Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

May 04, 2018 Lia added it

Shelves: available-cnl, booktube, borrowbox, female-authors, debut

First half was compelling and interesting with all the world building and character development. However the second half fizzled out for me.
The African mythology/fantasy was exciting and interesting and without this point of difference I think I would have DNF.
Not bad. Just not inspiring for me. There is better YA fantasy out there in my opinion.

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Oct 29, 2018 Jana rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2018, fiction, kindle, fya

I don't get the hype for this one but I am not really the target audience since fantasy is almost always not my jam. The world-building was good but not mind-blowing, the characters were caricatures (brooding teens! overprotective brother!), and it was at least 150 pages too long. I told some book club friends that it reminded me of the first Lord of the Rings book where they just walk and walk to the potential of some action and zzzzz that is why I never finished that series. I rounded up to tw ...more

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Apr 08, 2018 Loretta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi-and-fantasy

Non-stop action, fascinating if occasionally hand-wavingly vague worldbuilding (the internal rules of the magic is just...fuzzy to me), and vividly drawn characters. The audiobook narration is very good, although it was sometimes hard to distinguish internal thoughts from out loud speech. I'll probably read the next book in the series when it drops.

I did find the violent and repeated awfully traumatic events the characters, especially the main character Zelie, are subjected to a bit wearing by ...more

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Mar 23, 2020 Julianne Dunn rated it it was amazing

I can easily agree with the hordes of people who have recommended this book. The world building here is fantastic and Adeyemi does a great job creating characters that are flawed yet easy to cheer for. The royal siblings are conflicted, balancing the reality of what they are facing and their family history and stories. The village siblings are dynamic and motivated by family and rebellion. The narration bounces between Zelie, Amari, and Inan - only missing Tzain's voice. I'm not sure how I feel ...more

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Sep 23, 2018 Cathy rated it really liked it

I really liked the beginning of this book. There was lots of good world-building, and an intricate black fantasy world at that. It’s a YA novel, but fairly sophisticated until the end. Then an unlikely romance blossoms, a utopia is found, and this reader got bored. Thank goodness it got dramatic again, or I would have been disappointed. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to a teenager. There is a lot of death and oppression, which mimics our collective reality, so it takes a mature reader. I ...more

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Oct 22, 2018 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

I read this at the recommendation of a friend, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Once I got going, it just disappeared, hundreds of pages at a time. The story of this book ends really well, but it also left me excited for the sequel. ...more

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