Micro Review Of Tomi Adeyemi's Children Of Blood And Bones— Pawners Paper

Children Of Blood And Bones is a debut young adult fantasy novel of a Nigerian- American novelist, Tomi Adeyemi. The book received many positive...

Micro Review Of Tomi Adeyemi's Children Of Blood And Bones

Title: Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha)

Author: Tomi Adeyemi 

Genre: Fantasy Adventure

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Children Of Blood And Bones is a debut young adult fantasy novel of a Nigeria-American novelist, Tomi Adeyemi. The book received many positive critics  from the public and debuted at number 1 on The New Yorks best sellers list. Also, the book  landed a movie deal with Fox 2000 pictures, which is one of the biggest movie deals any young adult fantasy story has ever had.

The novel focuses on the West African mythology, as it revolves around a world of magic with dark past and magical creatures. The books gives the readers the pleasure of exploring the world in their minds and a sneak peak view into the African culture and literature. It was also appraised for its lyrical prose and excellent style of description of adventure, action, magic, romance, friendship and interesting political themes.

The story focuses on Zelie, Amari and Inan. Zélie was born a maji(a person meant to wield the magic of the gods for the good and benefit of the people of Orisha). But during her childhood, the king of Orisha, ordered a powerful raid that wiped out most of the maji, including her mother, subjugated them and robbed them of their powers.The majis are known by their white hair and without their powers, majis and their families live at the mercy of the king.

 While Amari and Inan are the children of the king of Orisha, they were brought up cold and taught to put Orisha before anything even at the expense of being compassionate.

Eventually, an incident allowed Amari to reaccess what their father had taught them. Amari fled from the palace with a scroll that withholds the secret that can restore magic to the people of Orisha.

Zélie and Amari eventually becomes allies and travelled with the sole purpose of finding a way to restore magic to Orisha. However, Inan, the brother of Amari went after them on a hot trail with the sole purpose of destroying magic and proving himself.

Children of blood and bones was said to captivate the issues of police brutality and class in the society and is often related with Angie Thomas' "The Hate You Give". The thriving issues of oppression and domination,  racism and class in the society was made evident in the novel, as the it opens with King Saran's reigns over an empire in which skin color relatively dictates status and power. The gentry is lighter-toned and obsessed with skin bleaching, and the maji have been reduced to serfdom and slavery. 

Here are some of the reviews:

Kirkus Reviews describes the novel as:

"Powerful, captivating, and raw―Adeyemi is a talent to watch. Exceptional." 

Also, an insightful review form Publishers Weekly states:

"Adeyemi’s devastating debut is a brutal, beautiful tale of revolution, faith, and star-crossed love." wrote Kiran Millwood 

Hargrave from The Guardian found it as "a hugely enjoyable escapist story that makes you re-examine the world around you."

The Atlantic, an online magazine says:

"Adeyemi’s tale of young visionaries navigating a twisted world is psychologically deft and mostly well paced, an excellent bet to live up to the high expectations of it."

Children Of Virtue And Vengeance: Legacy Of Orisha, a sequel to children of blood and bones has also been released