Saturday, August 26, 2017

#SneakPeekSunday - Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Title: Children of Blood and Bone
Author: Tomi Adeyemi
Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: March 6, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt Books for Young Readers
Pages: 448
Goodreads

Synopsis

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.

Sneak Peek Review

I received a copy of this sneak peek from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

I only had a small taste of this tale and I am hooked. There is so much that I need to know yet, and so much for me to learn about this world still, but I want to learn it so badly. What I do know about this fantasy world is that it seems to be based on Africa, at least I was using Africa as my reference point because the people have dark skin, the diviners are cursed with the darkest skin which is part of what sets them apart from the other citizens of this world and marks them as lesser people. The attitude towards skin color in this sneak peek kind of made me think about what I learned about slavery in America before the Civil War, but I also saw some parallels with more recent events in America as well. 

This story is told from multiple points of view. I got to see three of them in the sneak peek with the most time spent inside Zélie's head. And Zélie is fierce! From what I can gather, she spends her days training to be a warrior under the guise of working for a seamstress, but I don't really know why the girls are being trained exactly yet. I imagine it's for some rebellion that will be organized at a later date, but it's possible that it's just as a means of self-defense. I really don't know, but I want to. 

I think Amira is probably my favorite character though, at least she is so far. She's royalty but has no interest in lightening her skin (among the nobility at least, lighter skin is much desired), and her best friend is a diviner who works as a servant in the king's household. This girl doesn't seem to have a mean bone in her body. She almost certainly becomes a sidekick type character, but I have high hopes for her. 

Now I've gotta' say that whoever chose where to end this sneak peek is an evil genius. We end up in Amira's brother's head, and he has just found out a kind of big secret about his sister. Somehow I'm supposed to just be okay with pausing the story there? I don't think so. I need the rest of this book ASAP. 

So will I be buying this book? Abso-freaking-lutely. Possibly on release day if I don't have anything else I HAVE to be reading right then, but it's far enough away that I can't really plan my reading then yet. But I will absolutely be reading the rest of this book. - Katie 

Buy the Book


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.

8 comments:

  1. I don't recall ever seeing a review of a sneak peek - you tease me!

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    1. I thought it would be a nice way to utilize all the sneak peeks and preview excerpts from Netgalley. I mean, they're on Netgalley for a reason right? - Katie

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  2. This is one of my anticipated releases for next year and this had made me even more excited for it. Thanks for the sneak peak.

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  3. This one looks so.dang.good. I've been tempted to request it off of NetGalley, too. But then I keep getting sad that it will only be a taste. I just can't do that to myself!

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    1. Do it and suffer with me! Honestly, I don't blame you for not getting the sneak peek. A part of me wishes I hadn't gotten it, except then I wouldn't have any idea what kind of awesomeness the book is sure to contain. - Katie

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  4. I had not known what a sneak peak was until I read about here. Thanks for the information!

    Gayathri @ Musings Over Nothing

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    1. The first Sneak Peek I got from Netgalley was an accident because it said Read Now and the book sounded so good. It wasn't until after I downloaded that I realized I wasn't getting the full book. It made me sad, but gave me the idea for this blog feature. - Katie

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