I second this. James, please read the entire series and review everything- including the big-ass special edition books, the “manga”, and maybe the of Warriors online games as a treat.
@Fabio Pauli lol yeah that’s understandable. It takes a long-ass time to get through that series. It took me several years. Honestly though it would be interesting to see him compare the differing levels of quality for different main series.
@@awildnuisanceappears2784 my opinion was always Prophecy Begins > Power of Three > Vision of Shadows > Dawn of the Clans > Omen of the Stars > The New Prophecy. I would love to go into detail but well- this is just a youtube comment xD
@Black Orchid I’m 26 and still read them. The first six still hold up. I every six books gets a little more faulty. But the first six are still iconic.
This book is what actually got me out of Booktube. Every TH-camr I watched RAVED about this book so I thought it was actually going to be good. The only book that Booktube got me to read that was actually good was the Mistborn series and the CHUNKER that is the Way of Kings.
When I originally read it I thought it was the most mediocre thing in existence but the endless praise it got _everywhere_ annoyed me so much it had a negative effect on how I perceived the book
As a Yoruba person I was SO EXCITED to read a fantasy book based on my culture and the Orisha, but this book was absolute trash. I was stunned that, despite Adeyemi being Yoruba herself, the book read like someone who Accidently discovered Nigeria on Wikipedia on a random thurs afternoon. Why is the country called Orisha? That doesn't make any sense. And the fact that the cities and states are REAL places in Nigeria were very distracting. Imagine if in lord of the rings Gandalf is on his way to Chicago? And the plot being a copy and past of the entire 1st season of ATLA was also very jarring. These are only a few of the issues I had. I wish that the book could've been more unique and original, then at least I could rationalize the overwhelming love it has received.
Genuinely the part that was the worst for me and put me off the book entirely was the development of the relationship. It was the most rushed and poorly developed aspect because it literally made no sense at all. Like huh? Where's the development? Build up, tension? ANYTHING? To her knowledge he literally burnt down her entire home village and everyone in it suffered...but she still somehow likes him? There was literally no reason, no conversations no concrete work or effort put into making their love actually interesting to see progress. If romance is to be added pls at least make it somewhat interesting to watch develop This is exactly why I'm starting to slowly fall out of love with one of my favourite tropes which is enemies to lovers. Instead of seeing the actually interesting part where two ppl slowly learn each others differences and quirks and blosom into something more, it's such a huge jump. The most ciritval, fun, engaging and interesting part IS the transition. It's so played out to death with no actual care or effort put into it.
So what you actually might like is a slow burn enemies-to-lovers book. Sadly, I have no recommendations but if you search r/Fantasy or r/RomanceBooks you might get what you're looking for. I am pretty sure I saw requests like this one there sometimes.
Talia Flor yh I love slow burns because they feel authentic and like development. Unfortunately I don’t even have any that I’ve read just in TV shows, probably explains why I’m always on Netflix more than reading now 💀💀💀
What annoyed me so much about this book was how much potential it had, some of the worldbuilding was genuinely some of the coolest I've seen In YA fantasy and the majority of it was not explored _at all_ I felt totally robbed
I agree! The author had something there, but it's clear she wasn't confident to strike out on her own that she fell back on tropes and well known properties to its detriment. In honesty, it also feels like the book was just incomplete? The story begins to unravel at some midpoint that would've been easily spotted by an editor and fixed with revisions.
My sister got the first two books for me years ago. Either a birthday or Christmas present. I didn’t read them. I don’t like the first person present writing style. It’s just not for me. I feel bad because I love fantasy and I appreciate the gift, but overall I just couldn’t get into it.
To be honest, I was appalled by how blatantly the author "borrowed" character archetypes, relationships, worldbuilding elements, and plot structure from the first season of Avatar. Zelie is Katara, Inan is Zuko, Tzain is Sokka, and Amari is what you do to Aang if you want Katara to be the main character. The only reason this book has any legs is because the author borrowed so much from the first season of Avatar. She wasn't able to do that with her second book and you can tell.
@@tsunaida And it didn't even fit for the story! In Avatar the comet took months, it was a week(s) (can't remember anymore) in the book, which really put a stopper to fleshing out the world, characters and plot because we were barreling to the end from the start! It made no sense that a unified country would be so segregated not only by magic/non magic, but magic class as compared to Avatar where they were separate nations. And that conflict between magic/non magic feels convoluted when the Royals also have special magic of their own. The author's reliance on Avatar actively hurts the story.
Thats halarious given she then accused Nora Roberts of Plagerisum and said nora was stealing from her unique and special idea... Edit: "It would be nice if an artist could create some special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it"
Yeah. It felt like the author wanted you to like him and want a redemption arc, but the issue was he had no redeemable qualities. There was no reason to like him at all.
It goes deeper than that. Zelie is Katara, Amari is Aang, and Tzain is Sokka. Not beat for beat, but compare each character and you’ll see a lot of similarities.
it's funny because my feelings about Inan and King Saran boil down to "you hate magic because it's dangerous, so you use that as an excuse to oppress people, but then you don't like...oppress blacksmiths who make swords, which are also dangerous. make it make sense."
The thing that annoyed me the most was the world building, the author just copy-pasted the names of Nigerian cities into the world. The author went to Harvard to study west African culture so I expected it to be handled a lot better, like including various religions like an empire would realistically have
She studied English at Harvard not West African religion. The mythos was based on Yoruba religion, so naturally the world was based in cities where the Yoruba people have lived for centuries. I mean if you’re writing about norse mythology you don’t suddenly start discussing Zeus.
@@themelanatednomad6989 There’s no problem with creating a fictional empire based off of traditional yoruba culture, but when you start naming the cities after real life cities where many people are currently living it starts to feel like the story was written for white people or she just was to lazy to come up with her own names. Like if I opened up a fantasy book based off of medieval Western Europe and that geographically didn’t look anything like the places its inspired by but the capitol was literally named London, I would have the same complaint. Also in her bio on the back of the novel I clearly remember it saying she studied West African culture so I don’t know, maybe she studied both I also had the same issue with her making Yoruba to be this magical language that their not allowed to speak. It just really takes me out of the world when authors start incorporating real life things into a made up world when its not contemporary or historical fantasy. There was also that weird thing with her hair changing texture when she uses her powers, and how its drawn as being straight in the cover designs.
When this book came out there was so much hype for it on booktube so I ended up picking it up only for it to become the first book I never finished. I think what disappoints me the most is that as the book progressed, I felt the romance plot dragging down everything else. I think the mythology and magic of the world as well as the struggles of the main characters would've been better explored if it didn't fall into the YA romance trap. Super disappointed by this book but if it's a necessary step in the publishing world before we get more and better African-inspired stories then I'll take it.
The book got popular because it was explicitly YA (with romance), there are amazing African oriented fantasy stories. The Broken Earth triology is one of my absolute favourites. But I will agree that hopefully this spells more of them, even if some end up being duds.
A good read is He Who Fights With Monsters for African-inspired but, after 80 chapters it goes heavy on monologues and side stories. Apparently it picks back up but the endless dredge of the middle made me stop.
I get the sense that Tomi Adeyemi talked the talk regarding the West African fantasy element, but didn't walk the walk, instead falling back on teenagerish YA tropes which weren't needed. The story would have prob worked better with complex characters that weren't all good/bad (including King Saran - similar to Sauron btw).
@@outherewildinb2874 Definitely going to pick up the Broken Earth trilogy once it's available at my library, thanks for the recommendation! I think overall more diversity in storytelling is a good thing to trend towards, maybe publishers will be willing to take more "risks" in the future because of the success of Adeyemi's stories.
I read this a while back, and yeah it was pretty bland. I really enjoyed the first half but after the arena arc it just turned into a very generic YA book, and I got bored. What bothered me, aside from the unrealistic romance escalation, was how it touched upon the morality of magic but never bothered to explore it. Like, dang, missed opportunity there.
while I enjoyed this book, I definitely agree with your point that the POV characters were barely distinguishable from each other and they had no real personal voice beyond what was handed to them via the plot. there were several times throughout this book and the second book where I found myself having to check back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself whose POV it was, because the characters here have virtually no personality to speak of
Didn’t the author...a rooky debut author...try to take on Nora Roberts...one of the most prolific romance writers of all time...for plagiarizing her generic ass title? Like first of all it’s some sort of weird ego trip to assume you’re even really on such a big authors radar especially to that point and second off I can’t tell you how many times I got this title mixed up with Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo so maybe if you don’t want to be “plagiarized” you shouldn’t have such a cliche title, just a thought Anyways if you want a good YA book based on West African mythology read A Song of Wraith and Ruin
At the risk of stating the obvious, the book got a lot of hype because it was written by a Nigerian-American author based on a culture that doesn't get a lot of representation in Western literature. Someday, when the field is more diverse and we'll have more authors like this, the book will be seen as a pioneer that was average-ish, but until then....
my mom wanted me to read this (never finished). James I have been listening to your videos as a podcast and I think you have such good thoughts on these things and writing and world building. I think you are interesting even when I disagree which is surprisingly rare on yt. :)
I read this a while ago but I remember hating the pacing of it because the characters never really grew for me aside from Amari? The last few chapters were so rushed to me like Zel lost her powers for a chapter or two right before the big battle and then she had them again and it was like okay there went that suspense. Plus she learned all of her powers off screen despite barely knowing anything in the beginning because she was so young when her mother died, which really sucked imo because I wanted to see her tackle such a huge obstacle, and then the REALLY rushed romance with Inan... no. Girl, he tried to kill you for 300 pages.
Am I the only one who would like for him to talk about the Red Queen series? It's another YA distopian fantasy that follows a lot of the tropes but I still like it and if he says it is at least slightly better than other YA stories it would be enough for me 😔❤️ Also I'd like to see his thoughts on the worldbuilding too
I actually enjoyed Red Queen. It has its flaws, but it was fun & fast paced. I haven’t and won’t be reading War Storm. Before I read the last book I wanted to reread the series since it had been a while. I had an awful time rereading Glass Sword. IMO so many parts of that book were boring. I don’t know how I managed to read it the 1st time. So my re read of King’s Cage never happened.
@@maddiepaddy2608 sooo I think being team Maven after the first book makes no sense cause you know 😳 so yeah 100% team cal, I still love Maven's character tho, just not in a romantic relationship with Mare lol
@@janellelives5158 I've been rereading the series too and just finished Glass Sword, while I didn't have a problem with it the first time I read I totally see why everyone sees it as the worst of the series, it takes more than 100 pages for it to start the actual plot of the book and even if these first 100 pages have interesting and important stuff imo it was just SOOO slow, but I think it gets some unnecessary hate for some things like Mare's arc. People complain she's annoying when her arc this book IS her slowly loosing herself and becoming the type of monster she's trying to defeat and I think it was really cool to see it.
I think something I’m getting really tired of in YA fantasy is the trope of making people with magic a sort of oppressed class. It’s not that it can’t work well or provide some important social commentary, because it absolutely can, it’s that every time it’s used it always comes off a samey. I’d like to see a YA story about magic peoples being the oppressive instead, I feel like that could make for much more interesting world building As for the book itself, I never finished it but I enjoyed what I read. The connection between Avatar was still obvious though, and frankly I’m just waiting for when YA authors realize that not every fantasy story about a non-western culture has to be like Avatar to be good
1. It is said in the book (quite early might I add) that the magic people (maji) had their powers revoked because they abused it to exploit non-magical people. 2. There have been many pieces of YA fantasy that've deviated far from the ATLA formula, a lot of which have found moderate success within the marginalised groups they aim to represent. Curiously, I have noticed a lot of White readers complaining about the derivative nature of many non-white YA fantasies whilst only reserving popularity and fanfare for the premises that are familiar to their audience (love triangles, fantastical journeys, teen angst, etc.)
As an African who was craving this adaptation and inclusion, I have to congratulate anyone who actually finished the first book and especially both. I've only read about 20 pages since 2019 and finally gave up this February. I was trying! but yah i couldn't. Hi if you know any African fantasy novels id really appreciate a recommendation.
Black Leopard Red Wolf Daughters of Nri Kingdom of Souls Tales of Esowon: The Kishi The Rage of Dragons Malika Warrior Queen (more a graphic novel) Akata Witch
@@africariseup1890 thank you so much! I definitely will be going through these. I read Black Leopard Red Wolf in January and I'm still crying. the book has my heart.
Imaro The Rage of Dragons Kingdon of Souls TJ Young & the Orisha Son of the Storm Who Fears Death Changa's Safari Dossouye duology Meji duology Daughters of Nri Red Monk of Roha (more so historical fiction than fantasy tbh)
I read this book a few years ago and I thought it was pretty mediocre. The concepts (and the African influences) were great, but I didn't like reading this book. I often was so annoyed at the characters. Curiosly enough, I remember that I thought Zelie was the most annoying one - although followed closely by Inan. What bothered me the most was how formulaic it was. Sometimes things felt like points that were on a checklist for a successful book, especially the romance. It wasn't developed well and made no sense in-world. In addition, it was so unoriginal and unnecessary. I definitely think that the book would have been better without a romance.
I really wanted to like it because I enjoy fantasy and CoBaB's mythos takes from aspects of the Yoruba religion which is part of my culture but after reading it to the end I was so underwhelmed and slightly annoyed. It just ended up feeling like an extra long prequel to an actual story. Overall I was simply disappointed by the storyline and characters. I think A Song of Wraiths & Ruin by Roseanne A Brown did a much better job with similar themes/motifs!
If you want a good book about a black charicter read the girl In red by Christina Henry its about a girl who is In a post apocaliptic america from a pandemic trying to get to Her grandmas house and Her charicter is an atual charicter shes à totel badass and its a really fun book too
This book was so hyped I bought a signed version, but it was....fine. It wasn’t amazing or made me think too hard, was just disappointing. It’s not bad, it’s just not good either.
Yeah, but then the YA community wouldn't let you raise any valid criticisms despite nobody even having a strong attachment or reaction. It seemed like the hype died the second people finished reading it
Completely off topic, as I haven't read this book, but I have seen quite a few of your videos. I have to say, your introduction song is actually really good, very captivating!
I read the book and I think it's anything but 'bland' and 'unoriginal' it actually was a really good read but I understand that people see things differently and may not like or appreciate what I do. If by any chance you are wondering whether or not to read the book, I think you should...atleast give it a shot. ( It's presently one of my favourite books )
I read it a while ago and I thought it was fine overall (?) I enjoyed it for the most part. But I hated the love interest, I hated the ending with her dad and it just wasn‘t special/extraordinary enough to make me pick up the second book in the series.
I’m sick of books having these similar titles over and over again, it’s like everyone wants their series to sound like ASOIAF so they just substitute in Bone, Blood, Ruin or some other dark but cool sounding word that probably has nothing to do with the plot.
OK before i watch the vid i have to say this *PLEASE READ AXIOMS BY END LIDSAY ELLIS* .first time i read that one i thought it was pretty Good because it took my breath away And because i shipped So Hard amari with zelie... (yes i was sad but i hoped it be a set up for them to become a thing In the next book). This time around i thought i read a easy book to get through a slump (during my exams) And i read until the poison trope And stopped.... This book sucks a lot... Espesialy considering the hype...
@@lewissmith5759 ok this will be a long comment/review so... brace yourself. *I dont want to offend anyone who enjoed the book, i am just sharing my thoughts* *SPOILERS* (also sorry i know you dont give a cent about the opinion of stranger online but... for better or worse i am gonna give it to you). OK so the *setting* of the worldbuilding is quite neet, but the worldbulding falls sort in many areas (eg you give us special/unique animals like that tiger/leopardy-thingies but you dont elaborate too much on their history of physiology or how they exist-something like they are the company of mages as long us our world exist would be enough) the *magic system*... well i didnt really have many problems with it, it was just a little too soft for my taste, but solid enough - but then again the magic mgaffin that is supposed to change the world trope was ... not a great excecution. *TOPES* omg there are SO many of them here. That wouldnt be a problem if there were playing a true role here. some of them are played for the lols like the poison trope. *PACING* this book had a good pacing over all but some point felt a little too slow to me and the fact that every chapter ended in a chliffhanger pissed me so much on my second read(dnf). also tose cliffhungers they got resolved a few pg in the next ch.... *CHARACTERS* I quite liked zelie -even if at points i facepalmed but we'll get to that- she was smart and fault enough to have a personality -something more than ager issues and stuborness but mainly those traits) and i enjoyed her process of learning a few things about her magic even if it was throuh pure exposition. Now amari... well what can i say about her? she had the potential to be awsome but ... well lets see her journey... she just lost her best friend/girlfriend her maid ... she run away with the mgffing and stumble to zelie, who almost kill her, they get to market where she oh so sudtly gets judged for her marks in her back and she has to get to an impossible mission to bring back the same thing that killed her mother and in a way her best friend/gf maid. WHERE IS ALL THOSE CONVULUTED EMOTIONS ?? where is her grief (something more than a puke and a few tears) ?? why is she all over zelie's brother?? omg she falls flat in my eyes Innan...oh well ...he was an intresting vilain at the first half of the book but then he does that 180 degree change (like zelie) and well he falls flat instead of complicated or tortured or anything else... all in all the relationships in this book are plain and straight up bad. Zelie's brother sould have died in my opinion either at the start while zelie choosed to save her father or in the first half of the journey thus forsing amari and zelie together. He is so blund that i dont even remeber a single thing about him other than he was "nice" and hot apparently. the relationp of zelie and inna make them both seem like they lost a bunch of their personality and iQ ... no hormones-excuse me i meant passion and love and magic- cannot be the blame for each crappy relationship in each book. But really now? zelie gives amari more than half the book to respect and trust her and she trust THE ENEMY in one night ? NOPE poor wrighting the insta hormonal love trope is awful and here is also badly excecuted too. what else ??? oh yeah the whole will wont they amari x zelie (?) flirts with queer baiting to me and many more people... almost like the writer changed her mind along the way of the book (or maybe during editing idk and we will never know) TLDR too many tropes, a little soft of a magic system, all caracters get a lobotomy halfway through the book and form stubit relationships, the plot is driven by the mgffing-not a great thing for a plot driven book- and there is (at best) suspicions of queer baiting one star on second read (dnf) if you read so far DAMN you propably dont have a life either during the pandemic like me. I dont want to offend anyone, i am just sharing my thoughts.
would you consider doing a review on the book "a heart for every doorway"? its got a really interesting concept (what happens to kids after they come back from their cool magical quests), some cool representation, and it's a murder mystery, but like. something is off and idk what it is.
have you considered looking into a review of David Eddings Mallorean and Belgariad series’? I grew up reading them and in hindsight they’re very average fantasy, but incredibly racist, Eddings used it to push a borderline fascist agenda. It was honestly disturbing to me when I thought back to the series. I don’t remember exactly if it could be considered YA Fantasy but I think a proper analysis of the two series in a connected universe and the many issues could be interesting
I might add this chick threw shade and accused Nora Roberts of plagerisum via stealing her title. ...and then tucked her tail when Nora scolded her like a child.
But it would be a good way to explore the concept of inspiration and sampling in books. I'd say don't get discouraged (Also if you read it for your MA you can compare her to Nnedi Okorafor who does write about African life and History in her books)
im glad that someone else is seeing just how bland this book was (and i love video essays in general) because i read this thing 2-3 times over for a reading competition
I read this back in 2018 and I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it. Even watching this video didn’t remind me of anything. So uh, totally forgettable in my book.
I remember reading it near the end of my YA phase and thinking "that's it"? It was so dull, it read like every YA fantasy, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The only reason it got any hype is because it was African-inspired
I remember getting a bad feeling about this book, like i knew it would be a waste of time. You confirmed my intuition James, and i thank you for suffering through it
I thought "Children of Blood and Bone" was OK if not outstanding. I agree with you that Inan's arc had a disappointing conclusion. I was also bothered by a minor theme of colorism shown by the royalty having significantly lighter (as in coppery) skin than the lower classes. That struck me as strange for a setting based on pre-colonial Nigeria, where almost everyone would have been dark brown to one degree or another regardless of class and European beauty standards hadn't yet permeated the African continent.
In a lot of cultures, including pre-modern Europe, colourism was a thing because wealthier people spent more time indoors. Supposedly this changed in Europe when commercial flights became more widely available and that's why fake tan is now popular, because a tan signifies having the wealth for lots of holidays abroad.
After reading up on the author, I can see why there was a lot of buzz behind it. She also offers an online writing course & got accused of stealing the name of the book.
I'm reading it right now for school and am just so bored and uninterested. It's not bad bad but not special at all. Like I've read to page 81 today and I want to quit. I feel like I'm reading something I've read 50 times. The characters just don't click with me.
Just when I got this book to check it out, here you are reviewing it and grilling it hot. I got it because the cover and little description I read sounded interesting, but I am strongly disappointed there wasn't more African folklore and story basing around it. It sounds like a knockoff ATLA. If I wanted that, I would check out Marcus Williams' ATLA comic series, which at least added in more African location descriptions, weapons, and lore to the world. (Hoping the new Avatar studio picks this up too.) And don't even get me started on the romance taking over. Once again, romance in a story not needed drags it down. I don't mind a dash of it, but the moment a book randomly relies heavily on it, the book loses me. You have so many African myths, folklore and the freedom with those, and you choose romance in place of diving deeper with those? Aight then 😒 This is coming from a hopeless romantic. Guess I'm not that hopeless with it. We deserve more than this 😔 At least there is Raybearer.
I came across the book in the library without even knowing it existed. I was only able to read up to a third into it before the lockdowns attacked. I do like multiple POVs, but I do have to admit the ethnic stereotypes based on lighter skin color sounds like they have a white man mindset in a way, which isn't African at all.
I just read shatter me and I feel the same way, was it predictable yes, was it memorable no, the characters felt basic and the plot was a mess and no world building but I finished in a day and it left zero impact on me. I tho I thought the concept was really cool but it was basically exactly like children of blood and bone just dystopian and I’m 100000% sure there will be a love triangle in book two.
To wash the taste of this out of your mouth, go read The Wandering Inn, by Pirateaba. It's 100% free and genuinely the best piece of fantasy writing I've ever experienced.
I actually discovered Wheel of Time by Pirateaba since they consider it major influence on Wandering Inn as well as being their favorite series. So it's really cool how WI started and to see it become more expansive is great. Now if only we had an actual accurate map of the world lol.
@@timidalchemist8475 Yeah lol. At least we have a few accurate and endorsed area maps, otherwise the locations and directions of this whole thing would drive me to madness. (Also, didn't know Wheel of Time was an inspiration, but it makes sense.)
![Hollywood Has a Casting Problem - Children of Blood and Bone Casting News [CC]](/img/n.gif)
arent all children made of blood and bone? id be concerned if my kid was like a limp little sack
The New York Times Bestseller "Limp Little Sacks"
@@marinaserina2658 the sequel to the acclaimed CBT
@@marinaserina2658 had a good laugh at this
I always forget about the introduction song and then I'm like :)
The one that's not very good but not too long?
true
Same lol
It's just the right length- not too long.
I like it, even if it's not that bad note that good
Im requesting that warrior cats review once again. I will not leave until you did it.
I second this. James, please read the entire series and review everything- including the big-ass special edition books, the “manga”, and maybe the of Warriors online games as a treat.
@@awildnuisanceappears2784 hey. Lets be realistic i would be happy if he just reviewed into the wild or the entire prophecy begins arc...
@Fabio Pauli lol yeah that’s understandable. It takes a long-ass time to get through that series. It took me several years. Honestly though it would be interesting to see him compare the differing levels of quality for different main series.
@@awildnuisanceappears2784 my opinion was always Prophecy Begins > Power of Three > Vision of Shadows > Dawn of the Clans > Omen of the Stars > The New Prophecy.
I would love to go into detail but well- this is just a youtube comment xD
@Black Orchid I’m 26 and still read them. The first six still hold up. I every six books gets a little more faulty. But the first six are still iconic.
This is what’s keeping me sane in a year of no vacations, and 12 hours a day 7 days a week hospital shifts.
Thank you for your service 💪🏻
Thank so much for your sacrifices and time dedicated to your shifts 🥺
African flavored generic YA fantasy. That's it. All the flavor text is just African instead of the usual medieval European stuff.
so true, so there's a little variety, but not really
Raybearer does it with more originality
@@catfoy8888 Huh? Oh, wich series?
@@Rivenlore99 Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko good book African inspired fantasy
@@catfoy8888 Oh, okay! Thanks, I may read it :)
I read this book a while ago and I was really bored but everyone was raving about it
yeah i bought the book and i was so excited but i literally dropped it i was so bored
This book is what actually got me out of Booktube. Every TH-camr I watched RAVED about this book so I thought it was actually going to be good. The only book that Booktube got me to read that was actually good was the Mistborn series and the CHUNKER that is the Way of Kings.
@@peva16 I did the same thing. I was disappointed that it was so generic.
When I originally read it I thought it was the most mediocre thing in existence but the endless praise it got _everywhere_ annoyed me so much it had a negative effect on how I perceived the book
@@edmdotmp3 I feel the same with Hate u Give honestly.
I loved this story but it probably meant so much more to me because of the African mythology
Same. Im so over European fiction 😂
As a Yoruba person I was SO EXCITED to read a fantasy book based on my culture and the Orisha, but this book was absolute trash. I was stunned that, despite Adeyemi being Yoruba herself, the book read like someone who Accidently discovered Nigeria on Wikipedia on a random thurs afternoon. Why is the country called Orisha? That doesn't make any sense. And the fact that the cities and states are REAL places in Nigeria were very distracting. Imagine if in lord of the rings Gandalf is on his way to Chicago? And the plot being a copy and past of the entire 1st season of ATLA was also very jarring. These are only a few of the issues I had. I wish that the book could've been more unique and original, then at least I could rationalize the overwhelming love it has received.
@@africanodyssey4805she wasn't raised in the culture.
Genuinely the part that was the worst for me and put me off the book entirely was the development of the relationship. It was the most rushed and poorly developed aspect because it literally made no sense at all. Like huh? Where's the development? Build up, tension? ANYTHING? To her knowledge he literally burnt down her entire home village and everyone in it suffered...but she still somehow likes him? There was literally no reason, no conversations no concrete work or effort put into making their love actually interesting to see progress. If romance is to be added pls at least make it somewhat interesting to watch develop
This is exactly why I'm starting to slowly fall out of love with one of my favourite tropes which is enemies to lovers. Instead of seeing the actually interesting part where two ppl slowly learn each others differences and quirks and blosom into something more, it's such a huge jump. The most ciritval, fun, engaging and interesting part IS the transition. It's so played out to death with no actual care or effort put into it.
So what you actually might like is a slow burn enemies-to-lovers book. Sadly, I have no recommendations but if you search r/Fantasy or r/RomanceBooks you might get what you're looking for. I am pretty sure I saw requests like this one there sometimes.
Talia Flor yh I love slow burns because they feel authentic and like development. Unfortunately I don’t even have any that I’ve read just in TV shows, probably explains why I’m always on Netflix more than reading now 💀💀💀
@@loveisanopendoor3532 honestly, the only place where I've found good romance - and especially good slow burn - is fanfiction sites like ao3
I agree. When done right, it's a super compelling and satisfying arc, but few writers have the patience to get it right.
Dude me too I was so confused!! I was like, wait... how tf did they suddenly fall in love? Didn't he just want to kill her like three seconds ago?
What annoyed me so much about this book was how much potential it had, some of the worldbuilding was genuinely some of the coolest I've seen In YA fantasy and the majority of it was not explored _at all_
I felt totally robbed
I agree! The author had something there, but it's clear she wasn't confident to strike out on her own that she fell back on tropes and well known properties to its detriment. In honesty, it also feels like the book was just incomplete? The story begins to unravel at some midpoint that would've been easily spotted by an editor and fixed with revisions.
@@outherewildinb2874 exactly, she kept making choices in regards to the main plot that were completely out of left field
the potential comes from all the things it rip offs
My sister got the first two books for me years ago. Either a birthday or Christmas present. I didn’t read them. I don’t like the first person present writing style. It’s just not for me. I feel bad because I love fantasy and I appreciate the gift, but overall I just couldn’t get into it.
To be honest, I was appalled by how blatantly the author "borrowed" character archetypes, relationships, worldbuilding elements, and plot structure from the first season of Avatar. Zelie is Katara, Inan is Zuko, Tzain is Sokka, and Amari is what you do to Aang if you want Katara to be the main character.
The only reason this book has any legs is because the author borrowed so much from the first season of Avatar. She wasn't able to do that with her second book and you can tell.
im pretty sure she planned on making a second book after publishing the first, which also shows that it was not planned out all the way
I also found the book waaay to heavily based on Avatar. Even down to the arrival of a comet being the deadline for the main character’s journey 🙄🙄
@@tsunaida what was it?
@@tsunaida And it didn't even fit for the story! In Avatar the comet took months, it was a week(s) (can't remember anymore) in the book, which really put a stopper to fleshing out the world, characters and plot because we were barreling to the end from the start! It made no sense that a unified country would be so segregated not only by magic/non magic, but magic class as compared to Avatar where they were separate nations. And that conflict between magic/non magic feels convoluted when the Royals also have special magic of their own. The author's reliance on Avatar actively hurts the story.
Thats halarious given she then accused Nora Roberts of Plagerisum and said nora was stealing from her unique and special idea...
Edit:
"It would be nice if an artist could create some special without another artist trying to shamelessly profit off it"
I had a feel when reading this book that the author wanted to make Inan kinda like Prince Zuko? but it kinda fell short imo
Yeah. It felt like the author wanted you to like him and want a redemption arc, but the issue was he had no redeemable qualities. There was no reason to like him at all.
Author literally said she lightly ripped off ATLA
It goes deeper than that. Zelie is Katara, Amari is Aang, and Tzain is Sokka. Not beat for beat, but compare each character and you’ll see a lot of similarities.
@@Nassit-Gnuoy Idk if I'd call softcore plagiarism 'deep' lol
@@1Dispretty2me "Lightly ripped off" lmao. her book ain't lighting ripping off anything. It's heavily ripping off Avatar.
How dare you speak of porridge this way James
That’s exactly how I felt with this book. I feel like I’ve read this book 100 times already it wasn’t super original and kind of bland
I read this book in 2019 and I remember being really disappointed that the main plot was just some side quest with some hate sex
Why does this sound like the review of a low quality RPG?
Oh God, don't tell me this book may as well BE a low quality RPG.
@@kabob0077 oh my god I need to call my DM
@@kabob0077 You role-play hate-sex in your RPG club? Like: "Now my character is pulling your character's hair!" How did your group meet each other?
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs I don't, I'm just saying that OP described this book in a fashion that sounds like the review of a low quality RPG of some kind.
hmm....never got to the hate sex. might as well try and read it again if only to get my money's worth
Did I just watch a Children of Blood and Bone video without a single comparison to ATLA????? wtf James
fr so much is compared to ATLA
It would be a dishonor to ATLA.
it's funny because my feelings about Inan and King Saran boil down to "you hate magic because it's dangerous, so you use that as an excuse to oppress people, but then you don't like...oppress blacksmiths who make swords, which are also dangerous. make it make sense."
The thing that annoyed me the most was the world building, the author just copy-pasted the names of Nigerian cities into the world. The author went to Harvard to study west African culture so I expected it to be handled a lot better, like including various religions like an empire would realistically have
She studied English at Harvard not West African religion. The mythos was based on Yoruba religion, so naturally the world was based in cities where the Yoruba people have lived for centuries. I mean if you’re writing about norse mythology you don’t suddenly start discussing Zeus.
@@themelanatednomad6989 There’s no problem with creating a fictional empire based off of traditional yoruba culture, but when you start naming the cities after real life cities where many people are currently living it starts to feel like the story was written for white people or she just was to lazy to come up with her own names. Like if I opened up a fantasy book based off of medieval Western Europe and that geographically didn’t look anything like the places its inspired by but the capitol was literally named London, I would have the same complaint. Also in her bio on the back of the novel I clearly remember it saying she studied West African culture so I don’t know, maybe she studied both
I also had the same issue with her making Yoruba to be this magical language that their not allowed to speak. It just really takes me out of the world when authors start incorporating real life things into a made up world when its not contemporary or historical fantasy. There was also that weird thing with her hair changing texture when she uses her powers, and how its drawn as being straight in the cover designs.
When this book came out there was so much hype for it on booktube so I ended up picking it up only for it to become the first book I never finished. I think what disappoints me the most is that as the book progressed, I felt the romance plot dragging down everything else. I think the mythology and magic of the world as well as the struggles of the main characters would've been better explored if it didn't fall into the YA romance trap. Super disappointed by this book but if it's a necessary step in the publishing world before we get more and better African-inspired stories then I'll take it.
I feel like booktubers always end up making YA because that's what they usually read.
The book got popular because it was explicitly YA (with romance), there are amazing African oriented fantasy stories. The Broken Earth triology is one of my absolute favourites. But I will agree that hopefully this spells more of them, even if some end up being duds.
A good read is He Who Fights With Monsters for African-inspired but, after 80 chapters it goes heavy on monologues and side stories. Apparently it picks back up but the endless dredge of the middle made me stop.
I get the sense that Tomi Adeyemi talked the talk regarding the West African fantasy element, but didn't walk the walk, instead falling back on teenagerish YA tropes which weren't needed.
The story would have prob worked better with complex characters that weren't all good/bad (including King Saran - similar to Sauron btw).
@@outherewildinb2874 Definitely going to pick up the Broken Earth trilogy once it's available at my library, thanks for the recommendation! I think overall more diversity in storytelling is a good thing to trend towards, maybe publishers will be willing to take more "risks" in the future because of the success of Adeyemi's stories.
I read this a while back, and yeah it was pretty bland. I really enjoyed the first half but after the arena arc it just turned into a very generic YA book, and I got bored. What bothered me, aside from the unrealistic romance escalation, was how it touched upon the morality of magic but never bothered to explore it. Like, dang, missed opportunity there.
The only thing I've ever seen that explores the morality of magic well are the Dragon Age games.
@@JamesTullos And if we include films, Karl Mordo in the Doctor Strange. He's moral to a point of being an extreme fundamentalist, hating sorcerers.
while I enjoyed this book, I definitely agree with your point that the POV characters were barely distinguishable from each other and they had no real personal voice beyond what was handed to them via the plot. there were several times throughout this book and the second book where I found myself having to check back to the beginning of the chapter to remind myself whose POV it was, because the characters here have virtually no personality to speak of
That was so true
Disney is making it into a movie.
They'll make anything into a movie.
It’ll do a Artemis Fowl and go straight to Disney +.
At least it'll have main POc actors, right?
@@Rivenlore99 We can only hope.
@@Rivenlore99 let's hope they can speak Yoruba wthout ruining it
Didn’t the author...a rooky debut author...try to take on Nora Roberts...one of the most prolific romance writers of all time...for plagiarizing her generic ass title? Like first of all it’s some sort of weird ego trip to assume you’re even really on such a big authors radar especially to that point and second off I can’t tell you how many times I got this title mixed up with Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo so maybe if you don’t want to be “plagiarized” you shouldn’t have such a cliche title, just a thought
Anyways if you want a good YA book based on West African mythology read A Song of Wraith and Ruin
At the risk of stating the obvious, the book got a lot of hype because it was written by a Nigerian-American author based on a culture that doesn't get a lot of representation in Western literature. Someday, when the field is more diverse and we'll have more authors like this, the book will be seen as a pioneer that was average-ish, but until then....
my mom wanted me to read this (never finished). James I have been listening to your videos as a podcast and I think you have such good thoughts on these things and writing and world building. I think you are interesting even when I disagree which is surprisingly rare on yt. :)
I read this a while ago but I remember hating the pacing of it because the characters never really grew for me aside from Amari? The last few chapters were so rushed to me like Zel lost her powers for a chapter or two right before the big battle and then she had them again and it was like okay there went that suspense. Plus she learned all of her powers off screen despite barely knowing anything in the beginning because she was so young when her mother died, which really sucked imo because I wanted to see her tackle such a huge obstacle, and then the REALLY rushed romance with Inan... no. Girl, he tried to kill you for 300 pages.
Comment to appease the algorithm. Also, the long hair is a good look. Also, I read the first five pages of this book and put it down.
Am I the only one who would like for him to talk about the Red Queen series? It's another YA distopian fantasy that follows a lot of the tropes but I still like it and if he says it is at least slightly better than other YA stories it would be enough for me 😔❤️ Also I'd like to see his thoughts on the worldbuilding too
im reading the second one right now and i found it was very similar to the ash princess series. are you team cal or?
I actually enjoyed Red Queen. It has its flaws, but it was fun & fast paced. I haven’t and won’t be reading War Storm. Before I read the last book I wanted to reread the series since it had been a while. I had an awful time rereading Glass Sword. IMO so many parts of that book were boring. I don’t know how I managed to read it the 1st time. So my re read of King’s Cage never happened.
@@maddiepaddy2608 sooo I think being team Maven after the first book makes no sense cause you know 😳 so yeah 100% team cal, I still love Maven's character tho, just not in a romantic relationship with Mare lol
@@janellelives5158 I've been rereading the series too and just finished Glass Sword, while I didn't have a problem with it the first time I read I totally see why everyone sees it as the worst of the series, it takes more than 100 pages for it to start the actual plot of the book and even if these first 100 pages have interesting and important stuff imo it was just SOOO slow, but I think it gets some unnecessary hate for some things like Mare's arc. People complain she's annoying when her arc this book IS her slowly loosing herself and becoming the type of monster she's trying to defeat and I think it was really cool to see it.
Id like to point out James looks really good in this hairstyle, it suits him a lot
I think something I’m getting really tired of in YA fantasy is the trope of making people with magic a sort of oppressed class. It’s not that it can’t work well or provide some important social commentary, because it absolutely can, it’s that every time it’s used it always comes off a samey. I’d like to see a YA story about magic peoples being the oppressive instead, I feel like that could make for much more interesting world building
As for the book itself, I never finished it but I enjoyed what I read. The connection between Avatar was still obvious though, and frankly I’m just waiting for when YA authors realize that not every fantasy story about a non-western culture has to be like Avatar to be good
1. It is said in the book (quite early might I add) that the magic people (maji) had their powers revoked because they abused it to exploit non-magical people.
2. There have been many pieces of YA fantasy that've deviated far from the ATLA formula, a lot of which have found moderate success within the marginalised groups they aim to represent. Curiously, I have noticed a lot of White readers complaining about the derivative nature of many non-white YA fantasies whilst only reserving popularity and fanfare for the premises that are familiar to their audience (love triangles, fantastical journeys, teen angst, etc.)
Bland as porridge in the streets of Manhattan looking for my brother. He was in Northern Canada.
You tellin' me a shrimp fried this rice
did you know that depression leads to memory loss
As an African who was craving this adaptation and inclusion, I have to congratulate anyone who actually finished the first book and especially both. I've only read about 20 pages since 2019 and finally gave up this February. I was trying! but yah i couldn't.
Hi
if you know any African fantasy novels id really appreciate a recommendation.
Black Leopard Red Wolf
Daughters of Nri
Kingdom of Souls
Tales of Esowon: The Kishi
The Rage of Dragons
Malika Warrior Queen (more a graphic novel)
Akata Witch
@@africariseup1890 thank you so much! I definitely will be going through these. I read Black Leopard Red Wolf in January and I'm still crying. the book has my heart.
Imaro
The Rage of Dragons
Kingdon of Souls
TJ Young & the Orisha
Son of the Storm
Who Fears Death
Changa's Safari
Dossouye duology
Meji duology
Daughters of Nri
Red Monk of Roha (more so historical fiction than fantasy tbh)
It was so unbearably bland I didn’t even read the last fifty pages
it gets a bit better mid way
@@deathsonas not worth it 😭
I got to the end and thought, "this story doesn't feel like it knows where it's going" 😬 Book 2 came out and suspicions were confirmed
I know i've read this book but i dont remember a single thing about it but that's probably just because it was some time ago
Did you know that your Patreon goal translates to €420.78? Yes. I'm also slightly disappointed.
Disney is adapting that book into a movie.
oh no
Oof. That's worrying knowing how Disney butcher adaptations.
@@timidalchemist8475 Well, they are still better than Netflix.
Well damn-
I read this book a few years ago and I thought it was pretty mediocre. The concepts (and the African influences) were great, but I didn't like reading this book. I often was so annoyed at the characters. Curiosly enough, I remember that I thought Zelie was the most annoying one - although followed closely by Inan. What bothered me the most was how formulaic it was. Sometimes things felt like points that were on a checklist for a successful book, especially the romance. It wasn't developed well and made no sense in-world. In addition, it was so unoriginal and unnecessary. I definitely think that the book would have been better without a romance.
A ton of YA books would be better if the romance was just developed more, or just not there
I love how my favourite booktubers are resembling jesus more and more 😂😂
I really wanted to like it because I enjoy fantasy and CoBaB's mythos takes from aspects of the Yoruba religion which is part of my culture but after reading it to the end I was so underwhelmed and slightly annoyed. It just ended up feeling like an extra long prequel to an actual story. Overall I was simply disappointed by the storyline and characters.
I think A Song of Wraiths & Ruin by Roseanne A Brown did a much better job with similar themes/motifs!
Goodled A S o W & R - seems to be rated well on Goodreads. Don't be surprised if it's made into a TV series/movie.
More bones than blood or flesh, this was basically just the skeleton of a story
If you want a good book about a black charicter read the girl In red by Christina Henry its about a girl who is In a post apocaliptic america from a pandemic trying to get to Her grandmas house and Her charicter is an atual charicter shes à totel badass and its a really fun book too
I read like 10 pages of this a year ago and then I got bored. only read it cause it was written by my mom's friend.
That's interesting
don't diss porridge like that, porridge tastes really nice
This book was so hyped I bought a signed version, but it was....fine. It wasn’t amazing or made me think too hard, was just disappointing. It’s not bad, it’s just not good either.
Yeah, but then the YA community wouldn't let you raise any valid criticisms despite nobody even having a strong attachment or reaction. It seemed like the hype died the second people finished reading it
@@emjenkins464 On the contrary, the hype's building due to the movie Lucasfilm are planning.
James suffers so we don’t have to
Completely off topic, as I haven't read this book, but I have seen quite a few of your videos. I have to say, your introduction song is actually really good, very captivating!
I really hope Adeyemi develops more creative and inventive plots she has really inventive world building but the plot isn't on the same level.
I read the book and I think it's anything but 'bland' and 'unoriginal' it actually was a really good read but I understand that people see things differently and may not like or appreciate what I do. If by any chance you are wondering whether or not to read the book, I think you should...atleast give it a shot.
( It's presently one of my favourite books )
I read it a while ago and I thought it was fine overall (?) I enjoyed it for the most part. But I hated the love interest, I hated the ending with her dad and it just wasn‘t special/extraordinary enough to make me pick up the second book in the series.
Also, just wanted to add that I love how your hair looks right now!
I sure hope if I ever write a book it's not bland as porridge :')
the school librarian recommended it to everyone at my school lol
It’s a African version of Avatar last air bender without the supporting characters that really built the story
I’m sick of books having these similar titles over and over again, it’s like everyone wants their series to sound like ASOIAF so they just substitute in Bone, Blood, Ruin or some other dark but cool sounding word that probably has nothing to do with the plot.
I liked the second book a fair bit more, then again I did read it rather recently so I guess it’s fresh.
I'm so glad that someone else feels similarly to how I feel about this book. Thank you for this cathartic video!
More like children of testing my patience😒
Hair looking good king
Bland as blood and bone
That sums it up.
And to think Lucasfilm is adapting this, under Kathleen Kennedy...expect delays and mass production problems
Bruh this book isn’t bland
Your choice of style is though
OK before i watch the vid i have to say this *PLEASE READ AXIOMS BY END LIDSAY ELLIS* .first time i read that one i thought it was pretty Good because it took my breath away And because i shipped So Hard amari with zelie... (yes i was sad but i hoped it be a set up for them to become a thing In the next book). This time around i thought i read a easy book to get through a slump (during my exams) And i read until the poison trope And stopped.... This book sucks a lot... Espesialy considering the hype...
Why does it suck?
@@lewissmith5759 ok this will be a long comment/review so... brace yourself.
*I dont want to offend anyone who enjoed the book, i am just sharing my thoughts*
*SPOILERS*
(also sorry i know you dont give a cent about the opinion of stranger online but... for better or worse i am gonna give it to you).
OK so the *setting* of the worldbuilding is quite neet, but the worldbulding falls sort in many areas (eg you give us special/unique animals like that tiger/leopardy-thingies but you dont elaborate too much on their history of physiology or how they exist-something like they are the company of mages as long us our world exist would be enough)
the *magic system*... well i didnt really have many problems with it, it was just a little too soft for my taste, but solid enough - but then again the magic mgaffin that is supposed to change the world trope was ... not a great excecution.
*TOPES* omg there are SO many of them here. That wouldnt be a problem if there were playing a true role here. some of them are played for the lols like the poison trope.
*PACING* this book had a good pacing over all but some point felt a little too slow to me and the fact that every chapter ended in a chliffhanger pissed me so much on my second read(dnf). also tose cliffhungers they got resolved a few pg in the next ch....
*CHARACTERS*
I quite liked zelie -even if at points i facepalmed but we'll get to that- she was smart and fault enough to have a personality -something more than ager issues and stuborness but mainly those traits) and i enjoyed her process of learning a few things about her magic even if it was throuh pure exposition.
Now amari... well what can i say about her? she had the potential to be awsome but ... well lets see her journey... she just lost her best friend/girlfriend her maid ... she run away with the mgffing and stumble to zelie, who almost kill her, they get to market where she oh so sudtly gets judged for her marks in her back and she has to get to an impossible mission to bring back the same thing that killed her mother and in a way her best friend/gf maid. WHERE IS ALL THOSE CONVULUTED EMOTIONS ?? where is her grief (something more than a puke and a few tears) ?? why is she all over zelie's brother?? omg she falls flat in my eyes
Innan...oh well ...he was an intresting vilain at the first half of the book but then he does that 180 degree change (like zelie) and well he falls flat instead of complicated or tortured or anything else...
all in all the relationships in this book are plain and straight up bad. Zelie's brother sould have died in my opinion either at the start while zelie choosed to save her father or in the first half of the journey thus forsing amari and zelie together. He is so blund that i dont even remeber a single thing about him other than he was "nice" and hot apparently.
the relationp of zelie and inna make them both seem like they lost a bunch of their personality and iQ ... no hormones-excuse me i meant passion and love and magic- cannot be the blame for each crappy relationship in each book. But really now? zelie gives amari more than half the book to respect and trust her and she trust THE ENEMY in one night ? NOPE poor wrighting the insta hormonal love trope is awful and here is also badly excecuted too.
what else ??? oh yeah the whole will wont they amari x zelie (?) flirts with queer baiting to me and many more people... almost like the writer changed her mind along the way of the book (or maybe during editing idk and we will never know)
TLDR
too many tropes, a little soft of a magic system, all caracters get a lobotomy halfway through the book and form stubit relationships, the plot is driven by the mgffing-not a great thing for a plot driven book- and there is (at best) suspicions of queer baiting
one star on second read (dnf)
if you read so far DAMN you propably dont have a life either during the pandemic like me. I dont want to offend anyone, i am just sharing my thoughts.
@@fayem4091 lol you wernt kidding that is a long comment
You should consider doing a video on The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. As a fan of the book, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Do you think you could review "The perfect assassin"? It has the best worldbuilding I have seen in a while
would you consider doing a review on the book "a heart for every doorway"?
its got a really interesting concept (what happens to kids after they come back from their cool magical quests), some cool representation, and it's a murder mystery, but like. something is off and idk what it is.
I had to read this for school and the romantic subplot killed me. by the end it felt like more of a plot than a subplot
Can you read and review Arc of a Scythe series? It’s really wonderful.
I thought the first book was kind of alright, but nothing to write home about. Its the second book I couldn't finish.
This review describes The Councillor by EJ Beaton perfectly!
I don´t know why I´m doing it to myself, but I will read the second book too...
have you considered looking into a review of David Eddings Mallorean and Belgariad series’? I grew up reading them and in hindsight they’re very average fantasy, but incredibly racist, Eddings used it to push a borderline fascist agenda. It was honestly disturbing to me when I thought back to the series. I don’t remember exactly if it could be considered YA Fantasy but I think a proper analysis of the two series in a connected universe and the many issues could be interesting
been a while since ive watched your videos, but loving the new setup!
Ohh no one of my favourite books 😫 the second one for me is better
I might add this chick threw shade and accused Nora Roberts of plagerisum via stealing her title.
...and then tucked her tail when Nora scolded her like a child.
Wait, is this the book with the very anti cop rant by the author at the end or was that a different book you reviewed?
James is transition goals
Thanks I'm about to read it for my MA thesis and now I feel like I don't really want to anymore. Aaaaaaaargh
But it would be a good way to explore the concept of inspiration and sampling in books. I'd say don't get discouraged (Also if you read it for your MA you can compare her to Nnedi Okorafor who does write about African life and History in her books)
have u read Lockwood & Co?
wondering if you’ve read Nomad by Matthew Mather
So what you're saying is that it's not very good, but it's not too long
I audiobooked it back when it came out. Would’ve DNFed it if I’d been reading it in print format.
I'm curious if James has read the Nevernight books. They are MEGA edgy, but that's pretty much the reason I like anything.
I put this book down and I feel kinda bad about it but it looks like I had a lot of the same issues with it as you James
What bugged me about this book was the constant whining.
im glad that someone else is seeing just how bland this book was (and i love video essays in general)
because i read this thing 2-3 times over for a reading competition
I read this back in 2018 and I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it. Even watching this video didn’t remind me of anything. So uh, totally forgettable in my book.
I remember reading it near the end of my YA phase and thinking "that's it"? It was so dull, it read like every YA fantasy, and I couldn't connect with any of the characters. The only reason it got any hype is because it was African-inspired
I remember getting a bad feeling about this book, like i knew it would be a waste of time. You confirmed my intuition James, and i thank you for suffering through it
I thought "Children of Blood and Bone" was OK if not outstanding. I agree with you that Inan's arc had a disappointing conclusion. I was also bothered by a minor theme of colorism shown by the royalty having significantly lighter (as in coppery) skin than the lower classes. That struck me as strange for a setting based on pre-colonial Nigeria, where almost everyone would have been dark brown to one degree or another regardless of class and European beauty standards hadn't yet permeated the African continent.
Also if the diviners where the only ones with magic shouldn't they have ruled the world?
@@georgethompson1460 Good point there.
You know what else didn't exist in pre colonial Nigeria that's in the book? Magic.
In a lot of cultures, including pre-modern Europe, colourism was a thing because wealthier people spent more time indoors. Supposedly this changed in Europe when commercial flights became more widely available and that's why fake tan is now popular, because a tan signifies having the wealth for lots of holidays abroad.
@@forwhy8723 Once again. That's not how suspense of disbelieve works.
I couldn't agree more.
OOOF pls read the second one, I have a mighty need for your opinion on it lol
You Should read We hunt the flame. You Probably wont like it which sadly is entertainment for loads of people
omg i was waiting for this, this is my favoruite terrible book
After reading up on the author, I can see why there was a lot of buzz behind it. She also offers an online writing course & got accused of stealing the name of the book.
I'm reading it right now for school and am just so bored and uninterested. It's not bad bad but not special at all. Like I've read to page 81 today and I want to quit. I feel like I'm reading something I've read 50 times. The characters just don't click with me.
Just when I got this book to check it out, here you are reviewing it and grilling it hot.
I got it because the cover and little description I read sounded interesting, but I am strongly disappointed there wasn't more African folklore and story basing around it. It sounds like a knockoff ATLA. If I wanted that, I would check out Marcus Williams' ATLA comic series, which at least added in more African location descriptions, weapons, and lore to the world. (Hoping the new Avatar studio picks this up too.)
And don't even get me started on the romance taking over. Once again, romance in a story not needed drags it down. I don't mind a dash of it, but the moment a book randomly relies heavily on it, the book loses me. You have so many African myths, folklore and the freedom with those, and you choose romance in place of diving deeper with those? Aight then 😒 This is coming from a hopeless romantic. Guess I'm not that hopeless with it.
We deserve more than this 😔 At least there is Raybearer.
You might like to try Black Leopard Red Wolf, Daughters of Nri and Tales of Esowon; The Kishi - all are more authentic to the mythology
@@lucytan8606
Thank you so much!
I gave up on this book and felt super guilty
I came across the book in the library without even knowing it existed. I was only able to read up to a third into it before the lockdowns attacked. I do like multiple POVs, but I do have to admit the ethnic stereotypes based on lighter skin color sounds like they have a white man mindset in a way, which isn't African at all.
Colourism is fairly prevalent in post-colonial Africa.
I just read shatter me and I feel the same way, was it predictable yes, was it memorable no, the characters felt basic and the plot was a mess and no world building but I finished in a day and it left zero impact on me. I tho I thought the concept was really cool but it was basically exactly like children of blood and bone just dystopian and I’m 100000% sure there will be a love triangle in book two.
To wash the taste of this out of your mouth, go read The Wandering Inn, by Pirateaba. It's 100% free and genuinely the best piece of fantasy writing I've ever experienced.
I actually discovered Wheel of Time by Pirateaba since they consider it major influence on Wandering Inn as well as being their favorite series. So it's really cool how WI started and to see it become more expansive is great. Now if only we had an actual accurate map of the world lol.
@@timidalchemist8475 Yeah lol. At least we have a few accurate and endorsed area maps, otherwise the locations and directions of this whole thing would drive me to madness. (Also, didn't know Wheel of Time was an inspiration, but it makes sense.)