Children of Blood and Bone: #bookreview

“They don’t hate you, my child. They hate what you were meant to become.” – Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi wrote Children of Blood and Bone, which is 544 pages of perfection. For two nights, I stayed awake to finish reading the book. For two days, I read Children of Blood and Bone wherever and whenever I could.

I can’t count how many times I fell asleep and dropped my kindle. Now it’s time to do the review before my kid starts playing TikTok videos. It is also time to return the book to the library. Oh, the horror of having to return this jewel of a book is too much. However, I will make the sacrifice so someone else can enjoy it.

Review

The book is set in the village of Orisha, which is a fictional place in Western Africa. An orisha is a deity of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. It’s more complicated than being just one deity. It’s even a bit more involved than being a spirit. The orisha connects people, objects and powers. It makes sense that the book begins in this village.

Zelie is a diviner, which means that if magic hadn’t disappeared she would be a maji. Diviners have been without magic for approximately eleven years, when King Sarah ended magic as well as the lives of many maji, including Zelie’s mother.

Diviners are also visibly recognizable by their white hair. The white hair symbolizes purity. Zelie’s mother tells her “In the beginning, white hair was a sign of the powers of heaven and earth. It held beauty and virtue and love, it meant we were blessed by the gods above. But when everything changed, magic became a thing to loathe. Our heritage transformed into a thing to hate.” 

Prince Inan was somewhat interesting. He and Zelie both became maji after touching a magical scroll that restores magical powers. Princess Amari stole the scroll before escaping and begging Zelie and Tzain, Zelie’s brother, to help her.

So Prince Inan becomes a maji. Instead of being proud of it and fighting for the maji, he hides his white hair. He wears helmets and dyes his hair. For a while, he is going to carry one as if nothing has changed. He’ll follow the king’s orders until he is the king. I don’t think he expected to fall in love with Zelie. He wants to change but can he? Can he be a strong maji if he was a wishy-washy person?

Zelie, Princess Amari, Tzain, and sometimes Prince Inan are trying to get to a certain secret location to perform a ritual that will restore magic to every diviner. I say sometimes because Prince Inan is indecisive. It’s extremely aggravating. Zelie definitely doesn’t need the aggravation and possible betrayal. He acts like he’s in junior high and embarrassed to say he likes whoever the heck he likes. I read a quote recently that says, “You can’t put a crown on a clown and expect a king.”

Recommendation

If you love fantasy, magic, and characters that kick ass, then you will love Children of Blood and Bone.

Apparently, there are people in the world that do not like this book. They are not my people. I usually don’t read reviews before reading a book so I didn’t know who liked it or not. Were we reading the same book? So all I can say is that I loved it and I stand by my opinion.

• I read this book as part of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I can now check off #17.

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