy book, although I think it is great that this is an African inspired fantasy book. Now I am definitely in the minority here. There are a ton of good reviews on Goodreads and I think if you are a big YA fantasy reader then you will enjoy this, but it didn’t work for me. Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.

 

Pippa