Book Review: Children Of Blood & Bone; Tomi Adeyemi.

I have been gagging to read this book. Hands down it was my most anticipated read of 2018 and I'm so excited that I got to read it this month right as it came out, and watch it's success! I never had any worries about the hype train with this one!

SOURCE: ARC Sent By Publisher
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Children Of Blood & Bone
AUTHOR: Tomi Adeyemi
SERIES: Legacy of Orïsha (#1)
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children's Books
PAGES: 531
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Adventure

RATING: 5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers - and her growing feelings for an enemy.

What I Liked:

• The story is told from three POVs and I loved all of them. Zélie is the first - a staff wielding maji who is my newest favourite heroine of all time! I loved her attitude and courage, and her heart too. Amari took a little longer to grow on me but she really came into her own by the end of the book and I am really rooting for her continued character development! Lastly, my favourite anti-hero, Inan. He's infuriatingly misguided, but I adored him and he was definitely my favourite POV to read from.
• I haven't even started on the non POV characters, all of whom were really well crafted! Saran was a brilliant villain, and so complex which is my favourite thing to read. It's surprising how little work is put into the character development of villains most of the time. Obviously I loved Tzain, Zélie's older brother, and other great characters such as Mama Agba, Zu and Röen.
• Orïsha is beautiful. Adeyemi did a wonderful job of writing such a beautiful setting and I loved how much of it we got to see! In fact, her writing generally was very impressive. I was hooked all the way through this book, and keeping a reader's interest in a book almost 600 pages long is hard people! She never let up on that perfect pacing though and I was fully invested throughout the whole thing!

What I Disliked:

• There really isn't anything to write here. I'm serious. I adored this book from beginning to end, even though it took me a while to finish it, and I'm left totally blind-sided by that cruel cliffhanger! If I could change anything it would probably be that because it certainly didn't ease me out of the book gently.

Overall Conclusion:

Read this book. There are so many things that I've mentioned above that I loved about it and I haven't even started on the fierce representation for minorities here (there is not a single white character in this book! Finally!) nor the racial and social issues that Adeyemi represents through the friction between maji and non-maji. This read is empowering, magical and will grip you from start to finish!