Reviews - Children of Anguish and Anarchy

2.24k reviews for:

Children of Anguish and Anarchy

Tomi Adeyemi

3.39 AVERAGE

alessandrasimmons's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

thank god inan died i hate that man

jazzibunny's review against another edition

4.0

I can't give it less than 4 stars because I enjoyed myself and the writing and world-building was great. BUT I AM SO CONFLICTED.

At last, the final installment in the Legacy of Orisha trilogy has arrived! The cover goes so hard!! This book is just a thing of beauty. From the amazing cover, to the beautiful debossing on the hardcover itself, to the patterned printed pages that spill onto the internal pages!?

When we last left Zelie and the Gang, they were being taken, chained, and put on ships!? In this book we find out they've been taken by the Skulls, bloodmetal-wielding warriors led by King Baldyr. His aim? To harness Zelie's power and become a god.

I just took a big sigh after typing that because WHAT?! That's literally one of the points on my list of things to go through. I would've never imagined back in 2018 when I read CoBaB that *this* was going to be the conflict in the conclusion. I felt Tomi Adeyemi deus ex machina'ed the civil war between the maji and the monarchs with the Skulls. I wouldn't feel so rankled if the Skulls were foreshadowed but I don't remember them being alluded to at all? It was very much "they could've been taking maji and no one would've noticed because of the civil war." I'm sorry but that's not enough for me.

And do you know what? I can't even be mad at Adeyemi because the conflict between the maji and the monarchs was so bad, it seemed damn near impossible to solve without some divine intervention. The entire time I read CoVaV I was grimacing and wondering what Adeyemi would do to untangle this plot.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's talk about what I liked. I was very entertained the entire time. I zoomed through this novel faster than I did the other two.

The world-building outside of Orisha was amazing. Adeyemi is so good at world-building. I loved learning about the culture of the New Gaians and even seeing snippets of the world of the Skulls come from. The bit about the Lamina soldiers having a whole armoury on their body and pulling swords from their skin was super cool!

Also, good for you, Amari and Mae'e! Yes, they were moving fast but they were in a war that had them on the brink of death, so I'm going to reserve judgement.

Was this series always so gory? There were a few scenes that had my skin crawling LMAOO

There are a lot of unanswered questions, but, y'know what? I don't need to know. I'm fine with using my imagination to fill in the blanks. I'm kind of glad this wasn't one of those super bloated fantasy finales.

I do look forward to reading what else Adeyemi puts out. While this book kinda frustrated me, I recognize her talent and would welcome work from her in a brand new universe.

natekka's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

alyssa_x_therereads's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional tense fast-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: Yes

rdahlquist42's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

sammieiris's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Dont get me wrong, I still liked the book and didn’t find it a disappointing end to the series, but it’s definitely my least favorite of the series. Plot points felt unrealistic and forced. Amari’s

new romance with Mae’e felt like it was added to just check an LGBTQ box and was not my favorite

. I felt like I was missing the world building of Orisha because the book isn’t really in Orisha. But the battle scenes are well written and Tzain and Inan’s characters get great chapters! Just felt like all the new introductions made the last book feel rushed. Also this is such a minor thing but I wish that the language of the the people of Gaia was based more on an indigenous chicana/ Latina language rather than Spanish.