Book Review | Children of Blood and Bone

“Live,” his spirit breathes. “Whatever you do, survive.”

Wow, guys. What can I even say about this book? Every article, every review, every post I had seen about it should’ve prepared me for its greatness, but I was too scared to have high expectations. I went into this behemoth of a story with as little expectations as I could muster, and it blew me away. The hype was real with this one, and it lived up to it in every way possible.

I think my favorite thing about the story is how familiar it felt while also being so incredibly different from anything I’d ever read. Yes, we’ve followed an endless list of strong protagonists on numerous adventures with magic and mayhem, so I wasn’t anticipating the plot to really wow me. But it was such a fresh take on a traditional adventure, and the characters were diverse and just great. Every time something new would happen, my mind would flip, and I’d wonder, “Where is this story going now?!”

It looks intimidating, and believe me, it took me days of nothing but staring at its 600 pages before I finally gathered enough courage to open the damn thing. Hell, I was planning on posting this review on its release date, so you can see that I was scared of it for at least a week. By looking at its sheer size, you’d think it would be a challenging read, but I actually had no problems in that aspect. It read really easily, and even though it took me longer to get through than most books I’ve read, I enjoyed spacing it out and taking my time with the pages. It is dense, but it’s so worth it.

The characters were well written, and without saying too much, certain characters have me a bit worried. Adeyemi is very good at writing characters who you simultaneously feel for and can’t stand. The people in this story made mistakes, they chose wrongly, and they felt real. The settings, too, were incredible. I know from cyber stalking Tomi that she based a lot of the places mentioned in CoBaB off of real African cities and places, which I find super interesting. I found myself constantly googling phrases and locations to educate myself on the culture, and it made the reading experience all the more enjoyable. The magic system used is intriguing and very Avatar Last Airbender-esque, so if you love that, you’ll be thrilled with CoBaB.

The fact that Children of Blood and Bone is a debut novel by a 24-year-old Woman is baffling to me. It’s written like a well-seasoned professional, and I cannot wait to see where this story goes from here. I mean, THAT ENDING THOUGH.