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A review by sheryl_macca
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I chose this book to tick off the Afrofuturism prompt of the Reading Women Challenge 2020. I hadn't heard of Afrofuturism before and even after reading a little about it I wasn't sure I fully grasped the concept.
Children of Blood and Bone is the story of a quest to return magic to Orisha, to right the generations of injustice that have gone before, to unite the people and share power.
It's told through 4 points of view and I do love multiple POVs but in this book it didn't work as well for me as it usually does. The book is full off emotion, history and chaos. There are clearly comparisons to be made with apartide, segregation, institutional racism and the events which recently led to the BLM protests. There are powerful emotions around the coming of age, discovering your inner strength, testing yourself, trust and responsibility. There are first loves, family connections, grief and challenges of belonging. I wanted deeper more insightful narrators to really explore all of these themes and I found that each chapter was too short to accomplish this. I was hopping from one narrator to the next too quickly.
Having said that, it's a wonderful world that has been created and there's an interesting timelessness to the story. The adventure just keeps on coming, on land and on water. It's a great work of fantasy but it missed the mark on the feels.
Children of Blood and Bone is the story of a quest to return magic to Orisha, to right the generations of injustice that have gone before, to unite the people and share power.
It's told through 4 points of view and I do love multiple POVs but in this book it didn't work as well for me as it usually does. The book is full off emotion, history and chaos. There are clearly comparisons to be made with apartide, segregation, institutional racism and the events which recently led to the BLM protests. There are powerful emotions around the coming of age, discovering your inner strength, testing yourself, trust and responsibility. There are first loves, family connections, grief and challenges of belonging. I wanted deeper more insightful narrators to really explore all of these themes and I found that each chapter was too short to accomplish this. I was hopping from one narrator to the next too quickly.
Having said that, it's a wonderful world that has been created and there's an interesting timelessness to the story. The adventure just keeps on coming, on land and on water. It's a great work of fantasy but it missed the mark on the feels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, and Violence