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tbarrett1320's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
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? It's complicated
5.0
lelathecat's review against another edition
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
3.0
jo_reads_'s review against another edition
3.0
Wow.
I have so much to say for this one book. First off the world building is phenomenal. To be completely honest I had a hard time getting into it because I didn’t really like the main characters at the start. I found Amari’s and Zelié’s perspectives very shallow with but throughout the book their character growth is amazing adding more depth and ended up adding to the story. I would definitely recommend this book and make a note to read the Author’s note. Not only is this a novel with a strong lead female character but it’s a beautiful book incorporating diversity issues.
I have so much to say for this one book. First off the world building is phenomenal. To be completely honest I had a hard time getting into it because I didn’t really like the main characters at the start. I found Amari’s and Zelié’s perspectives very shallow with but throughout the book their character growth is amazing adding more depth and ended up adding to the story. I would definitely recommend this book and make a note to read the Author’s note. Not only is this a novel with a strong lead female character but it’s a beautiful book incorporating diversity issues.
donnisreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This book was AMAZING! From the very beginning I was STUNNED and
It kept me captivated. Wow, just WOW
It kept me captivated. Wow, just WOW
charspages's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to love this book so badly; I'd fallen head over heels for the cover, title, and premise already. So when Mira and I made this our first ever buddy read, I was delighted, exhilarated, and excited.
Too bad my visions for what I wanted this book to be were bigger than it actually is.
PLOT: 2 / 5
This plot is a rollercoaster if I've ever seen one. It starts as a familiar, distinctly unoriginal story line: kingdom where magic was banned, girl fights against these rules, yada yada. I love this premise, but it has been used to death, and authors should always be careful approaching it without falling into all the overused traps and finding a way to make their story stand out.
For the first half of the book, [a:Tomi Adeyemi|16642745|Tomi Adeyemi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573251060p2/16642745.jpg] does a very good job of this. I loved the different clans of magic wielders and their respective powers; though it is quite common for authors to use different sub-groups of magic in their stories, Adeyemi still managed to make hers original, interesting, and unlike anything I'd read before. I also adored the legendary magical artifacts that were needed to restore magic to Orïsha since they added a challenge that made the whole plot more urgent and introduced high stakes to Zélie and her friends.
Somewhere during the middle section, though, this plot loses momentum exceptionally fast, catapulting itself from edge-of-your-seat-gripping and creative straight into I've-read-this-a-million-times. What's more, plot holes start popping up left and right, and the problems that are introduced are resolved easily and quickly, like everything falls right into Zélie's hands.
Towards the end of the novel, I was both annoyed at the predictable route the story had taken and confused about the different story lines that did not add up. Tomi Adeyemi played it very safe in this book, and it did not work to her advantage. Overall, this novel would have benefitted from trying to tackle less plot points and spending more time developing a select few. Fixing the pacing could have done wonders for this story.
CHARACTERS: 2 / 5
One of my biggest problems with this book were its characters. This covered all the basics for badass, unapologetic, brave characters that I wanted to root for so badly. Sadly, in the end, all except one fell completely flat for me.
ZÉLIE quickly turned out to be another stereotypical, cliché YA fantasy heroine. She was unlikable and completely overpowered and absolutely nothing special.
INAN had a lot of potential as a character, but failed to live up to what he promised at first glance. He was, overall, flat, boring, and deliberately tragic to a point that made him just unbelievable.
TZAIN did not have any character traits except for having a totally smokin' bod with great abs, and I don't remember any of the other characters.
The only one I genuinely liked and cared for, even if she, too, fell into the "I'm so tragic"-role, was AMARI. She had a lot of potential and felt the most believable and likable to me.
WORLD BUILDING: 3 / 5
I'm very conflicted on this world building, if I'm honest. I loved the locations that were introduced to us, whether it was Zélie's village or Ilorin or the Funmilayo Forest. They were interesting, extraordinary, and new through and through. The scenes, too, were mostly atmospheric.
I already said it, but I'll say it again: I liked the set up for the different types of magic, and I adored the mythology everything was based on. What this book lacked for me in these areas was consistency for sure; especially the entire blood magic thing did not add up at all.
What drove me crazy were two things: firstly, the continous info dumps that served as introductions and explanations to and for the world and its events. In my opinion, info dumps are a lazy, boring way to introduce the reader to your world, and they don't actually make anything stick.
My biggest pet peeve, however, were for sure the magical creatures Adeyemi created. I'm sorry but taking real life animals and then simply adding "-aire" at the end is not good world building. It wasn't even obvious how these supposedly powerful, magical creatures differed from their earthly namesakes. Throughout the course of the story, the names for the animals turned increasingly ridiculous, too - starting with lionaire, introducing gorillion, and ending with my personal favorite, frogger.
What's more is that apparently, some of the Yoruba mythology that this novel is based on was misrepresented and badly written. I am not Yoruba, but I've read a review from someone who is and who pointed out their issues with the world building, centering a Nigerian perspective. I've linked it for you here and would like to thank Ojo for putting their thoughts into words and opening up a new perspective on this book for those who, like me, are non-Nigerian readers.
WRITING STYLE: 2.5 / 5
Man, I'm conflicted on this one because there were some exceptionally beautiful and powerful lines, but the majority of the text was just so underwhelming.
My biggest problem were Zélie's, Amari's, and Inan's voices, who all sounded absolutely identical. It's important to me to have distinct voices when there's multiple point of views, and this was absolutely not the case here. All three of the voices were interchangable and flat.
In general, I think this book would have done much better with a third person narrator rather than a first person narrator.
Lastly, the text was filled to the brim with weird repetitions of familiar idioms that were changed just enough to make them vaguely magical. Too bad they were completely overused and therefore annoying.
DIVERSITY: 4 / 5
This book is definitely diverse: it features an all-black cast and explicitly talks about racism, oppressive systems, and colorism within black communities. All of these issues were tackled in depth.
I also loved the female empowerment that shone through time and time again.
However, the one thing that truly bothered me was the absolutely bland, terribly written hetero romance. Everyone is straight and it's so boring and unoriginal and honestly unbelievable and I'm so sick of it. There was no need to make Amari straight lol.
OVERALL RATING: 2.5 / 5
I don't think this book is exceptionally bad. I just think it aimed too high and then didn't deliver. In general, I was mostly underwhelmed and disinterested; I did not care for the characters and I already forgot almost everything I read. Everyone promised a unique, out-of-the-box tale and this is just not it. It's full of clichés and overall mediocre execution of pretty cool concepts.
I'm sorry to say that this book absolutely fell short for me, and that I will not be picking up the sequel.
2.5 stars RTC
Too bad my visions for what I wanted this book to be were bigger than it actually is.
PLOT: 2 / 5
This plot is a rollercoaster if I've ever seen one. It starts as a familiar, distinctly unoriginal story line: kingdom where magic was banned, girl fights against these rules, yada yada. I love this premise, but it has been used to death, and authors should always be careful approaching it without falling into all the overused traps and finding a way to make their story stand out.
For the first half of the book, [a:Tomi Adeyemi|16642745|Tomi Adeyemi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573251060p2/16642745.jpg] does a very good job of this. I loved the different clans of magic wielders and their respective powers; though it is quite common for authors to use different sub-groups of magic in their stories, Adeyemi still managed to make hers original, interesting, and unlike anything I'd read before. I also adored the legendary magical artifacts that were needed to restore magic to Orïsha since they added a challenge that made the whole plot more urgent and introduced high stakes to Zélie and her friends.
Somewhere during the middle section, though, this plot loses momentum exceptionally fast, catapulting itself from edge-of-your-seat-gripping and creative straight into I've-read-this-a-million-times. What's more, plot holes start popping up left and right, and the problems that are introduced are resolved easily and quickly, like everything falls right into Zélie's hands.
Towards the end of the novel, I was both annoyed at the predictable route the story had taken and confused about the different story lines that did not add up. Tomi Adeyemi played it very safe in this book, and it did not work to her advantage. Overall, this novel would have benefitted from trying to tackle less plot points and spending more time developing a select few. Fixing the pacing could have done wonders for this story.
CHARACTERS: 2 / 5
One of my biggest problems with this book were its characters. This covered all the basics for badass, unapologetic, brave characters that I wanted to root for so badly. Sadly, in the end, all except one fell completely flat for me.
ZÉLIE quickly turned out to be another stereotypical, cliché YA fantasy heroine. She was unlikable and completely overpowered and absolutely nothing special.
INAN had a lot of potential as a character, but failed to live up to what he promised at first glance. He was, overall, flat, boring, and deliberately tragic to a point that made him just unbelievable.
TZAIN did not have any character traits except for having a totally smokin' bod with great abs, and I don't remember any of the other characters.
The only one I genuinely liked and cared for, even if she, too, fell into the "I'm so tragic"-role, was AMARI. She had a lot of potential and felt the most believable and likable to me.
WORLD BUILDING: 3 / 5
I'm very conflicted on this world building, if I'm honest. I loved the locations that were introduced to us, whether it was Zélie's village or Ilorin or the Funmilayo Forest. They were interesting, extraordinary, and new through and through. The scenes, too, were mostly atmospheric.
I already said it, but I'll say it again: I liked the set up for the different types of magic, and I adored the mythology everything was based on. What this book lacked for me in these areas was consistency for sure; especially the entire blood magic thing did not add up at all.
What drove me crazy were two things: firstly, the continous info dumps that served as introductions and explanations to and for the world and its events. In my opinion, info dumps are a lazy, boring way to introduce the reader to your world, and they don't actually make anything stick.
My biggest pet peeve, however, were for sure the magical creatures Adeyemi created. I'm sorry but taking real life animals and then simply adding "-aire" at the end is not good world building. It wasn't even obvious how these supposedly powerful, magical creatures differed from their earthly namesakes. Throughout the course of the story, the names for the animals turned increasingly ridiculous, too - starting with lionaire, introducing gorillion, and ending with my personal favorite, frogger.
What's more is that apparently, some of the Yoruba mythology that this novel is based on was misrepresented and badly written. I am not Yoruba, but I've read a review from someone who is and who pointed out their issues with the world building, centering a Nigerian perspective. I've linked it for you here and would like to thank Ojo for putting their thoughts into words and opening up a new perspective on this book for those who, like me, are non-Nigerian readers.
WRITING STYLE: 2.5 / 5
Man, I'm conflicted on this one because there were some exceptionally beautiful and powerful lines, but the majority of the text was just so underwhelming.
My biggest problem were Zélie's, Amari's, and Inan's voices, who all sounded absolutely identical. It's important to me to have distinct voices when there's multiple point of views, and this was absolutely not the case here. All three of the voices were interchangable and flat.
In general, I think this book would have done much better with a third person narrator rather than a first person narrator.
Lastly, the text was filled to the brim with weird repetitions of familiar idioms that were changed just enough to make them vaguely magical. Too bad they were completely overused and therefore annoying.
DIVERSITY: 4 / 5
This book is definitely diverse: it features an all-black cast and explicitly talks about racism, oppressive systems, and colorism within black communities. All of these issues were tackled in depth.
I also loved the female empowerment that shone through time and time again.
However, the one thing that truly bothered me was the absolutely bland, terribly written hetero romance. Everyone is straight and it's so boring and unoriginal and honestly unbelievable and I'm so sick of it. There was no need to make Amari straight lol.
OVERALL RATING: 2.5 / 5
I don't think this book is exceptionally bad. I just think it aimed too high and then didn't deliver. In general, I was mostly underwhelmed and disinterested; I did not care for the characters and I already forgot almost everything I read. Everyone promised a unique, out-of-the-box tale and this is just not it. It's full of clichés and overall mediocre execution of pretty cool concepts.
I'm sorry to say that this book absolutely fell short for me, and that I will not be picking up the sequel.
2.5 stars RTC
anit1726's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
orenjinalapis's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
priya_amrev's review against another edition
3.0
A compelling allegory for the racism and classism that many PoC face in western society
daliacp's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.25
johanique's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0