I was optimistic about this book. I consume a lot of mediocre YA literature and film, but I thought this much-promoted Nigerian-set fantasy with a social conscience and a basis in BLM could really elevate the genre. It sounded so promising.

But sadly it just wasn’t very good.

Post reading this and rating it 2 stars I found out that it was the subject of a bidding war before it was even written, and film rights have already been sold. This goes some way to explain why the story seems so rushed and in need of rewriting and editing, and why it’s structured as a series of potentially cinematic action set-pieces with very little character development holding it together. In the rush to be ready for publication, Adayemi has had to rely on virtually every YA trope in existence, resulting in this book being indistinguishable from the rest. Cliches and short-cuts include:

Extra-special protagonist who’s destined to be “the one”

Two factions who are historically deadly enemies for some reason

Vaguely defined “magic” that works as a Deus ex Machina when required

Whole teen cast neatly sorted into heterosexual love partnerships within pages of meeting

“Hatred at first sight later turns to love” cliche

Fantasy world-building amounting to geographic vagueness, random giant animals that’ll look cool in the film and all characters using the exclamation “Skies!” 6 times a page to remind you that this is a different reality. One word of new vocab isn’t enough.

All characters having a tragic backstory involving a dead relative/close friend, in order to make them sympathetic and give them motivation.


The book is also incredibly slow. This is not helped by the frequency with which all three narrators describe the exact same events with only minor variations.

Overall, this book was a disappointment. It promised to be something different, but as it turned out it took so much from so many other stories that it barely stood on its own.