Reviews - Children of Anguish and Anarchy

2.28k reviews for:

Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Tomi Adeyemi

3.39 AVERAGE

confusedteach33's review against another edition

2.5

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

It hurts me a bit to rate this book so low, especially given my love for the first two, but this one just doesn’t live up to the others. Everything feels so rushed and the beautiful exploration of character I loved so much in the others gets washed away. Add 200 pages of building up what is happening and this would’ve been a much better book!!!

catpingu's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Leagues better than the second book, but in doing so, makes me question a lot of things about the story as a whole.

Zélie wakes up captured in a prison ship, separated from the other maji captured just as they were about to complete their revolution against the Orïshan monarchy. Soon, King Baldyr descends upon Zélie and the other captured maji, intending to use her and another mysterious girl to complete a ritual to turn himself into a new god and take over the known world with his berserker Skulls. Zélie's only chance of saving herself, her people, and the world, is to track down this mysterious other girl and formulate a plan to stop this mad king.

Honestly, every book of this series was almost like a standalone story based off of four main characters. Speaking of main characters, we finally get a Tzain POV! Why did it take this long? Maybe enough people were also annoyed all the other main characters had POVs but not Tzain. Now back to what's going on this series, I strongly believe there is no consistency in this entire story and that it should be scrapped and redone.

Book 1 introduced us to the characters, and the point of it was to bring back magic to the land. Solid story, solid development, no complaint.

Book 2 gets wonky. Because magic's already been brought back in book 1, clearly we focus on the aftermath and consequences of bringing magic back using a new covenant with a goddess, and that results in meeting the surviving ten clans and continuing to fight against the government who, despite also gaining magic, blame their magical curse on the maji and are still prejudiced against them because Queen Nahenda is crazy, delusional, and the reason why King Saran ended up like he did. I get incredibly annoyed and mad at how Inan is playing at being a king and Amari is trying to find a place to fit in by strong-arming into tradition by touting her key position as a person who helped bring magic back and the Orïshan princess, while Zélie is doing beautifully well for herself.

Book 3 literally disregards every cool thing that happened in book 2.

We are introduced to two foreign nations, one presumably Scandinavian Vikings who want to take over the world, and Polynesian islanders whose "New Gaian" seems based on Portuguese, when their language is supposed to that IRL lost mother language that is the root of almost all languages on earth, and have the isolationist tendencies of El Dorado.

Character development literally goes to hell for everyone except Zélie: Inan, who was a boy-king, is a warrior again and somehow a good tactician?! Tzain, who was a lovestruck boy, is hardened by betrayal and is forced to confront his utter uselessness in the face of every enemy he's had to face. And Amari, who was such a diva in book 2, actually returns to her previous side-character-y "I'm here to help Zélie do something while also trying to mold Orisha to a better future" from book 1.

And what happened to Roën?! What happened to Inan?! What happened to Amari and Tzain?!

We don't know what happened to Roën, Zélie thinks he's dead. Inan gives his life to resurrect Zélie, who has been resurrected twice. Amari is bisexual and falls in love with the mysterious girl and new hierophant Mae'e, and Tzain lets her go because...because she's betrayed him I guess? Not entirely sure but he's ready to move on.

The ending is unsatisfactory to me and it feels like the book was trying to make some big statement about human trafficking or the value of being united against colonization and globalization. By also killing the main antagonist in a great climax but ultimately unspectacular way

he gets struck by lightning "fueled by Zélie's rage" I guess, because he decides not to dodge, deflect, or absorb using something else and poof, up he goes

. I won't be recommending this to anyone soon, I don't think.

tishingtonplunk's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

bmorereader's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Didn’t grab me quite like the first two books of the series, but still appreciated seeing more of Tzain’s evolution. The ending also didn’t land as anticipated for me. Like there was so much left unsaid that we needed closure for.

rjselby's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional

Toni Adeyemi is a queen among men, but I will never forgive her for what she did.

erniegobraugh's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I did not enjoy this book as much as the first two in this series. It didn’t have the same build up and character development. I’m glad I finished it to get closure from the first two but I wasn’t nearly as riveted as I was with the other books.