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caseythereader's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
slow-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
Thanks to Tor Teen for the free advance copy of this book.
- The world of BLOOD DEBTS is fantastic. A New Orleans with several branches of magical families, warring for power on multiple levels. The imagined world here is so rich it feels like it could be real.
- I loved Clement and Cristina, both prickly and headstrong in their own ways, and deeply loving of their big, loud, fractured family (the aunts! I loved them all!) Also, it has multiple queer characters, which I haven't seen mentioned much in the marketing.
- However, for me, this book was a lot of telling rather than showing. It was mainly the kids running from adult to adult and prying pieces of secrets out of them, then rehashing everything they know in the next scene, repeat. I think this might have worked better as an adult fantasy instead of YA/New Adult, with POVs from the many adults and their grudges rather than the teens, who are the only ones out of the loop.
- The world of BLOOD DEBTS is fantastic. A New Orleans with several branches of magical families, warring for power on multiple levels. The imagined world here is so rich it feels like it could be real.
- I loved Clement and Cristina, both prickly and headstrong in their own ways, and deeply loving of their big, loud, fractured family (the aunts! I loved them all!) Also, it has multiple queer characters, which I haven't seen mentioned much in the marketing.
- However, for me, this book was a lot of telling rather than showing. It was mainly the kids running from adult to adult and prying pieces of secrets out of them, then rehashing everything they know in the next scene, repeat. I think this might have worked better as an adult fantasy instead of YA/New Adult, with POVs from the many adults and their grudges rather than the teens, who are the only ones out of the loop.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Homophobia, Violence, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault
marleywrites's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.5
It was foolish to think he could outrun a god.
Thank you to NetGalley and TorTeen for this e-arc!
O.M.G. This book!!
This story was incredible. I loved every second. The magic was so cool to learn about, and I loved the characters. The whole family was amazing, even Justin 😂.
The fast pace really worked well for this story. I didn’t want to stop reading!
Benton-Walker’s writing style was so great- the action scenes were good and punchy and the descriptions were fantastic. The way the tension built up over this story was incredible as well. The ending was worth the build up for sure!
I will definitely be reading more that this author writes. I loved the Black excellence in this book, and the anger and what the characters did with it was possibly one of my favorite parts.
The only reason I withheld a half star is because Clem’s stubbornness absolutely killed me! It was frustrating at times but that’s Clem I guess 😂 But:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Car accident, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Death of parent, Infidelity, Chronic illness, and Medical content
mshiiken's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
BLOOD DEBTS floated across my inbox from Booklist Delivers, and I am SO GLAD it did. NetGalley provided a galley in exchange for an honest review and this book rules. A fuller review will be posted to Mzinigan Mshiiken, but brief incredible points:
- fascinating magic system
- political intrigue, both mundane and magical
- New Orleans
- LGBTQIA+ representation and love
- messy family ties
The only reason this gets 4 stars rather than 5 is because the writing at times was a little tough to get into. It was a little bit like getting a firehose of description to the face, and I found myself having to re-read sections to parse what was being said. Granted, the chapter titles helped a lot with perspective and the character changes were fascinating. Others have noted that the beginning is slow and I agree - that said, the latter half of the book had me on the edge of my seat for the few hours it took me to speedread. I think teens will really like this book (although a few scenes are a liiiiiittle more explicit than I like to recommend), and plenty of adults will too. I'm excited to see what comes next in the series!
- fascinating magic system
- political intrigue, both mundane and magical
- New Orleans
- LGBTQIA+ representation and love
- messy family ties
The only reason this gets 4 stars rather than 5 is because the writing at times was a little tough to get into. It was a little bit like getting a firehose of description to the face, and I found myself having to re-read sections to parse what was being said. Granted, the chapter titles helped a lot with perspective and the character changes were fascinating. Others have noted that the beginning is slow and I agree - that said, the latter half of the book had me on the edge of my seat for the few hours it took me to speedread. I think teens will really like this book (although a few scenes are a liiiiiittle more explicit than I like to recommend), and plenty of adults will too. I'm excited to see what comes next in the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Panic attacks/disorders, Gore, Death of parent, Racism, Murder, Homophobia, Grief, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Death
Moderate: Sexual content, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Infertility, Drug use, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Car accident, Sexism, Alcohol, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, and Infidelity
Minor: Vomit
santinasimile's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Overall I enjoyed this book, but there were pieces that held it back. Chris and Clem were fabulous characters and I enjoyed their story and development, however, all the other characters did not feel as developed. The main story was interesting and addressed real issues in a great way, but I felt like there were too many subplots going on and I would get lost on a few. I was also surprised by the many adult themes. It's not often that sex, drugs, and murder are listed as YA. While I personally don't mind those subjects, it was jarring compared to what I was expecting for this book. I also highly enjoyed the narration for the audio book. They did a wonderful job bringing the characters to life
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse and Sexual content
yadira315's review against another edition
2.25
I was so excited to read this book as the description and concept of the book sounded really interesting but unfortunately, the book was just not for me. One of the first things I struggled with was the multiple point of views. We have our two main characters that have POV‘s but then there’s multiple side characters that also get their own POV throughout the book and the main problem with that was that the perspectives will constantly change so the MC’s POV would be in first person, present tense, and then some of the side characters would either be in third person or past tense, and that would constantly take me out of the story and would be jarring. This also made it confusing to follow, which character was witch, and the relationship between the characters. I also did not like it because we have so many characters involved with the stories. The relationship was not properly flushed out, and there was no room for the characters to have proper development. So many things are thrown at you so many life altering event in a matter of days that the characters really did not have a lot of time to properly communicate, despite the length of the book.
I had to keep in mind that the characters are teenagers, so they had very strong feelings for the people that they were meeting and their relationship towards each other. However, the adults in the book were completely ridiculous at times, and there was a lot of inconsistencies between their relationships at points they would not trust their family members because of something that they did in the past, but then would go and completely trust a random stranger that was just introduced to the book.
I really enjoyed how there was great queer and mental health representation throughout the book. The author challenges, a lot of heavy topics throughout the book, such as homophobia, lynching, violence and complicated relationships. The author constructed a great magic system but I found that the execution was not there. I gave the book 2.5 stars.
Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, Gun violence, Racism, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization
amobrien's review against another edition
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? Yes
4.0
Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.
Blood Debts is a story about magic, family, and trauma with a magic system that had me immediately hooked. This is a dark YA fantasy with a lot of violence, but I loved the inclusiveness in the characters and the conversations around sexuality, including consent and sex work. There were a lot of characters in this story, which made things difficult to follow at times, but I wasn't put off by it. This was a great read overall, and I think anyone interested in dark YA fantasy would really enjoy it!
Blood Debts is a story about magic, family, and trauma with a magic system that had me immediately hooked. This is a dark YA fantasy with a lot of violence, but I loved the inclusiveness in the characters and the conversations around sexuality, including consent and sex work. There were a lot of characters in this story, which made things difficult to follow at times, but I wasn't put off by it. This was a great read overall, and I think anyone interested in dark YA fantasy would really enjoy it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual content, Homophobia, and Sexual assault
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Bullying, and Death of parent
meganpbell's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A Voodo-inspired magic system, queer Black boy love, generational trauma, and messy family drama intertwine in this older YA urban fantasy.
In the wake of their father’s sudden death and their mother’s suspicious illness, twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau struggle to solve a decades-old murder that cost their grandmother her throne.
All of the above are what I appreciated about this book, but I had a lot of challenges: the messaging around eye-for-an-eye violence and vengeance, the family relationships so strained and unloving to the point of having a hard time rooting for the extended family, and ultimately being frustrated that the book didn’t seem as invested in the political depth that the dedication and epigraphs indicated.
In the wake of their father’s sudden death and their mother’s suspicious illness, twins Clement and Cristina Trudeau struggle to solve a decades-old murder that cost their grandmother her throne.
All of the above are what I appreciated about this book, but I had a lot of challenges: the messaging around eye-for-an-eye violence and vengeance, the family relationships so strained and unloving to the point of having a hard time rooting for the extended family, and ultimately being frustrated that the book didn’t seem as invested in the political depth that the dedication and epigraphs indicated.
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence
thebookkeepers's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book and detailed them all in-depth on my blog (thebookkeerersblog.com), but I'll try to summarize them here.
My dislikes were related to the twist predictability, a large cast of characters that convoluted the story, lack of depth/understanding of motivations of the communities, relationships with gods, and growth of the main characters. The overall theme of violence and the "eye for an eye" mentality.
Things I really enjoyed were the setting, LGBTQ inclusiveness, messy family dynamics, the audiobook production, the magic system, and themes related to sexuality such as sew workers, consent, and safe sex practices.
LGBTQ rep: male/male romance with the main character as well as secondary characters. Includes a romantic sexual encounter.
My dislikes were related to the twist predictability, a large cast of characters that convoluted the story, lack of depth/understanding of motivations of the communities, relationships with gods, and growth of the main characters. The overall theme of violence and the "eye for an eye" mentality.
Things I really enjoyed were the setting, LGBTQ inclusiveness, messy family dynamics, the audiobook production, the magic system, and themes related to sexuality such as sew workers, consent, and safe sex practices.
LGBTQ rep: male/male romance with the main character as well as secondary characters. Includes a romantic sexual encounter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Violence
nolagal's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 stars
Overall, a good debut novel. The main characters, Cristina and Clement, are well- developed, interesting, and sympathetic. The generational issues and seeing them through the twins' perspective allowed the story to develop well though the short switches to other POVs were distracting.
The magic system was interesting and worked really well. The overarching story of who framed their grandmother for murder and was responsible for the death of family members was well done.
The rest of the plot, including the subplots, had too much going on so it felt like some things weren't fully fleshed out or seemed out of place. This left several things rushed or unresolved.
I enjoyed it and can't wait to see what the author does next.
Overall, a good debut novel. The main characters, Cristina and Clement, are well- developed, interesting, and sympathetic. The generational issues and seeing them through the twins' perspective allowed the story to develop well though the short switches to other POVs were distracting.
The magic system was interesting and worked really well. The overarching story of who framed their grandmother for murder and was responsible for the death of family members was well done.
The rest of the plot, including the subplots, had too much going on so it felt like some things weren't fully fleshed out or seemed out of place. This left several things rushed or unresolved.
I enjoyed it and can't wait to see what the author does next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence and Gaslighting
nineohtworeads's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Sexual content, and Death
Minor: Death of parent