Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi:
Review by: Dani Long
A despotic king that holds an entire people practically in bondage. Injustice and prejudice. Two teenage girls from opposite backgrounds that embark on a quest together to restore their people.
This sounds like so many other books that I have read before. BUT. Children of Blood and Bone is proof that no story is too tired to be re-told if it is done with a unique voice, talented writing, and engaging characters.
I actually was not planning on reading this because, despite all the rave reviews that I saw surrounding its release, the synopsis just sounded like so many other stories that I was not very interested. Then a few weeks ago I took my son to Story Time at the library and I happened to sit down right next to where this book was being displayed. So during Story Time, I read the first couple pages. Then I took it home with me.
Honestly, from the first few pages, I had a really good feeling that I was going to enjoy this. While Zelie reminds me of so many other MCs, her voice was just unique enough that I wanted to know more.
And the more I read, the more I really liked this book! Well, almost.
If there is one thing that I was not crazy about, it was the whole “two female characters meet and instantly hate/mistrust each other.” I know that for this particular story, that initial relationship was actually very natural and anything else would have been forced. It is just a pet peeve of mine to have female characters being catty to each other (in this case it was kind of one-sided as Zelie was definitely more of an antagonizer than Amari). I know it made sense for their backgrounds but I just…don’t like that particular trope in general.
Other than that though, I loved everything about this book. The world was interesting, the magic system was fun, I got incredibly into these characters and their various connections to each other. I cheered and raged with them as I read. Can’t wait for book two!