My sister once asked me “How come there are no fantasy novels written by black people?” Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of fantasies written by black people, but we never actually heard about them. That is, until Children of Blood and Bone by Nigerian-American Tomi Adeyemi came along.
I had to read this book for school, but I finished it waaaaaaay before the semester even started. It’s magical and intense and I was always anticipating what was going to happen next. Needless to say, I loved it.
Title and Cover
I. Love. The title. I’m a dark fantasy writer, so of course something dark like “Children of Blood and Bone” is bound to get my attention. And the cover is absolutely beautiful too!
Plot
This isn’t just a fantasy novel, y’all. This is an EPIC, and a lot happens. All of the different adventures they have is probably enough to equate to a season of Avatar: The Last Airbender (maybe a little less, but in more detail; it’s a novel, not a show). But, boy, does what happen keep you on your toes.
Characters
I feel like I should always state who my favorite character is ’cause I love them too much to not mention them. And my favorite in this novel was Amari. In my opinion, many of the other characters seemed pretty negative (and understandably so!) and Amari contrasted that negativity pretty well.
But, of course, like all other amazing books, the other characters are great too. There was only one character that I actually didn’t like, but there’s a chance that he’s not even supposed to be liked, which would just be another sign of great writing.
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Setting
The world that COBAB takes place in is amazing and I can’t wait to learn more about it in the sequel. There’s so much history and conflict that I’d love to take a history class in that world.
It’s not just the history, but also the culture. Much of it is based on West African culture, which you really don’t see in most popular fantasy novels. It’s nice to see African culture being used as a base to create a world.
Style
First, lemme say that there is quite a bit of head-hopping going on in this book. That’s when the narrator of the story changes to someone else. This is important to clearly see Adeyemi’s skill. her style changes depending on which character is narrating. Changing the voice in dialogue is one thing, but changing the voice in narration is another. Even so, Adeyemi does it well.
The only thing I disliked was that sometimes Adeyemi will head-hop in the middle of a scene. That’s just a personal pet-peeve of mine, though, and it actually didn’t bother me as much as it usually does (looking at you, Wattpad and Rainbow Rowell).
Again, I loved this book and getting lost in the world was super easy. If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts on it. If you haven’t, I highly recommend it (and after you read it, come back and lemme know your thoughts, haha).
Children of Blood and Bone
My sister once asked me "How come there are no fantasy novels written by black people?" Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of fantasies written by black people, but we never ...