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A review by river24
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
3.75/5
I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.
I really loved the world of this book, Orïsha, and the incorporation of the Yoruba deities. It was fascinating and so magical. The first part of this book was the strongest in my opinion, I loved being introduced to the world and to the politics of the land. We learnt so much about the maji, the eradication of their magic and the slaughter of their people. We learnt of the secret ways they were forced to live, the cruelty of the guards and the monarchy. It set itself up very nicely to explore a rich and intriguing world.
I also really enjoyed two of our main protagonists, Zélie and Amari. They were both such fierce characters, but in such different ways. I loved their dynamic and how it continuously developed and changed throughout the story. I thought they were definitely the most well-written characters, Amari's growth really stood out to me in particular.
There's another main protagonist that I vehemently disliked, but you're not exactly supposed to like them. (I don't care if you're the most evil villain in the world, it is a crime to be as annoying as this character!)
I do think that the pacing moves entirely too quickly, however I can see this factor being something that other people love. I just prefer much more slower-paced stories and this certainly isn't that. We very quickly move from one thing to the next and I was always wishing for a moment for the story to catch its breath and to develop more of the emotional context surrounding a lot of the situations. I know it's a YA book, however I do think that the characters acted incredibly young and it often irritated me when they made some incredibly inconvenient (some might even say stupid) decisions.
My biggest criticism, however, is probably about the romantic relationship that gets introduced as the narrative progresses (I obviously won't say between who to avoid spoilers). It just made no sense to me as these characters despised each other and had very good reasons to. I thought that this sudden attraction happened far too abruptly and just made very little logical sense. It was a poor man's enemies-to-lovers cranked up to full speed. I suppose this is just a magnified iteration of the problem I have with the pacing of this book. I think a vast amount of my issues with the book could have been solved, or at least mended a little, if the story had approached some of its plot points in a slower and more intentional way.
I don't mean to sound incredibly negative though, I still had a lot of fun with this story. I really do love the world and I'm so glad that stories like this exist. We always need more West African-inspired fantasy!
I teach you to be warriors in the garden so you will never be gardeners in the war.
I really loved the world of this book, Orïsha, and the incorporation of the Yoruba deities. It was fascinating and so magical. The first part of this book was the strongest in my opinion, I loved being introduced to the world and to the politics of the land. We learnt so much about the maji, the eradication of their magic and the slaughter of their people. We learnt of the secret ways they were forced to live, the cruelty of the guards and the monarchy. It set itself up very nicely to explore a rich and intriguing world.
I also really enjoyed two of our main protagonists, Zélie and Amari. They were both such fierce characters, but in such different ways. I loved their dynamic and how it continuously developed and changed throughout the story. I thought they were definitely the most well-written characters, Amari's growth really stood out to me in particular.
There's another main protagonist that I vehemently disliked, but you're not exactly supposed to like them. (I don't care if you're the most evil villain in the world, it is a crime to be as annoying as this character!)
I do think that the pacing moves entirely too quickly, however I can see this factor being something that other people love. I just prefer much more slower-paced stories and this certainly isn't that. We very quickly move from one thing to the next and I was always wishing for a moment for the story to catch its breath and to develop more of the emotional context surrounding a lot of the situations. I know it's a YA book, however I do think that the characters acted incredibly young and it often irritated me when they made some incredibly inconvenient (some might even say stupid) decisions.
My biggest criticism, however, is probably about the romantic relationship that gets introduced as the narrative progresses (I obviously won't say between who to avoid spoilers). It just made no sense to me as these characters despised each other and had very good reasons to. I thought that this sudden attraction happened far too abruptly and just made very little logical sense. It was a poor man's enemies-to-lovers cranked up to full speed. I suppose this is just a magnified iteration of the problem I have with the pacing of this book. I think a vast amount of my issues with the book could have been solved, or at least mended a little, if the story had approached some of its plot points in a slower and more intentional way.
I don't mean to sound incredibly negative though, I still had a lot of fun with this story. I really do love the world and I'm so glad that stories like this exist. We always need more West African-inspired fantasy!