A review by ailsaod
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 This book is definitely overhyped. It is by no means a bad story but the only thing distinguishing it from the rest of the pack is its setting. I did appreciate the setting and it was certainly the best part but the plot was very basic and the characters were not great at all.

I was not perticularly fond of any of the characters but this was not helped at all by the whole situation of having two sets of a brother and a sister who both fall for the other set of siblings was just not what I wanted when I was already reading a different not great book that used the same trope at the same time. Amari and Tzain weren't too bad a couple, although given their competition that is not hard to say. Zelie and Inan have an enemies to lovers situation and I think I'm beginning to realise that just isn't my thing? Like what was Zelie seeing in Inan? I can sympathise with Inan to a (very small) extent because his whole world repeatedly gets overturned in the course of the book but he is a complete mess and from the scene early in the book where Zelie and Inan first make eye contact and have an instantaneous magical 'connection' I was watching the progression of their relationship wishing they would stop! Also speaking of Inan, he is like Kylo Ren's baby cousin in terms of picking a side in the main conflict like mate, just decide if you are evil or not already! When he is convincing himself to do his father's, the king, bidding he repeats some phrase that's something like "duty before self" and tells himself it is for the country's good but given the number of random civilians that he/his soldiers casually murder I would like to know how on earth he finds this a compelling reason.

This book is primarily an allegory for the treatment of black people and I think it did well in this (though I cannot speak of the authenticity) but I also would say that the situation in Orisha is a little more complex as there is a power dynamic between those that have powers and those that do not. The argument that Diviners are too dangerous has some weight in Orisha but the same does not hold in the real world. That being said, a perfect metaphor would no longer be a metaphor. 
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