Children of Blood and Bones || Book Review

I’ve had this book in my e-library for months now. And it’s weird that my motivation to reading this book was when someone I consider a book rival said she’d completed the book and was enraptured. And since I more or less trust her judgement when it comes to books, I didn’t hesitate any longer and simply jumped into the book. I wanted to feel what she felt and then some. The title already told me I would have the best time, and so I pushed my glasses firmly to the bridge of my nose and began to read.

Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi

Published on the 6th March, 2018, Children of Blood and Bones is the first book in the Younger Adult trilogy, Legacy of Orïsha. It is the author’s debut novel and has its setting in mythical Yoruba lands of Nigeria. It is 525 pages long.

Summary of the Novel

Zelie Adebola witnessed the death of her mother by the hand of the King who was poised to eliminate the majis (those who wield magic in Orïsha, distinguished by their white hair). Years later and magic has been exterminated from the land, and through a fated meet while going to sell her fish, Zelie meets Amari and from then on, it’s chaos. Zelie goes on a quest with Tzain, her brother and Amari, the princess of Orïsha, on a quest to restore magic to the majis and destroy the tyrannical end of the King.

But then, she’s become connected with the most unlikely person- Inan- prince and heir to the throne of Orïsha, who is out to carry out his father's will of killing the majis. And in this fated connection, where there is a battle of love, trust, magic and the threat of betrayal, Zelie must bring back magic before the solstice and evade the King who’s set to kill her. How far can she go?

My Review and Rating

On the Sunday morning when I hit the middle of this book, I posted, “You know a book is different, when you pause reading it in between and begin to write as your heart bleeds or rejoices.” I paused reading this book and opened my journal and began to write. It was a most beautiful moment for me because I don’t remember the last time I did that while reading a book. It was the fact that my fingers quavered and I felt slight tremors up and down my spine as I wrote. It was how intense this book was. Not saying I haven’t read books that didn’t affect me even more, it just felt different with this one.

CBB was a book only described as divine. After reading the book, I went to read the background to the novel, and the author said a lot about negritude and how she wrote it when the Black Lives Matter movement was at its peak and blacks were treated in the worst way possible. So, I got the premise of the book.

I also enjoyed the fact that even though she’s a Nigerian-American author, she stuck to true Nigerian identity and mostly Yoruba language, employing it in words and mannerisms. In the dialogue though, I figured that this person must either not be fully living here or maybe has been too immersed in American literature. You could just see the American kind of speech littered around. It wasn’t too much and also not distasteful, just noticeable, in my opinion.

I think what I found distasteful was the number of poor decisions littered in this book. From Zelie’s unwise choices, to the lack of urgency at crucial moments. I wouldn’t want to give out spoilers but seriously though, throwing a party when the enemy is practically at your heels is beyond me. It reminded me of the American horror movies I watch when the family hear that the house is haunted and dismiss it to move in, and when mysterious things happen, no one things to leave, but decides to live it through. Unrelated, I know. But that’s just how I felt. No true African would waste time to dally when your life quote practically hangs on a balance.

Also, as much as I love Amari, having her own POV was quite uncalled for, in my opinion. When you have more than one person’s POV in a book, the idea is that those people are important to the climax of the story. That their presence there is vital for some mega happening somewhere later. The fact that this didn’t happen till the very end was quite disappointing. Her POV was repetitive and didn’t help us gain any great insight to the plot of the story.

Then there’s Inan. Hmmmm, it is well. Not my most loved male lead. But he was okay, I guess. Everyone was just okay. If there’s anyone I loved the most, it wouldn’t even be the main characters like Zelie, but the somewhat minor ones like Tzain, and Röen, who appears later on in the story. This book gripped me like a relentless vine, but I couldn’t help but notice those little things I call annoyances.

However, I’d recommended Children of Blood and Bones all day, every day. It’s a book anyone and everyone can read. I don’t know how the other two parts will go. But I hope it’s even more satisfying. All together 4.4/5 stars for me. Big ups to Tomi. Hope subsequent books have all that is needed to make the perfectly imperfect novel.