Title: Children of Blood and Bone
Author: Tomi Adeyemi
Type: Fiction, Audiobook
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Date published: March 6, 2018

The audiobook files were kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. I received the ARC from a friend.

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’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 the enemy.

– My Review –

Where to begin? First of all, I just wanted to say that most of my review is for the audiobook version of the book. I was very busy last month, especially with commuting, so with the exception of a few chapters, I listened to to the audiobook sent to me by Macmillan for review, rather than reading the ARC sent to me by a friend.

I wanted to talk about the overall plot, and characters first, and will cover the audiobook aspects afterward. Firstly, I wanted to say how happy I was with the detailing that went into the creation of the world of Children of Blood and Bone, a.k.a. the world of Orisha. My all time favourite genre is high fantasy (and I used to read these epically-large books while I was in high school. Yes, I was that kid, haha.) and I really appreciate epic high fantasy maps. The ARC sadly didn’t have a map, and the audiobook obviously didn’t, but I as able to enjoy it once I had a hardcover/finished copy in my hands, and let me tell you … epic.

I also really liked the characters. Some of them took me a little longer for me to warm up to, but once I liked them, I liked them a lot. I like that there was a large focus on family and community in this book. There was also romance, which made the romantic in me very happy. The dialogue was great, and I enjoyed most of the character interactions. There were characters that I loved, and characters that I hated (which I think should be the case for most great books). There was also a great focus on all the manner of ways in which characters (and people in the real world) can hate each other simply based on the colour of one’s skin, the country in which someone was born, the language that one speaks, and the deities that one prays to. This book was definitely a commentary on issues in the real world, and I couldn’t agree more that there is much work that needs to be done before we can reach a time of peace, and not just tolerance and acceptance, but love.

Now, let’s talk about the audiobook! I would firstly like to thank Macmillan for offering to send me the audio files for review. It really helped me get through this very thick book in a time when I was quite busy. I was also happy to find that the narrator, Bahni Turpin, was a very skilled reader! She gave all of the characters very believable accents, and did a great job at creating a distinct voice for each character telling the story. One of the characters was even male, and she was fantastic at making me believe that she was actually that male character narrating! There was also a lot of acting that went into this narrator’s storytelling, which greatly added to her reading of Children of Blood and Bone. When the characters would scream in pain, the narrator screamed in pain, and it sounded believable. This really helped me get immersed in the story that much more.

I really enjoyed this world, story, characters, and particularly the gods and the magic system! And listening to the audiobook also made my experience that much better. I highly recommend this book in general, and definitely recommend the audiobook. Also, I look forward to the next book, and seeing where the story takes the characters next!

– About the Author –

Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. Her debut novel, CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, comes out March 6th, 2018 and the movie is currently in development at Fox with the producers of Twilight and The Maze Runner attached. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 3,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.

– Audiobook –

– Hardcover –

THANK YOU FOR READING MY AUDIOBOOK AND ARC REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? HAVE YOU LISTENED TO THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION? WHAT DID YOU THINK? IS THIS BOOK ON YOUR TBR? AND ALSO, DO YOU GENERALLY LISTEN TO AUDIOBOOKS? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!