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4.32 AVERAGE
4.32 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
A great follow up. Heavy on black culture and melanin magic! There's family, friendship, danger and mega adventure. I stayed up all night finishing this book and it was well worth it. It was great visiting Caiman U again.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
2025: 4.0
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
I loved loved LOVEDDDD this story! I was such a fan of BATR that I read it three times and I promise this will be the same way. There were so many things that I liked about this story, with a few dislikes as well, and my main one being Chancellor Taron Bonclair’s Mama, Evil Angela Bassett herself, Madam Empress Bonclair. I can’t stand that lady, but I’m hlad she kept her same energy through the story with her growing disdain for Malik. I was NOT surprised at all by Taron being his father, and I was glad when he finally stood up to his Mama about Malik being his son. I have mixed feelings about Alexis, but I’m glad Malik has Dom. Originally I didn’t know if I could trust her or Tituba because it seems like so many people have played in his face throughout this journey. I’m glad that hasn’t been the case with both of them. Love Ms. Faye, the librarian. Savon and D-Low’s relationship was my favorite. I wish they had their own side story with a close up of how that’s going and D-Low diving more into his complicated relationship with his family. There was so much that I enjoyed, and I have so many questions about where we go from here. I can’t wait for book 3. 👏🏾
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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:
Yes
This was great. When I finished "Blood at the Root," I more or less made a wishlist for what I'd like to see in this book, and I felt like Williams addressed most of my issues with the first novel. (To be clear, I did enjoy book one, but I think it had some issues.)
If you're reading this review, I presume you've read "Blood at the Root," so let me give a couple of comparisons first:
1. "Bones at the Crossroads" is much darker than book 1, IMO, in terms of the amount of violence and death. It's not extreme for the genre, which I would call late YA, but the gloves are off and the stakes are high here.
2. Williams really rolled back the amount of in-narration AAVE. For me, that's neither here nor there, but some people felt strongly about it, so I think it's worth noting. There is still a lot of "NOOOO!!!" etc. with extra letters and punctuation, and I remain mildly frustrated by that editorial choice, though not to the point where it impacted my review.
3. Some people got real mad about how Malik treated Alexis is book 1, and I think they were right to feel that way. In this book, Malik's anger and messiness are address (though not resolved) and I think it's worth following his emotional journey through this book, because that choice was deliberate on Williams's part.
In general, Williams's prose really matured here---many scenes in book 1 felt rushed, and Williams spends SO MUCH MORE time on worldbuilding and the magic system, which was quite muddy in the first book. There's a lot of fairly on-the-nose commentary about queer and trans identities in the Black community, which for me was a plus, let's talk about it more... also, am I an idiot, how did I not clock the earlier references to the House of Transcendence? More of the side characters get more fleshed out, I understood people's goals better in this book, and overall I think Williams's talent is growing, so I'm excited to see what he does with this series and in future works.
Other little things I really enjoyed:
- subtle humor than made me snort-laugh multiple times
- the scathing things the characters have to say about Miller's "The Crucible" (so accurate)
- the quote "Mercury is retrograding the hell outta me right now."
Williams opens the book with some notes on the adultification of Black boys and youths. Malik is messy, he makes mistakes, he has a lot of anger and a lot of trauma. He's surrounded by adults who have failed him, and it's understandably hard for him to trust people and manage his emotions. Spoiler: he goes to therapy! And while this book does include racial trauma (though apparently it was marketed otherwise), this second installment focuses more on the the trauma of having parents who continually put their desires before your needs. BIG. OOF.
There were some parts where I was confused why things were happening (the answer was often "for plot reasons") and the end drove me a little bit nuts because there was a big problem and Malik took, like, a full day of procrastination time to resolve his love triangle when TIME WAS OF THE ESSENCE. But overall, I thought this book was stronger and more thoroughly developed than the first book, and I will most definitely be back for more.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. My review is my own and being left voluntarily.
If you're reading this review, I presume you've read "Blood at the Root," so let me give a couple of comparisons first:
1. "Bones at the Crossroads" is much darker than book 1, IMO, in terms of the amount of violence and death. It's not extreme for the genre, which I would call late YA, but the gloves are off and the stakes are high here.
2. Williams really rolled back the amount of in-narration AAVE. For me, that's neither here nor there, but some people felt strongly about it, so I think it's worth noting. There is still a lot of "NOOOO!!!" etc. with extra letters and punctuation, and I remain mildly frustrated by that editorial choice, though not to the point where it impacted my review.
3. Some people got real mad about how Malik treated Alexis is book 1, and I think they were right to feel that way. In this book, Malik's anger and messiness are address (though not resolved) and I think it's worth following his emotional journey through this book, because that choice was deliberate on Williams's part.
In general, Williams's prose really matured here---many scenes in book 1 felt rushed, and Williams spends SO MUCH MORE time on worldbuilding and the magic system, which was quite muddy in the first book. There's a lot of fairly on-the-nose commentary about queer and trans identities in the Black community, which for me was a plus, let's talk about it more... also, am I an idiot, how did I not clock the earlier references to the House of Transcendence? More of the side characters get more fleshed out, I understood people's goals better in this book, and overall I think Williams's talent is growing, so I'm excited to see what he does with this series and in future works.
Other little things I really enjoyed:
- subtle humor than made me snort-laugh multiple times
- the scathing things the characters have to say about Miller's "The Crucible" (so accurate)
- the quote "Mercury is retrograding the hell outta me right now."
Williams opens the book with some notes on the adultification of Black boys and youths. Malik is messy, he makes mistakes, he has a lot of anger and a lot of trauma. He's surrounded by adults who have failed him, and it's understandably hard for him to trust people and manage his emotions. Spoiler: he goes to therapy! And while this book does include racial trauma (though apparently it was marketed otherwise), this second installment focuses more on the the trauma of having parents who continually put their desires before your needs. BIG. OOF.
There were some parts where I was confused why things were happening (the answer was often "for plot reasons") and the end drove me a little bit nuts because there was a big problem and Malik took, like, a full day of procrastination time to resolve his love triangle when TIME WAS OF THE ESSENCE. But overall, I thought this book was stronger and more thoroughly developed than the first book, and I will most definitely be back for more.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. My review is my own and being left voluntarily.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
For the writing, I gave that a 6 out of 10. The writing was, unfortunately, extremely inconsistent in its quality. There were a number of typos and spelling errors. Many of the dialogue indicators were missing or in the wrong places, so we’d get lost within the sentence for whether or not someone was still speaking. Additionally, we have specific instances where we are told one thing but then later it’s something else. When homecoming is cancelled, it’s first noted that the students found out via email but later in the page, Savon says they found out through rumor. During specific scenes, it’s stated they are in the yard but in the next paragraph, the characters are leaving the living room. When did we get in the living room? One less important but funny item a friend pointed out is that, when we meet John Henry, he’s not wearing clothes, but we’re never told later if he ever ends up putting clothes on. I could pass the typos off as being an ARC and perhaps they were fixed in the printed version, but I do expect better editing for the inconsistencies from such a large publisher.
For the plot, I gave that a 6 out of 10. The plot was incredibly slow with little substance. I would be fine with a slow plot if we could say we were learning the greater details of the magic system or uncovering more of the mystery of his mom, but we don’t get any of that. The plot is overtaken by homecoming, for the most part. Other than giving Malik a normal college experience, it did nothing to further the plot. I would have been fine with the homecoming stuff if there were other things happening alongside it, but there weren’t. At the end, everything comes to a head with Malik on trial for something he didn’t do. The trial plot point made no sense to begin with, but towards the end of it, it’s pretty clear Malik will be absolved. Rather than waiting it out and then leaving Caiman, he decides to make a huge spectacle and it seems like a forced plot point to show Malik as being overpowered.
For the characters, I gave that a 6 out of 10. Malik has always been a complex and flawed character, but he seems to have regressed from book one. Any development he had seems to have been swept away. One could argue that, because he finally started going to therapy in this book, it makes sense he would regress a bit. I agree that regressing does happen. However, he mentions therapy twice and then it’s never brought up again.
Leading up to the homecoming event, he specifically states that he isn’t really interested in participating but wants to support Savon and D Low to be the first queer royals. But the minute Malik is nominated, he betrays his friends and decides that he does actually want to participate because he should get to experience these things. As someone who has done a lot of soul searching and reliving things I didn’t get to do as a kid, that shouldn’t come at the expense of your friends. Malik knew how important this was to Savon and the queer community he is a supposed an ally of and he chose to put himself first anyway. They do end up reconciling, but that entire plot point was dragged out for so long.
That seemed to be the main theme of the book. Malik consistently was selfish but all the characters constantly kept staying by his side and forgiving him. Malik doesn’t seem to suffer real consequences for his actions.
Additionally, when we run into his mom again, there seems to be an underlying theme of “family is family no matter what they’ve done,” and I cannot agree with that. Malik’s mom, despite the plot twist at the end, was terrible and it doesn’t mean she should automatically be forgiven. Same with his dad. His dad knew where he was the entire time and never even tried to get him out of terrible situations.
Just because they are your blood does not mean they deserve your forgiveness.
We also know Malik has enough trauma but now we’re adding more labels that don’t actually apply to him. When his parents are arguing, he says it’s exhausting to parent your parents. As someone who actually did have to parent their parents throughout childhood, this is not the same. His parents were not in his life the entire time. He had to parent himself, which is its own issue. He did not parent his parents.
Later, when Malik is trying to understand his mom, she says that a lot of her issues stem from the trauma of being a first born daughter. Malik’s mom is an only child. This is not the same experience as a first born daughter. We also never learn what that trauma really looked like other than having to live up to the expectations of being in a prominent family. While that is its own issue, we seem to be throwing around trauma for the sake of character depth.
For the world-building, I gave that a 6 out of 10. We never expanded on how the magic system worked at all. We could get away with the mechanics being vague in book 1 because Malik didn’t understand it. Now, we’re in book 2 at a magical university, so it’s expected that we would learn the mechanics in more detail but we don’t. We know the magic comes from the ancestors but we never learn what makes Malik more powerful than other people. We never learn what other spells are so special within the Scroll of Idan. Malik somehow gains more control but he also still loses control when it’s plot specific.
Overall, I gave this 3 stars. It was incredibly disappointing in comparison to book 1.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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:
N/A
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
I'd have to say this book is better then the first and that's saying something because Blood At The Root was amazing! Its not afraid to tackle some serious subject matter while still being entertaining