Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Children of Blood and Bone

For the first 200 pages, this was a 4-star read for me. The world is vast and interesting, the magic system is cool, and I loved the idea of an epic quest novel (take the artifacts to the Place and do the Ritual) that's not set in generic medieval European fantasyland. The characters’ conflicts felt realistic and while they could be a little impulsive it was understandable because they're teens.

Then I hit the halfway point and the plot ground to a halt to do this extremely generic reylo-style romance (complete with force bond and nonsensical insta love) and then just one stupid thing after another happened and all of the goodwill the first half had generated burned off immediately. There is an extremely graphic torture scene involving one of the female characters that is told through the lens of how the most boring male character in existence feels about it.

I also don't like books where the oppressed people are shown to be extremely dangerous, especially when the author is clearly linking their plight to real-world oppression, and this got worse in the second half.

I liked the plot twist at the end (though it was really unclear why that happened) but not enough to save the reading experience for me.

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issiwerro's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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v11_'s review against another edition

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adventurous sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

everything i wrote was deleted. i spent 15 minutes on this review. the short and skinny since i won’t be rewriting it: the characters are waffle-y

looking at you, inan and you zeili

i also just realized i’ve done ever spoiler up until this point wrong. the romances should have been gay looking at YOU zeili and amari bc the straight romances have. no. chemistry. at. all.
and lastly i was confused on a plot point which could have been my fault

the raid was only like ten years ago and that’s when magic went away when king whoever interrupted a ritual but this ritual only occurs every hundred years and it’s coming up agajn after only ten… maybe i misread though

anyways good book but should have been gayer

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t4vs's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

5.0

Friends, WHAT A BOOK. Sincerely, this is so cool.

For context, i'm from Brazil. And here we have multiple religions based on yoruba culture, originating afrobrazilian religions. Some of them have the exact same deities that are mentioned in the book. The most known here, i think, is Yemoja (in portuguese: Iemanjá). So imagine HOW COOL was to read a fantasy world with them!

I loved every single aspect of this, i binge read this book and simply could not put it down. And will not rest until i put my hands in Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the sequel.

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therese_nook68's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Here's my review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hoW6zqE3vQ&lc=z22aep4odqnag1glcacdp4321mycf4ei1pq1enzjw51w03c010c.1526004502260325

Updated 2021 review:
Rereading this book made me realize that the execution isn’t it. The plot isn’t bad, it’s familiar, the characters are also familiar, so in a sense, this book should go off without a hitch, but the execution is lacking.

There are clear ties to ATLA in the book, which makes sense considering all of the marketing that went into the book saying it’s like ATLA but set in African mythology and with the Zutara that we wanted. All of which isn’t a bad thing, but the plot and the set up for the characters became too close to ATLA to the point where it was an exact replica of the characters and the plot. Which made it difficult to be surprised or even grow attached to the characters, which doesn’t make sense considering familiarity is typically what pulls people in.

I couldn’t get attached to any of the characters and their growth was hard to track. They didn’t feel like fully fleshed out characters and it was hard to really even see the stakes that the plot would bring to each character. Inan was also a very aggravating character since his switching sides happened so consistently it was almost comical how often it happened. Even at the end, his character didn’t really come to a decision. It felt like he needed a longer arc spread out between books to make these switches rather than it happening in the span of one book and even then... probably a few chapters.

The romances lacked chemistry and I couldn’t see the attraction or the connection between them. Even the main romance came out of nowhere and didn’t make sense to me.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of potential to be a solid debut and a solid beginning to a good trilogy, but it read like it was in its beginning stages of drafting and needs more fleshing out.

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internalnonsense's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? Yes

4.75

A beautiful, heart-warming and heart-rending YA adventure. It is tropey in the best way, refreshing a hero's journey with a West African-inspired fantasy setting, filling it with meaning informed by very present struggles. It has a strong sense of adventure, companionship, humor, but it is ultimately about children, growing up trying to survive a violent world ruled by oppression, given a chance to change it. It demands empathy, but an empathy that does not excuse.

.25 off for a character who would have benefited from having a POV, because, as is, he's flat, more there for conflict than character. Also, a section in the middle of the book, while having some significantly cool scenes, felt far too disconnected from the rest, almost filler-like.

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battybookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This was a book I've had on my shelves forever, and once I actually got over the hurdle of starting it, I could not put it down. This giant book came with me everywhere and it was very fun to read. I loved Zelie and Amari's chapters, and even Inan after a period. I think the author did the separation of their voices incredibly well and the characters' shifts and growth were developed and lovely to read.

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