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I recently finished reading Children of Blood and Bone
I began last year and after a false start I was able to slog through the rest of the book.
Final verdict: the novel wasn’t for me.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi AdeyemiMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Love that a former fanfiction writer wrote this.
Feel conflicted about recommending. :/
The sociopolitical/socioeconomic message is on point (think “Luke Cage” levels of black empowerment) but suffers from egregious fanfiction tropes:
Multiple POVs
Characters making nonsensical decisions in order to advance the plot
Lackluster ending
I assume they’ll be a sequel. I’m curious how the story continues so I will read it when it comes out.
View all my reviews
It wasn’t BAD – there are a lot of things to like about the story. I like the inclusion of an all-black cast, and the fact that different characters have various types of powers gives Children of Blood and Bone a bit of an X-Men feel.
I also admire that the author, Tomi Adeyemi, admits she got her start writing fanfiction for the anime Naruto.
Where I take issue is where Adeyemi relies on an annoying trope I’m all too familiar with in the fanfiction community: the multiple POV perspective.
I’ve seen a lot of writers in the Hey Arnold! fanfiction community utilize this form of storytelling. Romance genre fics, especially — it’s very popular for fans to write from both the perspective of Helga and Arnold.
I’ve even read some bestselling novels that use multiple POV effectively (ie. The Night Circus, Carry On). But Children of Blood and Bone exemplify all the worst features of the narrative style.
Multiple POVs Take Away Suspense
In first-person POV, the reader experiences the story through the eyes of a single protagonist. There can be other characters involved in the story, but their desires and motivation are not readily apparent to the reader.
When multiple POVs are used, the mystery and tension of the narrative are gone. In fact, it can frustrate the reader to see two characters (usually love interests) battling each other for several hundred pages when in fact they are on the same side.
Multiple POVs are Difficult to Balance
When done well, the story is equally split between all protagonists involved, and each character’s perspective is distinct and unique to their voice.
Where Children of Blood and Bone falters in how it splits its time between protagonists. Zelie is the main character, and rightfully deserves the most time devoted to her POV, but halfway through the novel, attention is devoted almost entirely to her perspective.
And even when the story does switch to the perspective of the other characters – Amari and Inan – their voices sound so similar I would often have to refer back to the first page of each chapter to remind myself who was speaking.
Multiple POV is (Potentially) Lazy Storytelling
Again, this does not relate to ALL stories that utilize multiple POV. When done right, the reader gets a good sense of all the characters’ motivations and what drives them to make their decisions.
But multiple POV is such a crutch in the fanfiction community, many readers default to this perspective because it seems like the simplest way to tell a story. And while that may be true, it’s not always the most appropriate solution.
Children of Blood and Bone would have been better told from a first-person POV from only Zelie’s perspective. While I enjoyed Amari’s POV in the novel, because this wasn’t her story, her passages felt like filler.
If I HAD to rewrite Children of Blood and Bone with multiple POV, I would only write it from the perspective of Zelie and Amari; Inan’s perspective was easily the weakest of the three, and knowing his thoughts and motivations actually made his character weaker, as they didn’t match his external actions.
Do you agree? Did you read Children of Blood and Bone, and if so, what did you like about the novel? Did the multiple POVs bother you, or do you feel they enhanced the story? Please leave your answer in the comment section below!