Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Star rating: 4.5/5

This thrilling fantasy based on West African mythology is a tale about magic, self discovery, and fighting back against oppressive forces. 

Summary:

Magic has been gone for years. The brutal King Saran made sure of that. Feeling threatened by magic, he ordered the slaughter of all maji. The children of maji are called diviners, and though they possess no magical ability, they are extremely oppressed and discriminated against, being easily recognize by their white hair. 

Zelie is a diviner. Her mother, a maji, was murdered in front of her. She despises the monarchy for destroying her family, for their cruelty and hatred. But one day, fate brings Zelie and the princess Amari together. Amari has just watched her father the King murder her best friend, a diviner. She discovers a secret that could bring magic back to the kingdom. Joining forces with Zelie and her brother, they embark on a journey to save magic and to fight back against oppression. 

Review:

This is a tough review for me to write. I have a lot of conflicting feelings! I'll start with the positives, of which there are many: this book starts out super fast-paced and hooked me quickly. I instantly liked all of four of the main characters, despite their many flaws. The writing is beautiful and paints a fantastic picture of the world this story is set in. From the beginning, the discrimination, oppression, and cruelty Zelie experiences as a diviner is emphasized. Reading the author's note, Adeyemi wrote that the inspiration for this novel came to her from the ongoing police brutality and racial profiling that persists in this country, and that comes through so clearly in the story. She did an amazing job of creating a fantasy world that still has very real-world problems. 

This is a long book, over 400 pages. About 100 pages in, it started to lose steam for me. I tend to not love quest/travel-based stories (could not stand LOTR) so that being the main plotline of this book was tough for me. The middle 200 pages were a real struggle. Towards the end it does start to get exciting again but by that point I was really just wanting to be done with it. I also felt like I was getting whiplash from Amari's brother's constant flip-flopping of whose side he was on (I get him feeling conflicted between family vs. morals, but I would have liked a lot more insight into his thought processes). 

Overall, I am still rating this book highly because I can recognize that it was truly fantastically written, despite aspects of it just not being the right fit for me, and a hard-hitting critique of racism and oppression through a fantasy lens. This is a can't-miss series for fantasy fans, and I look forward to reading the sequel!