Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Blood Scion

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

50 reviews

_p0ssum_'s review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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zee's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

3.5

Blood Scion is a dark fantasy story steeped in Nigerian-Yoruba mythology. It follows Sloane, a 15-year-old Scion, who is drafted into the Lucis army to continue the centuries-old genocide against the Yoruba people, specifically targetting Scions for their magical abilities. There is seriously a lot to unpack in this novel, and it is extremely violent (though, expected for a story of genocide backed by child soldiers, I guess).

Although the story teems with lore, I found it hard to engage in. The recruit training is only 30 days, which seems impossibly short for the amount of action and events, while it also managed to drag on painfully at times. The pacing was highly inconsistent, and the end is similarly (and unsatisfyingly) abrupt.

It sounds like there is already a film deal on the table, and I think this story would translate really well, while adding a rich diversity to the usual types of Western stories told. It was a very impressive debut novel, but just not one for me.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really wanted to love this but maybe it's just the mood I am in?.. I found it dragged a lot.

Raised as a child with Orisha blood, Sloane has been suppressed all her life. She has the power to make flames with her body and when it first got loose she caused a village fire that killed people, and that was very hard on her as she was only 4. She has been raised personally oppressed, and also culturally has been on a cusp, with her mother both attempting to hide who she is to avoid the colonists' genocide of their people, and also to raise her with pride and self-worth. This should have had me hooked as it is a very real and relatable struggle.

With my personal Neurodiversity perspective, I couldn't help but feel that the medicine that Sloane takes to suppress her àṣẹ (ashe) feels a bit like an analogy for Ritalin/Adderall, especially the way that she describes how it makes the background noise in her head go away. One of my dear friends has described her first experiences of having A.D.D. medicated in almost the exact same terms. My personal opinion on this (at this stage in my understandings of neurological difference) is that people who have difficulty regulating their own power, or mind, in ways that interfere with their ability to function can gain much from having the access to <b>many different tools</B> for externally regulating the problematic influences of their difference. Sloane learns to let her powers loose in ways that she wants to use them rather than just continually trying to repress her urges, along with other methods of tamping herself down with medication and ritual.

I was a little frustrated by the way that the main characters seemed to miss what was going on a lot of the time - there was a lot of misdirection caused by the main players jumping to conclusions. As a reader I could see where the plot was angling, which probably added to my frustration because it took AAAges for the characters to cotton on. The way that love was dealt with was a little stifled by the brutal indignities of the military regimen. Tropes abound, as the children drafted into war are trained in HungerGames-esque Kill or Be Killed style. How many times do you need to traumatise a person to get them to comply with brainwashing? And does it even work? I remain unconvinced.

As a self-confessed sucker for prophesy, I did enjoy the seer glimpses into the future provided by the Orisha early in the story. Only one part of the prophecy was really clear, but a couple of clues that were in it left me unshocked by revelations at the end of the book. There were some fun twists that I didn't really see coming, but I think due to the obvious mortality of the characters introduced and killed off earlier in the story, I had perhaps not invested enough in any of them to feel like it was really resonant? Perhaps that was the main problem for me. When the going is really hard, I just switch off and refuse to empathise with the characters, because they might be dead in a minute.

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samjdoe's review

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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kaylamoran's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow.

This book was nothing like I expected, and I loved every moment. It reminded me a bit of the Poppy War at times, which is one of my favourite fantasy series.

The pacing was perfect. Sloane was so well developed, so human despite everything she goes though and every awful thing she has to do. Her moments of selfishness were so human, and its nice to read a protagonist for whom self preservation is more important than morality. The story was so well crafted, and the twist at the end caught me totally off guard. Overall, I thought this book was brilliant.

The only reason this isn't 5 stars is because a few words felt overused in descriptions. "Bleeding" (as in to replace a swear word, like the f word) and bastard come to mind.

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