This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
Zelie Adebola is haunted by the memory of the day Orisha’s magic was taken. She’ll never forget how Orisha’s king and his soldiers dragged her mother away, how they left her body hanging from the tree, how they beat her father close to death, and how for all these years she and her brother grew up among a people devoid of hope.
Ever since that day, Orisha has been divided, and those with the white hair of the magi have been labeled outcasts. As one of them, Zelie knows she will always live in fear. The king calls her and her kind maggots. He will always want them dead. He will never stop persecuting them.
Meanwhile, Amari, princess of Orisha and daughter of the tyrant king, has never been good enough in the eyes of her father. No matter how hard she tries, she knows he will always see her as soft and weak. When her best friend is murdered by her father, Amari makes a reckless decision and escapes the palace with an ancient artifact that may just be able to bring magic back to Orisha.
When Zelie’s and Amari’s paths collide and Zelie’s magic begins to make an appearance, they discover that they have one slim chance to bring back magic for good. They’ll have to work together, though — easier said than done — and time is running out. Amari’s brother, Inan, is close behind them, and Amari knows he would do just about anything to prove himself to their father, even if it means hunting her across Orisha and finding a way to eradicate magic once and for all.
Yet in the end, the greatest danger for Zelie and Amari may not be the journey, but Zelie’s growing feelings for an enemy as intent on killing magic as his father was on killing her mother.
Children of Blood and Bone is a wild ride across a vast world that felt different and new but also vague. I would have loved a clearer picture of the world and setting the characters live in. As it turns out, the cruelty of their world is the most vividly painted part of the story, with a lot of violence centering around themes of prejudice and mistreatment.
Despite this — or perhaps because of it — the characters are headstrong and stubborn and make a lot of bad decisions, but through it all, all believe they are doing what is best for their country (including the featured heroines, protective older brothers, anti-heroes, and villains).
In my opinion, this book does not live up to its hype, but in the end, it remains a good, thought-provoking (if not bloody) story in a new, unexplored world.
Rated: Moderate, for violence, blood, and countless deaths. A character is tortured. A boy is beaten to death. A village is burned and its people massacred. A character’s own magic burns him to death. An arena features staged battles and numerous deaths. There is talk of the king’s guards mistreating and raping girls. In a dreamscape, a character takes off her clothes and goes swinging while another character watches. There are several passionate kisses (in one such scene, it is unclear if the kissing leads to more). There are also at least 24 instances of mild language and two instances of moderate language.
Click here to purchase your copy of Children of Blood and Bone on Amazon.
Pingback: Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orisha, book 2) | Rated Reads