Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

9 reviews

paintedpolarbear's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

3.0

am i the only one who was supremely confused by everyone's actions? why are we doing this

Overall a decent sequel to the previous, but I had many issues with pacing and characterization that can't be overlooked, as well as what I believe was a fatal deviation from the intended plot progression. Many themes and throughlines from the first book appear to have been dropped or outright reversed in this installment.

To start with, the introduction of Titans was, at the beginning, a logical progression from the ending of the previous book. "The Gods work in mysterious ways" indeed, and it appeared to be a natural consequence of magic returning to the world. How would maji, with their closed cultural practices revolving around magic, adapt to the sudden influx of non-religious magic users? How would the new Titans adapt to their unprecedented powers? The answer was badly, on both counts, with the arrival of Titans sowing immediate chaos and disunity among the nation. Nobody handled this well. My major gripe was how quickly the argument among the maji devolved from actual cultural concerns to "well we just have to account for them when drawing up plans on how to kill as many people as possible." The idea that this was the gods' plan all along just never came up, which is insane considering how many other discussions revolved around trying to puzzle out the gods' will. What should have been a metaphor for socio-religious conflict became "my enemy leveled up, so now I have to level up as well," ad infinitum. Nobody wins in an arms race, btw.

One constant bugbear throughout the entire book was Amari's choices and actions. She quickly went from a character I was rooting for to a character I was hoping would die in a rockslide or something. Like, I get it, what are you supposed to do when the person whose approval you need says to your face that the best thing you can do for your country is die, but...I think the right answer is NOT to turn around and immediately magically lobotomize that person, take up the role of tribal elder (it's giving settler colonialism 🥴), and proceed to develop your own special and unique take on magic that completely disregards the cultural history that you have only just now become even slightly curious about. I'm also side-eyeing Mama Agba for condoning and encouraging literally everything about this. 

Not to mention the LITERAL ACTUAL WAR CRIME of TARGETING CIVILIANS. Over which she has the AUDACITY to be shocked and dismayed that people are upset that she committed. Of which SHE is upset ONLY BECAUSE IT DIDN'T WORK. And expected everyone (including her boyfriend) to forgive her when OTHER PEOPLE have to resort to BLOOD SACRIFICE to invent NEW MAGIC just to UNDO WHAT SHE DID.

(This is not to say I am not side-eying Zelie/the Iyika literally using the exact same superweapon in their attack against the monarchy in the next scene, but it's fine because they're targeting soldiers? Can we be serious.)

Oh and the epilogue. Why was the trans-Atlantic slave trade overture necessary at all?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, Torture, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Violence, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death, and Genocide

jlemms87's review

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

I didn’t think it was possible for this one to destroy me more than the first, but here I am. Destroyed. 

SO well done. I had to pace myself because the darkness and hate were so well written that I needed breaks. My heart is still aching for each of the characters, and for how desperately I just wanted them to listen to one another. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Colonisation, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Child death, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Blood, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Racial slurs, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

This is an intense, fast-paced read. The battle scenes are brutal, the love stories are laced with complications, and the young people who are at odds with each other are naive yet steadfast toward their beliefs. The ending was such a cliffhanger that I didn’t expect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Murder, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, War, Gore, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Child death, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

cecinamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

3.75

I really liked this book. It was really good, but very very sad and there was also quite a lot of violence. 
There is also a lesbian background couple <3 I am definitely looking forward to the third book. Hopefully their story ends well! >~< 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Colonisation, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Murder

angievansprang's review

adventurous challenging dark 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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am loving this series. The magic system is so intricate and I appreciate the attention to detail in crafting this world. The plot twists in the second book of this series kept me on the edge of my seat and made this a fast read. I felt as though Adeyemi did well at increasing the pacing and decreasing the page count in this book compared to Children of Blood and Bone. You better bet I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the third book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Classism, Death, Violence, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Grief

abby_can_read's review

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? It's complicated

3.0

📱
After finishing the first book, I had high exceptions and I don't think this book lived up to them. This was a decent book and there were parts that I enjoyed reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Colonisation and Gaslighting

ci_eden's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

This took me a year to read due to my ADHD but definitely a great sequel! I could definitely feel how the characters matured throughout the book. The smaller chapters spur me on and I feel like the POV is evenly spread between each character. I honestly can't wait for this to get picked up for a TV show, it'll be absolutely stunning. The way Adeyemi described things, I can truly visualise it in my head.

The fact that the war technically hasn't ended and that they're on a boat in the sea?! Who is this new player Tomi, I need to read the next one right now!!

Also I love how flawed Zelie is. I love a strong woman going through shit, and she doesn't want to run away anymore, she found her purpose, fuck yeah! Although she has horrible taste in men. Also did NOT expect Amari to kill innocent people. Trauma and abuse really twists you.

These are tortured characters that just keep getting battered and abused. Children fighting wars, as the title says. I feel for them, I really do. I feel like their deaths are inevitable but I can't look away... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Violence, War, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Hate crime

Minor: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

andromeda_1998's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

Well let’s say I’m conflicted, I liked children of blood and bone, it wasn’t the best book ever but I liked it still… but this sequel isn’t it for me and I don’t need to read book 3. I’m going to end things here. The characters where annoying, the plot was cluttered and the ending… well the ending was a dumpster fire 🔥. I wanted to love this book so badly or at least enjoy it but it just wasn’t for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, War, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, Death, and Racism

lois_aguda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, and War