Book Review: ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi

Children of Blood and Bone is the first book in Tomi Adeyemi’s young adult fantasy series Legacy of Orïsha.

The story follows three narrators:

Zélie is a Diviner – a young Maji without magic. Like all Diviners she is characterised by her dark brown skin and white hair. Treated like a second class citizen by society because of her heritage, Zélie is rightfully angry with the world and this anger fuels many of her actions and decisions. Zélie is also the ‘chosen one’ with the majority of the plot revolving around her journey. Selected by the Gods, she walks the line between belief and self-righteousness as her mission is the last hope to bring magic back into the world.

The second narrator, and my favourite character, is Princess Amari. Luckily for her well-being she has no magic but she has been forced to live a strict, sheltered life in the palace. After seeing her best friend murdered by her father, Amari steals a key magical artifact and joins Zélie on her quest. I feel that Amari is the character who goes on the biggest journey – from naïve and inexperienced to a capable warrior determined to end her father’s rule. This growth and character development is what made me root for her the most.

The final narrator is Prince Inan, who is tasked with bringing Amari back to the palace. He is a morally complicated character as initially he shows himself to be just as evil and murderous as his father. When his own dormant magic is awaken he believes killing Zélie will end his curse. This proves difficult when the pair start falling in love. Inan spends the novel flipping between good and evil. I believe he is supposed to be a sympathetic character as it is clear his beliefs stem from his father and many of his decisions are made through fear, however Inan is a character we can never fully trust which makes it hard to see him as a hero.

Although not a narrator, there is a fourth character of note – Zélie’s brother Tzain. Also set up as a potential love interest for Amari, given how prominently he features in the story I was surprised that Adeyemi never chose to make him a POV character. As one of the few characters without a price on his head, I enjoyed the contrast that Tzain brought. Unlike the others he can leave the quest any time he wants. Throughout the story we see Tzain struggle with whether bringing magic back is truly a cause he is prepared to die for. This dilemma made him one of the more interesting characters in the story.

While I mostly enjoy stories with multiple narrators, Adeyemi’s choice to also write each chapter in the first person sometimes made things confusing. For example we often see the same conversation told from both characters perspectives. This caused the ‘I’ in the conversation to shift which could made it hard to keep track of who was currently speaking. Personally I would have preferred if the novel had been written in the third person which would have eliminated this problem.

Children of Blood and Bone is heavily influenced by the cultures and history of West Africa which is shown through the characters, themes and locations in the story.

The central plot point – the persecution of the Diviners – is used by Adeyemi to represent how racism is present in the world today. Although all the characters in the novel are people of colour, the Diviners deeper skin tones and white hair physically set them apart. They are hated by society because they are different. After losing his first family in a Diviner attack, the king has vowed the genocide of all Diviners – hell-bent on erasing the lives and culture of an entire people in retaliation. This ties into the recurring theme of the death of innocence and innocents that is present throughout the book.

The novel is stuffed full of classic YA fantasy elements – from adventures to quests with magical items, to evil kings and fantastical creatures, as well as an enemies to lovers will they/won’t they romance. If you enjoy fantasy, there’ll definitely be something here to enjoy.

One of my favourite elements of the story was the locations. Every place, town, and city are all distinctly different from each other – from the fishing village of Ilorin to the desert city of Ibeji. The unique landscapes made each place easy to visualise as I was reading. It was also great to visit so many of the places highlighted on the map featured at the start of the book.

For me, Children of Blood and Bone is a mixture of positives and negatives. Some of the characters felt more rounded than others which meant my enjoyment shifted depending on who the focus of the chapter was. While I appreciated the strong fantasy content some of the plot points, such as the quest to find the next piece of the puzzle, felt like they lasted one or two story beats too long which caused the pace to slow at times. The book is certainly a solid entry into the genre but, given my mixed feelings and after reading the reviews for the two sequels, I don’t think this is a series that I will be continuing.

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