The year of 2020 we’ve had quite a bit of trauma. Kobe Bryant passed, coronavirus hit, and we are in the midst of the president trying to rig the election. Many people are seeking ways to heal from this ongoing trauma, I myself often turn to art. The novel Children of Bone and Blood was a small reprieve from the volleys of everyday madness and many will find this book transformative.

In 2018, Tomi Adeyemi published her debut novel Children of Blood and Bone. This novel tells the story Zélie, a young adolescent girl, who descends from a long line of magical blood in the fantasy world of Orïsha. The people that come from magical blood are called diviners, the people that do not use magic are called kosidian. 11 years prior to the start of the novel, King Saran, a kosidian, sadistic and cruel king, finds a way to stop diviners from being able to use magic and then goes on a campaign to exile, terrorize and murder the indigenous diviner population that resides in his kingdom. Zélie witnesses her mother’s brutal murder under Saran’s forces.

The novel tells the story of how Zélie, with the strong guidance of the Gods, finds her purpose and destiny in trying to restore magic to the land of Orisha. She doesn’t want magic back for revenge or power, she wants to reclaim her heritage so that her people can be free. What Saran stole from the diviners wasn’t just their ability to use magic, he stole their ability to survive and thrive. Magic for diviners wasn’t just circus tricks or Criss Angel illusions, it was about a deeper connection to spirits and nature, much deeper than what the kosidian could possibly understand.

Like many fantasy novels, Zélie recruits a rag tag posse of Orishans to help her with her cause. The first, her brother Tzain, is by far the most noble and brave of all the characters in the book. His presence serves as a protector and a firm reminder to Zélie of her obligation to her family and her community. Our second companion, Zélie happens upon by mistake, King Saren’s daughter, Princess Amari. Shy but rebellious, Princess Amari has stolen a scroll which holds some of Orisha’s most ancient secrets. The King is willing to kill his daughter to get that information. During her escape she literally runs into Zélie and our protagonist has to decide whether the price of Amari’s head is worth the information that she possesses.
Our villain alongside King Saren is his son, Prince Inan, whose only focus and goal in life is pleasing his father’s every wish. He is sent to hunt his sister down when she escapes and he will not return until every trace of magic is erased from Orisha. However Inan has a dark secret that will destroy his family’s legacy.

As you can see there are many subplots that make Children of Blood and Bone an amazing read for someone that wants to introduce young minds to the world of fantasy but also introduce themes of justice, oppression, propaganda, and bigotry. Furthermore this novel features an entire cast of melanin infused skin tones, Adeyemi does a wonderful job of describing the rich brown and darker hue skin tones which normalizes these appearances in the overall canon of fantasy characters. Representation matters and Tomi Adeyemi’s characters are shining examples of how beautiful and rich African lore and storytelling can be even in a modern context.