Review of Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha, book 1)

Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, book 1)

Author: Tomi Adeyemi

Publisher: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: March 2018

    Eleven years ago, magic vanished from Orïsha. In what would be named as the Raid, the monarchy killed all divîners old enough to be maji, leaving shattered children and families and a caste-divided kingdom. Zélie lost her mother during the Raid. She scrapes by with her father and brother Tzain in Ilorin, a small town literally on the sea. When divîner taxes are raised yet again, she heads inland to make a sale that should provide for her family for the next year. Instead, she is found by none other than Amari, Orïsha’s princess. Amari has fled from her brother Inan, her mother, and King Saran, and has stolen the only thing that can bring magic back. The princess should be a natural enemy of the divîner and her brother, but they are forced together - because it turns out they only have one moon to bring magic back, and Inan is leading the chase for the three fugitives. In the midst of the chase, romances bloom among the four, further complicating an already improbable alliance.

    Children of Blood and Bone is fast-paced and beautifully written. Alternation between the perspectives of Zélie, Amari, and eventually Inan conveys the emotional intensities and complexities that define and bind the characters. Through the disparate perspectives the kingdom itself is also revealed to us, as we become privy to the very different ways that each character sees their homeland. Adeyemi hooks readers from the first sentence and doesn’t release them even once the story closes. The cliffhanger ending makes a sequel both certain and compelling, but does not cheat the reader by leaving the story feeling incomplete. Children of Blood and Bone isn’t a story for readers who want a quick and easy read where details of character and place are secondary to the plot. It is a story for readers who want to feel Orïsha’s soil underfoot, see gods reawakened, and share the desperate determination of an oppressed people. I highly recommend this book for YA fantasy readers who want to inhabit their stories and evolve with their characters.

- D. K. Nuray