Scan barcode
A review by ravenstitcher
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
3.0
This is actually going to be a difficult review to write. The trick is to get my point across without giving away any spoilers. But, as a reviewer, I want to give what I feel is a fair and accurate review of how I personally feel about this book. Some people may disagree with my analysis, but some may also find it helpful. The "Children of Blood and Bone" is an enjoyable book, it is a good book, it is not a GREAT book. Let me explain, there are three big problems that I have with this novel: predictability, inconsistency, and ego. I think I have your attention. Here we go...
Predictability. I've read a lot of books in my life. The ones that I find the most enjoyable are the ones that surprise me. They have plot twists that I didn't see coming, they have endings that I didn't expect. Unfortunately, "Children of Blood and Bone" does not deliver on that. You can look back on my reading updates and can find where at one point I gave a page update and made the comment: "I feel like something bad is about to happen." Well, 20 pages later it did. I just read that the author has already sold the film rights and it is being made into a movie. Now I know why the plot was so predictable, it's been the plot of just about every young adult book that is out there. (Here is where it gets tricky, to make my point without a spoiler). As a student of Literature we're all taught the 'layout' of a play (or novel): The introduction, the rising action, the climax, the denouement (or falling action), and the conclusion. The only real surprise in "Children of Blood and Bone" is that there are several scenes that you THINK are the climax, and they are only one of many.
Inconsistency, that is a one-world definition for something that is a pet peeve of mine with any work: plot holes. There are quite a lot of plot holes in "Children of Blood and Bone." I'm not talking swiss cheese here, just enough to be annoying. There is one scene where two characters are captured and their siblings try to rescue them (vague enough to not be a spoiler?), there is a huge battle to rescue them from a highly secretive base filled with ninja-like warriors. Then a few chapters later those ninja-like warriors have suddenly forgotten all of their training in order to throw a party that goes terribly wrong. Really? Towards the end we find out that one character, a pretty major one, suddenly had a whole other family that was previously unmentioned and their destruction was what turned him into the man that he is in the book. Huh? Another problem I had was with the characters themselves. You have two sets of siblings: Tzain and Zelie and Inan and Amari. One set are diviners that are a slave caste that are oppressed by the royalty and nobility, which are the other set of siblings. Living in totally different environments, the two sets would have had very different access to education. Yet somehow all four of them converse and have intellectual debates with the same vocabulary, just different perspective.
The last is ego. In that, I'm targeting specifically that of the author, Tomi Adeyemi. "Children of Blood and Bone" is, as I started off by saying, an enjoyable book. I highly encourage people to read it. However, I would recommend that people skip the "Author's Note" at the end. I'm not going to detail it, because I don't want people to read that first (like I did halfway through) and potentially spoil the whole book. We're taught that a GREAT Book is a book that is an Original Work that can be read on many different levels. What we DON'T need, is to have those levels spoon fed to us like pablum at the end of the book. The Author's Note I found to be actually somewhat insulting. Let me explain before you close the review and never read another of my reviews ever again or leave me a Flaming Comment. I'm not disagreeing with her sentiments in the Author's Note. The social injustices that she calls out are shameful and terrible and need to stop, I am TOTALLY in agreement with that! I disagree with the need to put in with the book itself. Great authors throughout history have NOT felt the need to write their own Critical Review of their own novels AND INCLUDE them in the First Edition of the book! Did Mark Twain leave an essay at the end of "Huckleberry Finn" stating that he wrote the novel because he was offended by slavery? Did C.S. Lewis write an Author's Note at the end of the "Chronicles of Narnia" about the loss of innocence in war? No, he trusted that his Readers would be able to figure that out for themselves. Adeyemi should have given her Readers the same benefit of the doubt, rather than dumbing it down for them. Save the subject of the "Author's Note" for the lecture circuit, the book tours, and the TED talks.
Ok, I got that out of my system. Even with the issues I mentioned above, I still recommend this book. For it's problems, it's still a good book. The worldbuilding that Adeyemi creates is impressible. I particularly like the inventive integration of the big cats into her world. To be honest, Nailah (the lionaire) was probably my favorite character. I've always enjoyed those books where the main character has a pet-like sidekick. It reminds me of Honor Harrington and her treecat or Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flix. I think the most underappreciated character is Zelie's brother, Tzain. Of all the main characters, he hardly gets any character development. In the first half of the book, there are chapters written from his perspective. However, it seems that in the last half of the book he hardly gets any at all. I really enjoyed the sibling interaction between him and his sister early on in the book. It's a shame that sort of went away and he was a bit left behind.
This is my open and honest review. However, I still encourage folks to read "Children of Blood and Bone" and decide for themselves. It is worth the time to read and I think that you'll enjoy it. Not everyone reads a book from a literary perspective, that's my curse I think. Read it just as a book. Then, AFTER you've read and mentally digested it, then you can read the "Author's note" if you wish. But give yourself time to let the exciting and magical story of Zelie and Amari sink in first. Let me know how you liked it.
Predictability. I've read a lot of books in my life. The ones that I find the most enjoyable are the ones that surprise me. They have plot twists that I didn't see coming, they have endings that I didn't expect. Unfortunately, "Children of Blood and Bone" does not deliver on that. You can look back on my reading updates and can find where at one point I gave a page update and made the comment: "I feel like something bad is about to happen." Well, 20 pages later it did. I just read that the author has already sold the film rights and it is being made into a movie. Now I know why the plot was so predictable, it's been the plot of just about every young adult book that is out there. (Here is where it gets tricky, to make my point without a spoiler). As a student of Literature we're all taught the 'layout' of a play (or novel): The introduction, the rising action, the climax, the denouement (or falling action), and the conclusion. The only real surprise in "Children of Blood and Bone" is that there are several scenes that you THINK are the climax, and they are only one of many.
Inconsistency, that is a one-world definition for something that is a pet peeve of mine with any work: plot holes. There are quite a lot of plot holes in "Children of Blood and Bone." I'm not talking swiss cheese here, just enough to be annoying. There is one scene where two characters are captured and their siblings try to rescue them (vague enough to not be a spoiler?), there is a huge battle to rescue them from a highly secretive base filled with ninja-like warriors. Then a few chapters later those ninja-like warriors have suddenly forgotten all of their training in order to throw a party that goes terribly wrong. Really? Towards the end we find out that one character, a pretty major one, suddenly had a whole other family that was previously unmentioned and their destruction was what turned him into the man that he is in the book. Huh? Another problem I had was with the characters themselves. You have two sets of siblings: Tzain and Zelie and Inan and Amari. One set are diviners that are a slave caste that are oppressed by the royalty and nobility, which are the other set of siblings. Living in totally different environments, the two sets would have had very different access to education. Yet somehow all four of them converse and have intellectual debates with the same vocabulary, just different perspective.
The last is ego. In that, I'm targeting specifically that of the author, Tomi Adeyemi. "Children of Blood and Bone" is, as I started off by saying, an enjoyable book. I highly encourage people to read it. However, I would recommend that people skip the "Author's Note" at the end. I'm not going to detail it, because I don't want people to read that first (like I did halfway through) and potentially spoil the whole book. We're taught that a GREAT Book is a book that is an Original Work that can be read on many different levels. What we DON'T need, is to have those levels spoon fed to us like pablum at the end of the book. The Author's Note I found to be actually somewhat insulting. Let me explain before you close the review and never read another of my reviews ever again or leave me a Flaming Comment. I'm not disagreeing with her sentiments in the Author's Note. The social injustices that she calls out are shameful and terrible and need to stop, I am TOTALLY in agreement with that! I disagree with the need to put in with the book itself. Great authors throughout history have NOT felt the need to write their own Critical Review of their own novels AND INCLUDE them in the First Edition of the book! Did Mark Twain leave an essay at the end of "Huckleberry Finn" stating that he wrote the novel because he was offended by slavery? Did C.S. Lewis write an Author's Note at the end of the "Chronicles of Narnia" about the loss of innocence in war? No, he trusted that his Readers would be able to figure that out for themselves. Adeyemi should have given her Readers the same benefit of the doubt, rather than dumbing it down for them. Save the subject of the "Author's Note" for the lecture circuit, the book tours, and the TED talks.
Ok, I got that out of my system. Even with the issues I mentioned above, I still recommend this book. For it's problems, it's still a good book. The worldbuilding that Adeyemi creates is impressible. I particularly like the inventive integration of the big cats into her world. To be honest, Nailah (the lionaire) was probably my favorite character. I've always enjoyed those books where the main character has a pet-like sidekick. It reminds me of Honor Harrington and her treecat or Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flix. I think the most underappreciated character is Zelie's brother, Tzain. Of all the main characters, he hardly gets any character development. In the first half of the book, there are chapters written from his perspective. However, it seems that in the last half of the book he hardly gets any at all. I really enjoyed the sibling interaction between him and his sister early on in the book. It's a shame that sort of went away and he was a bit left behind.
This is my open and honest review. However, I still encourage folks to read "Children of Blood and Bone" and decide for themselves. It is worth the time to read and I think that you'll enjoy it. Not everyone reads a book from a literary perspective, that's my curse I think. Read it just as a book. Then, AFTER you've read and mentally digested it, then you can read the "Author's note" if you wish. But give yourself time to let the exciting and magical story of Zelie and Amari sink in first. Let me know how you liked it.