Children of Blood and Bone | Tomi Adeyemi

"Good hearts don't leave scars like that. They don't burn villages down."

   Children of Blood and Bone was very hyped when it came out, back in 2018. I saw it all over bookstagram, tumblr and even Goodreads was pushing it down my throat. And I caved - I bought it. I was intrigued by the premise and I really wanted to read more books set on the African continent, sprinkled with their mythology and legends. And this book has it in spades. Its sequel Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second book in the planned trilogy, has come out as well.

    The novel is told from three perspectives: Zelie, Amari and Inan. All three live in Orisha, a country that used to have magic, with its wielders being the maji - ten tribes of them with different abilities to be correct - but now is devoid of it. King Saran - Amari and Inan's father - has killed all the maji in the Raid eleven years ago, having been burned by their power and fearful of what else they could do with. Now only the children remain - recognizable by their white hair and silver eyes, whom Saran left alive because they had not yet reached their power. Now they are known as diviners, and their lives are incredibly difficult, with having to pay enormous - and always raising - taxes just for existing, and the people helping them are being punished as well. If the taxes are not paid, they go into the stocks where they're supposed to work until they pay their debt off. But with the taxes always rising the day of freedom never comes and the slaves remain there for the rest of their days.

"I won't let your ignorance silence my pain."

    This is where we find Zelie. She lives in a village by the sea with her father Baba and brother Tzain. Eleven years ago she saw the soldiers drag her mother away and hang her in majacite chains. She lives in constant fear, though she is loath to admit it to herself, and takes a secret fighting class that a local woman, Mama Agba, teaches. On the day of her graduation from the class, the soldiers come and demand more taxes for maggots. Zelie speaks up but only to her peril, as one of the guards demonstrates that she is nothing and he could easily overpower and rape her if he wanted. She later finds her father at death's door because he'd gone fishing so he had something to sell to pay off the tax. Zelie's filled with guilt as everyone she cares about seems to be ruined just by her proximity. She goes to sell some fish in the capital Lagos in order to get the money needed.

    On that same day, Amari, the princess of Orisha, is sitting with her mother and other court ladies. She is criticized for her dark skin and her eating habits, as is her usual burden, and is restless. Finding out that her personal servant and best friend Binta, a diviner, has been summoned by her father, she goes off to look for her. As she gets to the throne room she sees that an old artefact has been found, a maji scroll, and that Binta seems to have magic when she touches it.  As she watches her father casually kill her friend, she is overwhelmed by grief and anger. Not knowing what exactly she is doing, she steals the scroll and runs away, running into Zelie in town. The two manage to escape the guard after a perilous flight, but the terror is brought to Zelie's village which they burn to the ground is search of her. 

"Afraid.

I am always afraid."

    Joined now by Zelie's elder brother Tzain, the two go on a dangerous quest of returning the magic back to Orisha. They must find two other artefacts and get to a secret island before the next solstice - which is in a fortnight. Their task is to get to a temple and to there restore the bond of the maji to the gods. The are pursued by Inan, newly named the commander of the guard by his father. He is looking for his father's approval and is determined to get the scroll that was stolen at any cost. Believing that magic is an inconceivable danger, he fancies himself a hero. But soon the knowledge that his sister is one of the people he's hunting, and other discoveries - such as the strange connection to Zelie and his own apparent magic - make him hesitant and indecisive.

"As long as we don't have magic, they will never treat us with respect. They need to know we can hit them back. If they burn our homes, we burn theirs, too."

    And so they speed off. They meet many people, they see too many things: the old gods and their temples, the misery of the stocks. The story really takes us through a lot and covers many social issues as well. Racism is prevalent here as the people with lighter skin are much revered and those with dark skin are not - even Amari's mother is shamed by her daughter's darker complexion, and she's a princess. The classism is apparent as well, with the diviners being of a lower class - well, lowest really - and living in slums while being called the disgusting slur - maggot. I cannot help thinking of its parallel in our world: the n-word and the financial and social oppression of people of color. The stocks are obviously indentured servitude turned into slavery, with the prisoners working to pay off an ever increasing debt. The cases of the king's guard being set loose on people with nothing to check them coincide with the increasing number of police brutality cases, and it's something that's mentioned in the author's note as an inspiration for writing the novel.

    I love the world that is created, the rich mythology. The gods are beautiful and the story of the Sky Mother, her god children and her blood and bone children is beautiful. The maji have sibling deities and each of the deities gave their human brothers and sisters abilities, making them maji. I cannot do this woeld justice here, you really need to read it to fully grasp it. 

"And there it is.

That word.

That miserable, degrading slur.

Whispered with no regard. Wrapped in that arrogant smirk."

    Now, I have to be honest, I did not completely like this book. I'm sorry. I was looking forward to it so much, expecting a story that will sweep me off my feet, as it seems to have swept the rest of the internet, and I ended up immensely disappointed. I hated all the point-of-view characters, for one. Not one of them is a likeable person. Zelie is selfish to a fault and only thinks of herself. She never stops and wonders what consequences her actions will bring forth. And it is always others paying for her - like Mama Agba, or Baba and, more frequently, her poor brother Tzain. It really frustrated me how bullheaded she is and how unwilling to take advice. Her impulsiveness gets everyone in trouble and she never even attempts to check it. She feels bad for a bit when someone else is hurt because of her, but she soon gets over it and is back on her worst behavior. I detested her.

    Inan is an idiot as well. I understand the tragic background - the cruel father, the instilled fear and hate of the maji, and all that is well. But he is so indecisive it made my head spin. He'd make three completely different decisions in the span of a single chapter, then he'd go off like a rabid dog to carry out his father's whims, but then a few hours later he's all tender and caring for Zelie. I just wanted to smack him and tell him to make up his useless and weak mind. His self-loathing also struck me as very dramatic but this is a YA, so what did I expect? Rational thinking? His sister Amari had the same childhood, but seems to be made of sterner stuff and she openly defies her father with her every action. Still, even her freezing at any sign of danger, even though her fighting skills would be of great use, started to grate on my nerves after a while. But she is not irredeemable, so I suppose she will grow as the story progresses,

       

    The romance! I did not expect romance here and I wish I did not get it. Zelie is extremely distrustful of Inan at first, hates him even because she knows that he's pursuing them by his father's orders. That's all well merited. But then they begin to meet in his dreamscape (everyone is a maji, apparently) and tender feelings surface. The two are forced to work together to save their siblings. After that the true romance blooms with the duo exchanging more than kisses. Then there's betrayal, torture, a rescue... And just when you think Inan is good he does more stupid things in order to please his tyrannical father. I can't even... Hopefully this thread does not appear in the following books because it makes no sense whatsoever.

"You raised me to fight monsters. It took far too long to understand that the real monster was you."

    What to say in the end? I did not hate this book but I did not particularly like it, either. The world is great but the characters kept pulling me out of the story. I just wanted to strangle the lot of them (except Tzain, he's good, he can stay). Maybe I am simply too old now to read this sort of book, who knows? I just felt like it was too dramatic and too long and had some of the least likeable main characters I've encountered. By the end, I didn't even care what happened to them, so - not ideal. I am glad I waited to buy the sequel because I saved myself some money, as I have no intention of forcing myself to read any more about Orisha. It was strain enough to finish this.

    Did you read Children of Blood and Bone? Did it leave a better impression than it did on me?