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lizshayne 's review for:
Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
Okay, so I have to explain this review.
I LOVE what Adeyemi is doing with her world building and her use of fantasy to critique and talk about contemporary society. The whole "sf is progressive and looks forward, fantasy is conservative and looks back" has always been kinda b.s. and no more so than these days. Adeyemi's approach works extremely well and she, like Jemisin who is the queen of exquisite critique through glorious writing, knows the difference between writing allegory and writing a story that speaks to the times we live in.
Having said all of that, I could have done with 200% less boys in this book.
This is a genre problem. YA, as a genre, has certain constraints and styles of writing. YA, especially in first person, usually writes emotions baldly on the page, having characters clearly articulate how they feel in specific circumstances, and that style doesn't always work for me.* Sometimes I like it, sometimes it feels like a flattening of minds, and that's usually a side effect of having read too much in one genre, which is why I should switch it up more often, but this book came in from the library and what was I going to do, NOT read it immediately? There is a point where this becomes whining about mystery novels because there was a case to solve and that's not the book's fault.
More to the point, boys.I SO did not need either romance in this book. I am entirely beyond done with the boy who attempts to kill the girl and then becomes a love interest and I say this as someone who will read the hell out of anything remotely related to beauty and the beast. But I am so tired of this trope.I understand why Inan needed to be sympathetic and why we need to be in his head, but UGH, really? Really? Also, I am entirely on Zélie's side for attacking Tzain after he called her a whore. Seriously, he deserved that and should have apologized. Boys are stupid and I just want more of Zélie and Amari taking over the world. That works for me.
Anyway, I'm very glad I read it.
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*I think there is a pedagogic element to this; part of what YA is so good at is creating relatable and navigable characters for young adults and the characters in the book function as lodestones for how to process feelings. Any book that does this intentionally or didactically is probably crap, but I think it has become a part of the writing YA in the first person to adopt this voice.
I LOVE what Adeyemi is doing with her world building and her use of fantasy to critique and talk about contemporary society. The whole "sf is progressive and looks forward, fantasy is conservative and looks back" has always been kinda b.s. and no more so than these days. Adeyemi's approach works extremely well and she, like Jemisin who is the queen of exquisite critique through glorious writing, knows the difference between writing allegory and writing a story that speaks to the times we live in.
Having said all of that, I could have done with 200% less boys in this book.
This is a genre problem. YA, as a genre, has certain constraints and styles of writing. YA, especially in first person, usually writes emotions baldly on the page, having characters clearly articulate how they feel in specific circumstances, and that style doesn't always work for me.* Sometimes I like it, sometimes it feels like a flattening of minds, and that's usually a side effect of having read too much in one genre, which is why I should switch it up more often, but this book came in from the library and what was I going to do, NOT read it immediately? There is a point where this becomes whining about mystery novels because there was a case to solve and that's not the book's fault.
More to the point, boys.
Anyway, I'm very glad I read it.
---
*I think there is a pedagogic element to this; part of what YA is so good at is creating relatable and navigable characters for young adults and the characters in the book function as lodestones for how to process feelings. Any book that does this intentionally or didactically is probably crap, but I think it has become a part of the writing YA in the first person to adopt this voice.