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Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1)

Tomi Adeyemi

Start date: June 1, 2018

Finish date: June 30, 2018

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Nov 29, 2018 Dustin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, mythology-folflore, favorites, ya, we-need-diverse-books, buddy-read, african-american, racism, dark

UPDATE: November 29, 2020--

As November Readathon comes to a conclusion, I can thank of no finer way to end it than with Tomi Adeyemi's extremely impressive and beautiful debut novel, Children Of Blood & Bone. I read it originally when it came out two years ago, but that did not, in any way, take away from the experience and overall joy of the novel. On the contrary, it added to it. In many ways, it felt almost like reading it for the first time. It's a rare story, indeed (in my experience,) ...more

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Sep 20, 2019 L.S. Popovich rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, 3-star, ya

“Children of Blood and Bone” is an interesting study of themes that is dragged down by odd storytelling decisions and a bloated length.

It's at it’s best when it is using it’s themes. The idea of slavery and oppression go hand-in-hand with this world's characters, creating a deep perspective on the matter. The narrative is riveting when it is subtly exploring the lasting trauma and repercussions of its themes. I really appreciated how Tomi Adeyemi even touches on what would happen if the oppresse “Children of Blood and Bone” is an interesting study of themes that is dragged down by odd storytelling decisions and a bloated length.

It's at it’s best when it is using it’s themes. The idea of slavery and oppression go hand-in-hand with this world's characters, creating a deep perspective on the matter. The narrative is riveting when it is subtly exploring the lasting trauma and repercussions of its themes. I really appreciated how Tomi Adeyemi even touches on what would happen if the oppressed gained power and the darkness could follow. The navigation of themes is holistic and feels like a natural extension of the world.

What really sells the themes is how hate, fear, and oppression effect every character and their psyche. All the main characters have had different experiences and reactions to the harsh world they live in and it helps the reader see how deeply oppression can affect culture. From Zélie’s rage to Inan’s blindly following his father, their positions seem organic and help the reader come to their own conclusions about the relation of the themes to history and the modern day. Even the king, who is the cause of much bigotry and violence, has been touched by the fear oppression causes. His hate stems from his family being killed by those he now oppresses when they were in power. This shows in a detailed manner how the cycle of fear and hate that racism creates is propagated. However, beyond their use to embody themes, the characters fall a little flat. The author makes use of good motivation and backstory, but they often feel one-note. Zélie’s, who is a wonderful mix of blind anger caused by years of pain and the YA hero, feels underutilized. I think this results from how the author chose to tell the story more than from the characters.

What really lessens the impact of this book is its length and the storytelling. While the writing is solid almost nothing happens for long stretches. The book contains a lot of talking and shifting points of view within a scene. When the plot arrives, the book is engaging and thoughtful but most of the issues could have been solved by cutting out one of the points of view. While the perspective helps the theme, it kills the pacing. The depth provided by 3 perspectives could have been done with 2. As it stands, it is confusing and only makes these sections, most of which happen during a fight or an important moment, curdle.

The general set-up is good, though somewhat typical of young adult novels. There is a lot that could be done with African myths to inform the fantasy genre. But the world building is also stifled here, at least in this first book. The magic system is bare bones. Beyond “people can have different types of magic” there is nothing else to it. The story follows suite. If you’ve read YA adventure before you may predict what happens. Though this story is darker than most with its brutal depictions of slavery and deaths. This is probably not for younger readers. The brutality and themes is about the only divergence from the normal “save the world plot.” And I wish more time had been devoted to exploring the world and culture.

“Children of Blood and Bone” is a mixed bag. It is far too long in my opinion, but the good parts are very good even if it is not as good at other times. The exploration of theme and the consequences of that theme are much closer to literary fiction. It does a great job showing vs telling you how to feel about the terrible racism within the country of Orïsha. The world building might have been taken further. If you’re interested in revisiting these themes, it is a fairly interesting look at how racism destroys both the oppressor and the oppressed. ...more

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Oct 21, 2018 Kate rated it liked it

3.5/5

This book is written from the perspective of three different characters - Zelie, Amari, and Inan. Amari and Inan are siblings and are the children of the kingdom’s king (Saran) and queen. This book tells the story of Zelie’s quest to bring magic back to the kingdom. I found the character and scene development to be a bit weak. It’s not a book like Harry Potter where I could completely imagine the environment.

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May 03, 2018 Ryan Hixson rated it really liked it

Children of Blood and Bone is a good start of a series it gets more points for me being a debut author. Though a better Title could be Children of Blood and Boners because hormones have them making bad decisions. There's a lot of hype for this book but it for the most part lives up to it. I did like that you can see underlying history like the Apartheid and getting marked. This book does have one of the coolest covers.

The Plot is Magic used to exist 11 years ago when the king had everyone who p Children of Blood and Bone is a good start of a series it gets more points for me being a debut author. Though a better Title could be Children of Blood and Boners because hormones have them making bad decisions. There's a lot of hype for this book but it for the most part lives up to it. I did like that you can see underlying history like the Apartheid and getting marked. This book does have one of the coolest covers.

The Plot is Magic used to exist 11 years ago when the king had everyone who possessed magic was killed and the source of magic just stopped. There are people that called diviners that have the ability to do magic, that are defined by having a white streak of hair, like Rouge in the X-men, and these people are called "maggots" and treated horribly and not trusted. Zelie is a diviner who is secretly learning to fight her mother was one who had magic and was executed in front of her when she was young. Her brother Tsizan who is not a diviner trains for a fighting tournament to make money for the family. Their father Baba a fisherman that starting to get dementia, and can't be relied to make money. The government has raised it's taxes on families that have diviners in them, so high that Zelie and her family can no longer afford. Zelie and her brother go to the palace to sell fish to get money enough to pay the taxes. At the Place the princess Amelia goes looking for her servant, a diviner, and finds her with her father, the king, and a scroll when the servant gets near the scroll she gets magical powers the servant is killed and the scroll is attempted to be destroyed but reforms. The Princess horrified by the death of her servant and best friend takes the scroll and runs away, and she runs into Zelie who instantly gets powers, Zelie who swindles a fish thinks that the guards are chasing her and ends up escaping with her brother and the princess, but not before the the Inan prince who is the head of the guards is ran into and he gets powers, but still loyal to his father. The scroll gets revealed to be the key to getting magic back permanently all across the land.

What I liked about this book: he magic system is pretty cool. The way the story relates to history. The action is written really well with great stakes. The two Characters of Zelie and Inan are written really well I really liked Inan getting the magic and being at war with himself and his family, Zelie has a great history of why she can't trust any nobles. I also liked how the author has arguments for their being magic but also has arguments for why the king did what he did.

What I didn't Like: Amelia should have been gay, with her not it mimics Zelies story too closely. The kidnappings there's like four times that characters get taken and have to get rescued back, it was too much and it kept happening right in a row. hormones don't mean you throw all caution to the wind the characters have a history of hating each other and then throw it away for hormones too fast. I didn't like the three first person narratives, I could have done with out Amelia's perspective.

I give this book 3.5 stars I think there's a lot to expand on and hopefully the author further distances the story of Zelie and Amelia. I want to see more Inan and his struggle about the what he did and didn't do at the end of the book. I would recommend this book for people that like young adult and magic. ...more

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Jul 02, 2018 Rachel rated it really liked it

This had a very gripping ending. The world Adeyemi built was vibrant and magical, but I was sickened by the romance and was able to ignore this book for two weeks. The last 50 pages though!! 👍👍

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