Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

10 reviews

sweetchocolatez's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad 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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

pacifickat's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book was a decent second installment of the series, albeit not as polished and clearly directional as Children of Blood and Bone (one of my favorite YA Fantasy books to date, so I don't blame Virtue and Vengeance for not reaching that bar). It felt a bit like Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia series, where the preceding book had a plot with a lot of upward momentum ending on a clearly positive note after the main characters experienced notable development in a single direction, but the following book is mired in character flaws, violence, and a bleaker outlook. I actually liked that to a certain extent, because mixed motives, continued resolve, and not becoming frustrated with a cause that is slow to succeed are all very real and believable.

 
As I grew frustrated (likely by author design) with the foibles of each character and their seeming devolving character arcs, I also realize the plot of the first book took place in what I believe was a matter of weeks. It's no wonder the characters are experiencing some backsliding, especially when their next steps toward success are less defined, and debatable depending on each one's motivations and past traumas. However, it was often difficult to be in their heads, particularly Zélie's POV chapters. Our girl turned it around by the end though, once her vendetta became less personal and she found strength in truly uniting her people. Can magic fix everything? Maybe. 

In truth, I was a bit baffled by Inan's chapters, as he repeatedly experienced horrific realizations regarding his family's past and the corruption of the monarchy, and yet (for the most part) continued on their side in spite of feeling sick about it. He is truly a slow-turning vehicle, and it felt unbelievable to see him continue to believe in his corrupt institution. A bit on the nose in today's political climate? Perhaps.  

And Amari, my favorite character through the bulk of this story, arguing for a future with peace for all Orïshans, had an enormous, disappointing twist. I'm not sure the author did enough to develop Amari to then make her murder of civilians a believable course of action, but she did sprinkle in Amari's (violently abusive) father's voice in Amari's head throughout the book as she becomes increasingly desperate to succeed. It's a clever use of POV to capture internal monologue that I am unsure will translate well into movie form should they decide to do a live action version of this series. Ultimately, she learns that peace at any price is too high a cost to pay. The author makes it sound like Amari could have a path back to grace following this murderous episode, but that will be a difficult pill for some readers to swallow after she massacred an entire village (even if the author copped out of it by conveniently resurrecting everyone...but this is YA after all).

Ultimately, it turns out that Roën, the mercenary side-character without a POV chapter of his own, displayed the most character development of anyone. He pulls a Severus Snape, going from a grey area of working for both sides for personal gain to finding a reason to fight for something better, a transformation nearly entirely driven by his love for Zélie. While I remain skeptical that two highly-volatile characters who have been primarily fueled by rage and pain can make for a successful long term relationship (perhaps one of the Healers can invent cognitive therapy), their story still felt like one of the few satisfying elements of the entire book.

So, in the end, it turns out war, genocide, structural racism, and governmental overthrow are messy. Everyone involved has mixed motivations and violence is a near a guarantee. Are vengeance-fueled teens frustrating and a little scary? Yes. Can idealism turn dark? For sure. Are child warriors disturbing? Absolutely. All in all, this is a book with complicated plot and subject matter that meanders so much I wasn't sure how the author would wrap it all up. An abrupt, cliff-hanger, twist ending may not be what we, the faithful readers, disserved after hanging on through this entire book. But what did we expect? I guess we'll have to wait for the third and final installment to see if we get any real resolution to what has been a wild ride of a series.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jeeniusreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad tense 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

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

summer_19_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

beccaand's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense 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

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

le3713's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

3.5

This is fundamentally a war novel and, like many middle books in a fantasy trilogy, has neither the fun of introducing a new world and characters, nor the satisfaction of a conclusion. All three of the protagonists were incredibly frustrating, though there were some great supporting characters. That said, I need the final book ASAP!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

stacy_27_'s review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-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

5.0

This book was absolutely amazing. I didn't know how Tomi Adeyemi would improve on the first book's perfection, but she did. This book was everything.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

charlottebreads's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

cw/tw: death, blood, grief, genocide
age rating: 13+

plot
- there was none. literally nothing happened.
- the villain was just the evil king from COBAB with super powers and a different name.
- there was a freedom-fighter-esque group called the Iyika. think jet's freedom fighters in ATLA — they were basically the same thing. they both do really stupid things, like try to take out an entire town of innocent people because their enemies are inside it, to further their cause.
they also randomly get kidnapped at the end.
- the plot went around in circles. the book could have been 200 pages shorter if the characters had just communicated.

characters
zelie : she became so self-righteous throughout the book. she always thought she was right, and the Iyika worshipped the ground she walked on. also she was horrible to amari.
amari : i despised what adeyemi did with amari. her character was completely butchered. i didn't like that nobody listened to her just because she was a tîtán. i also didn't like how she was written completely out of character to show how the crown corrupts even the nicest people.
tzain : tzain, who? he was barely there. the only thing he did was leave amari for zélie, because amari sucks and zélie is the best, obviously :/
inan : he was trying so hard to make peace with the Ikiya, but they were too self-righteous to realise. he was also quite wishy-washy and did whatever his mother told him. whatever spine he had in COBAB disappeared in COVAV.
roën : the most vanilla love interest ever. he had zero character depth. inan was better.
queen nailah : she was basically the same as the king from COBAB with superpowers. no motivation whatsoever.
the ikiya : very self-righteous, perfect for zélie tbh. so self-righteous that they destroyed all of the food that inan was giving to the maji, just because it was from the monarchy. it's like, people are hungry but you'll DESTROY THE FREE FOOD AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT THE MONARCHY ISN'T DOING ANYTHING TO HELP MAJI!!! WHATTT!!!
ojore : idek. WHAT WAS HIS PURPOSE?! he literally does nothing.
 mama agba : the only good character. i'm surprised that she could put up with everyone. the only issue i have with her is that she thought zélie was right.

in conclusion
children of virtue & vengeance does not exist.
children of blood & bone is a stand-alone and will stay a stand-alone until the series redeems itself.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

internalnonsense's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

3 feels pretty generous for how underwhelmed I am by this sequel, but disappointed expectations doesn't inherently diminish the quality. It did offer more diversity, more magic, more Mama Agba. There were good set piece moments and some compelling writing.

It just did not continue the story or the character's stories in a way I enjoyed or engaged with. Some characters are set back to square one, some are just pushed to the side, and others are jerked along as the plot requires. They introduced a lot of new characters who, with the exception of two more plot-relevant ones, blended together. The world building expanded some, but there wasn't a moment where I felt it really built from what's been established, as much as playing with new elements. One piece of backstory actively ruined a pretty essential element of the conflict for me. That all said, I do see the vision, the why of the overall story, and I can see of how it can arrive at the same place in a way that really satisfies. 
As for the last minute twist, I'm not going to say I saw it coming but it didn't catch me entirely off guard. It also justified Ronan's prominence, which felt like a sore thumb for me. Still, what foreshadowing there was was sparse and blunt so the twist still feels abrupt. Again, I can see how it could work, but right now it isn't and doesn't set up enough for the next book.
 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

nebraskanwriter's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

2.25

Children of Blood and Bone was such a unique take on magic and the dystopian tropes that we have seen so often in Young Adult, especially in the last 10 years. So with its predecessor doing so well, I thought the latter would live up to what the first book laid the ground work for and build off of it. 

But that did not happen. 

I tried so many times to like this book but there was one point where I almost DNF’d it because I thought I wouldn’t be able to get through it. I muscled on however and was sadly disappointed by the result. 
 
Children of Vengeance and Virtue flickers between multiple perspectives, like the first book, which I normally do not like but Adeyemi does a great job of making each transition seamless and not jarring. 

The story picks right back up where we left off at the end of the first book where Zelie and the others have brought magic back to the world. What ensues in this book is them trying to overthrow the monarchy and the monarchy trying to crush the maji. Now that magic is back, not only are the maji more powerful but royals and other people of power in the monarchy have magic which I thought was very interesting. I liked seeing this new side of magic that even the maji were baffled at. There are battles periodically through out the book, power struggles with Amari and the maji leaders, inner struggles of Zelie as she comes to grips with what happened in the first book and other minor subplots for majority of the novel. The climax happens the last 40 pages or so of the book with a twist ending that made little to no sense. 

I know the author wants to make the reader interested in the next book but all the meandering and floundering around of the plot before the main battle, Zelie’s continual and constant despisement for Amari and a few other things just rubbed me the wrong way made me think twice about my rating. I was going to give this 3 stars but thinking back on my reading experience, I really did not enjoy it as much as I would have liked to.

The rich world of the maji is still beautiful and stunning, all the characters are more or less fleshed out and the author does a great job of balancing three perspectives as well as helping us understand and sympathize with even the most twisted of characters. Sadly, the last 40 pages or so of the book finally reaching its climax just could not carry or save the other 364 pages of this book. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...