A review by sv_m04
Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

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

3.5

I really wanted to like this more since I love the worldbuilding and loved the first book. But in the end I think that maybe the author tried to do too many things at once and a lot of the character arcs felt rushed to me.
Amari suddenly becoming a mass murderer after one chapter where she was betrayed by Inan after fighting for peace the entire book felt wrong. Especially since she faced so much negativity because she wanted peace (something which I personally found hard to read, the hatred towards Amari before she turned bad).
I did really love Inan's character arc, it felt very natural and logical to me as did Ojore's, Nehanda and Mama Agba. I love the new cast (even if I find it hard to read
how they treat Amari
). The strongest elements in this book are not just the physical but the emotional battles as well. I love the romantic subplots and familial bonds this book introduced, though even more Iove the new magic lore and getting to see more Maji culture, though I don't like the
plottwist that they can bring people back from the dead. It lowers the stakes, makes the past deaths seem unnecessary and it mainly just feels like an excuse used by the writer to make Amari's deeds seem less awful. Even though that probably wasn't the intention. I am also sad to see Inan didn't get to shine as much this book.

Something I personally can't stand and never have liked are miscommunication tropes and this book is full of people misunderstanding each other and hating each other because of it, though it isn't a bad thing just a personal thing. It works extremely well in the context of the war and with these high stakes. I cried multiply times, once more mainly for Zélie.
Her character arc went all over the place and how she changed her mind was very frustrating at times, though very realistic. Still, my biggest frustration lies with the end and the sudden kidnapping by a third party. I don't feel like there was any buildup to that ending at all and it feels like a very cheap cliffhanger and a dissatisfying ending. That and the treatment of Amari are my biggest issues with this book.
I'm still very interested in seeing what comes next for these characters that I've grown so attached to.
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