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bibliothecary_tyler 's review for:
Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It give it 4 stars, but it feels like a must-read to me. While the book is fairly predictable, while it falls into many of the same eye-rolly YA tropes that so many books do nowadays, while I don’t feel hard-pressed to jump into the sequel, the book still feels fresh to me. I have to imagine it’s because it’s a contemporary fantasy story that does not borrow its setting and culture from European inspiration. While I love Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, Mistborn, and the Kingkiller Chronicles with all my heart, it’s nice to read something new and refreshing! Similar to The Poppy War series, this is a great alternative to traditional European-inspired fantasy.
The magic was the coolest part of this book, and it succeeded where a book like Shadow and Bone failed. The magic here, especially that of the protagonist Zelie, felt interesting and original. I find some faults with character dynamics and relationships that felt incredibly forced and, while the setting was very engaging, due to the nature of the book being a quest novel, I felt like we didn’t spend enough time in each location for me to properly appreciate them. I felt that, when the characters moved to a new place, I wanted to stay back. I contrast this with a book like Eye of the World in the Wheel of Time series, where the settings in this quest novel are familiar enough if you’ve read Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out when the characters moved on.
I loved that the book was split among three competing POVs - I felt like it enhanced the story, with the exception of Amari’s fixation on her friend Binta, who dies in the opening pages of the book (not really a spoiler, as it’s not too important). It’s not a true example of fridging, but the death of a character who we really didn’t know comes up over and over again to the point where I got a bit annoyed.
There’s definitely some eye-rolly tropes in here, but I feel like it’s worth the read anyways, with the ability to skip out before you read the sequels, which I didn’t feel was too necessary.
The magic was the coolest part of this book, and it succeeded where a book like Shadow and Bone failed. The magic here, especially that of the protagonist Zelie, felt interesting and original. I find some faults with character dynamics and relationships that felt incredibly forced and, while the setting was very engaging, due to the nature of the book being a quest novel, I felt like we didn’t spend enough time in each location for me to properly appreciate them. I felt that, when the characters moved to a new place, I wanted to stay back. I contrast this with a book like Eye of the World in the Wheel of Time series, where the settings in this quest novel are familiar enough if you’ve read Lord of the Rings, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out when the characters moved on.
I loved that the book was split among three competing POVs - I felt like it enhanced the story, with the exception of Amari’s fixation on her friend Binta, who dies in the opening pages of the book (not really a spoiler, as it’s not too important). It’s not a true example of fridging, but the death of a character who we really didn’t know comes up over and over again to the point where I got a bit annoyed.
There’s definitely some eye-rolly tropes in here, but I feel like it’s worth the read anyways, with the ability to skip out before you read the sequels, which I didn’t feel was too necessary.