Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Children of Blood and Bone

J'avais hâte de me plonger dans De sang et de rage dont j'avais beaucoup entendu parler sous son titre en anglais, Children of Blood and Bone de Tomi Adeyemi. J'avoue avoir toujours été impressionnée par la couverture qu'une fois (digitalement) tournée je n'ai presque pas refermée, captivée par les aventures de Zélie. Lu en français, je savais que le public cible du livre se situait dans une tranche d'âge inférieure à la mienne, particulièrement pour les enfants à partir de 14 ans. J'ai donc adapté mes attentes avant de me lancer (relation amoureuse entre ados non-explicite, recherche d'identité, affirmation de soi, indépendance face à ses parents et d'autres formes d'autorité et/ou de pouvoir, rébellion contre l'injustice). Cet ouvrage se lit très rapidement grâce à des chapitres courts alternant les points de vue de presque tous les personnages principaux, Zélie, Amari et Inan dans un pays et une culture inspirés du Nigéria. Les thèmes abordés sont lourds et actuels : le roi régnant qui dirige sans pitié Orïsha a commis un génocide envers les membres magiques de son peuple et a éteint à sa source la magie elle-même, a asservi, exploité et terrorise encore les familles endeuillées à jamais amputées de leurs proches, forcés à revivre encore et encore les souvenirs de ces assassinats par les forces armées royales. Vivre dans Orïsha est dangereux, il faut savoir s'y défendre si l'on ne veut pas être anéanti, et parfois ce n'est pas suffisant. J'ai particulièrement apprécié les descriptions du système de déités et des pouvoirs magiques, des villes et paysages ainsi que les animaux compagnons géants. J'ai peut-être remarqué un peu tard les parallèles évidents avec Avatar (Derniers Maîtres de l'Air) sans en être dérangée puisque j'aime énormément cette série.

J'aurais aimé passer plus de temps avec certains personnages (dans le village des maji), avoir le point de vue de Tzain, approfondir la relation avec la mère de Zélie et Tzain, voir un rapprochement avec Amari et lui, voire même Amari et Zélie, approfondir les conflits sociaux et politiques dans Orïsha.
Evidemment la fin ne dupe pas le vieux loup de mer de fantasy que je suis, et tant que l'on a pas vu et confirmé en détail la mort d'Inan, je reste persuadée de le retrouver dans le prochain livre.

Dans l'ensemble, je suis heureuse d'avoir lu cet ouvrage et le recommande autour de moi.

Content Warnings

michelejenn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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bookishperseus's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

5.0

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kaylaboevers's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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osladek's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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? No

3.0

This book was very meh for me. The constant action kept me engaged, but the plot and characters bored me. The magic system and world building were great, but I really didn't feel any connection to the 3 main characters. I was super disturbed by the enemies to lovers in this book and was very happy

that Inan dies and doesn't have a redemption arc because he absolutely did not deserve one after everything

I haven't read YA in a long time and this book reminded me why. The very basic plot that is the practically the same as every other high fantasy did not keep my attention as I always knew what was going to happen. I don't normally mind a basic plot if the worldbuilding and character arcs are worth it. I think these characters suffered from 1 dimensionality which made them not feel like individuals. Amari and Zelie don't seem similar in the beginning, but once they interact with each other and we get their POVs back to back they totally blend together into the same character. I just was not moved by this book. The allegory to police brutality definitely felt powerful and extremely relevant to the modern day prison industrial complex, but not enough to forgive these boring characters and plotline.

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micaelamariem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I’ll post a full review on my blog in the morning but omg this was a wonderful book! Based on Orisha mythology from West Africa, and inspired by the urge to fight back against police brutality of unarmed Black citizens, Tomi Adeyemi examines a fantasy world where magic users are stripped of their power and beaten down until a few characters decide they want a change, and how they can fight back against how they were taught their whole lives. Loved the character development, the world building, the important themes, and the shocking betrayals. Ends on a cliffhanger and I need the next book now!

Content Warnings

squinnittowinit's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Edit: After thinking on this book a bit more, I've decided to lower the rating from a 3.75 to a 2. I kept trying to convince myself that this was a good story because I keenly understand the place it was written from, but beyond the bare bones of it, I don't think it actually was. I didn't enjoy the characters and I felt like the plot didn't actually make a whole lot of sense. I've decided that I will not be reading the sequel.

Original review:
Overall, this is a good story with a (unfortunately) very relatable setting: an oppressive society that treats certain people as lesser due to something inherent that they cannot control. I felt the author's pain and anger surrounding this real-world issue in the writing, and perhaps if this had been my first exposure to the mindset of the oppressed group, I might have found it more impactful. However, I personally found it a little tiring for specific reasons that I will mark as a spoiler below.

Again, it is a good story, just one I've seen many times already. Nothing about it surprised me and as much as I was rooting for them, I didn't love any of the characters by the end. I'm not sure if you're supposed to or not.

The specific reasons I found this book to be tiring have a lot to do with the main characters. All three were naive to a fault, and retained that naivete throughout the entire book, even as their views on certain things changed. I suppose it's realistic, as they are all teenagers and teenagers are very naive, but I found it very frustrating to read about them doing impulsive and very ill-advised things over and over again and then only afterwards thinking that they might have been bad ideas.

Next, there is the issue of trauma. This is a book based in racial trauma, which makes it automatically not a fun read for me. Again, I really want to stress that I'm not saying it's bad, but it's very real, and it's hard to laugh at any of the jokes or moments of levity when the whole book is about oppression and I already experience oppression nearly constantly in my real life.

Next, as I said above, nothing about this book surprised me. I was never on the edge of my seat or uncertain about the fate of the characters, because I've seen this story so many times. It hit all the beats I was expecting it to, and the only death I didn't predict was a character that I didn't care about at all.

Finally, the romance. I'm all for a good romantic subplot, but I couldn't get behind this one. It was going for "enemies to lovers" but was done with no subtlety, I felt like I was being bashed over the head with foreshadowing about this relationship. Then, the actual enemies to lovers part happened seemingly overnight, and they suddenly didn't hate each other anymore. The romance gave me some emotional whiplash and made me feel like I was missing time.

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