They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

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 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.

Children of Blood and Bone was another beautiful, magical and intriguing book that helped me survive beginning of the school. Recently, I had very limited amount of time for reading and reviewing and I am so happy I finally managed to sit and finish amazing journey I started with this book weeks ago.

Book is set in West-African inspired world – Orïsha. People who can wield magic are called maji, but no longer exist since King Saran destroyed source of magic and killed all maji. Only reminder that magic ever existed are diviners – children who are born with white hair and are hated and afflicted by entire kingdom. One day, The Scroll appears (magical object that awakens magic among diviners), and Zélie, Amari and her brother Tzain go on a quest to return magic before it is gone forever.

I enjoyed reading every page of this book! It is filled with action ad twists at all times and never gets boring. It wasn’t predicable at any moment and every time I was sure I knew how things were going to develop some new twist or happening surprised me. It was easy and fun to read, story flows naturally and, in my opinion, is paced perfectly, with just the right amount of action, dialogues, problematics and romance.

I like world building a lot. It isn’t too complicated and it’s easy to grasp. There are several types of majis who can perform different types of magic. There was no magic for 11 years since Saran killed every senator in Candomblé -sacred temple, where rituals must be performed in order to maintain magic system. When one of the three Sacred artifacts reappears, Zélie must find the other two and perform a ritual before the solstice or magic will disappear forever. After that plot twist at the end, I cannot wait to read more about their magic and their connection with gods.

I loved all characters, but I just felt like I could not quite connect to them. Character I liked most was Inan. He is really interesting because of his constant internal struggle between Zélie and his father. He was raised to be like his father and abused his whole life to believe magic must be destroyed. When *minor spoiler* becomes maji, he hates himself at first, but slowly realizes which side is worth fighting for, even though *spoiler* in the end he turns his back on Zélie. I loved reading from his perspective and seeing the fight inside him. He reminds me a lot of Matthias Helvar (Six of Crows), where he constantly has to choose between his father and Zélie, everything he believed and something that he feels is right. *major spoiler* His death shocked me because I truly liked his character, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of him.

Zélie was my second favorite character and I liked her a lot as well. She is full of determination and fights despite everything. Her relationship with her brother and father was described beautifully and I always love reading about love among family. What I liked about her character the most was the fact that she did not let herself despair or crumble under the weight of all that pain. She was abused and forced to make sacrifices her entire life, but she never gave up and kept fighting. She wanted to bring magic back not because she wanted power or glory, but because she felt weak and helpless and wanted to fight back.


Tzain and Amari are both dear characters to me, but I just didn’t connect with them like I did with Inan or Zélie. Amari was plain and although I liked how she developed through their journey.

*Next paragraph contains spoilers*
I didn’t quite like the prospect of romance. It felt a bit rushed, especially between Inan and Zélie. I really love those two and there was chemistry, but they fell in love in matter of days spent together and it just felt unnatural and rushed. As for Tzain and Amari I hope they get proper development and they are cute together.

What I loved most about this book was the message it sends. I read author’s note before starting the book itself so I knew exactly what was presented.


The pain in this book is real – I could feel all those people who were wrongfully abused because of the wrong standards in society or the way they were born. This book is amazingly written and describes all that pain and consequences of the abuse. I really enjoyed reading about Zelie and her will to fight back and stop the abuse of power.


Something else that got me interested right away was the problem of magic (or power, let’s say). There is always problem with those who have too much power, and that is they use it to abuse those who do not have it. King Saran destroyed magic and killed all majis because some killed his family and he fears that magic can bring only violence, not realizing he is doing the exact thing. Throughout the book I could sense all problems bringing magic back would cause – overuse of power first among them. *spoiler* The moment I realized bringing magic back was going to be a problem was when the burner from village sacrificed himself and produced huge amount of power, which was described as unnatural and that no one should possess that kind of power.


So, I agree with Zélie on fighting back and showing them what it feels like to be abused, but Inan sees what would happen if majis (who are full of anger after years of abuse) got their power back. It would lead to the opposite situation, continuing the cycle that never stops. I can say problematics about the abuse of power are amazingly described and developed and can’t wait to see how will things play out.


Adeyemi wrote such an amaying book and I recommend it to everyone in look for a good fantasy read.