They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
Goodreads
Disposition
I actually chose this book for two reasons.
1) It won a 2018 “Best Debut Author” Goodreads award.
2) The hubby and I are trying out Audible books finally, and want longer books so there is a good value for money/expose us to books that we otherwise might not read due to length.
Looking back, these don’t seem the best reasons to select a book, but it will also hold the award for one of my first ever Audible books!
Editorial
Initially I loved the Audible version of this book, the accents and pronunciations of the reader were spot on, where I would have otherwise stumbled over the language. However, I think I may have gotten a lot more out of this book if I had read a print version. It is definitely geared more towards YA, and it never seemed to go deep enough on an emotional level for me. I was expecting a Game of Thrones type story, but with magic, mystery, action, love. That is not what you get. I felt it was very predictable, I lacked any real feelings for most of the characters, even the romance(s) seemed extremely planned out and entirely too coincidental.
Diving into reviews, there seems to be a lot of debate about if this is a “LGBTQ” book (while I am not entirely sure what that even means, a book cannot have sexual preferences; or even why it matters) and I was surprised because I did not get the impression at all. I wish I would have picked up on it more, because it would have made the story far more interesting to me. Again, not sure if this is something I missed by listening to the Audible version, and not picking up on subtleties.
Brit Boy, tried to listen to the Audible as well, but he gave up about 30% of the way in; which I cannot really blame him. The action/magic piece was far outweighed by young romance in a format that has been done a million times before.
The Author’s Note at the end also confused me. Adeyemi discusses part of her motivations for writing this book and the impact she hoped it could have. I did not feel this at all, and would be surprised if this book would “change” anyone’s mind (or heart) on the issues facing the Black population in America. It made me sad that she included this as an excerpt at the end, because while she is a new and popular upcoming YA author; the connection to the BLM movement and this novel is tenuous at best.
Children of Blood and Bone was written during a time where I kept turning on the news and seeing stories of unarmed black men, women, and children being shot by the police. I felt afraid and angry and helpless, but this book was the one thing that made me feel like I could do something about it.I told myself that if just one person could read it and have their hearts or minds changed, then I would’ve done something meaningful against a problem that often feels so much bigger than myself.
Overall, I gave this a three out of five stars on Goodreads; but with a few caveats.
1) I do not think I am the target market for this genre.
2) If I could go back I would have read the print version instead of the Audible.
3) Adeyemi needs to create her focus and stick with it. Is this supposed to inspire change? Is this a romance? Is this fantasy? Is this action? Is this LGBTQ? There is so much going on, and because of that none of it is done excellently. Considering this is the first book of a series, maybe she irons out some of these wrinkles, but unfortunately I don’t have the inspiration to persevere.
Distant Bookends 