2025 #26 Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Legacy of Orïsha, no. 3)

 

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In my review of Children of Virtue and Vengeance, the second of the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, I wrote: "I am still invested. I want to know where they are headed. I want to be invited back to the world of purples and golds. But I hope that the third book will let me stay awhile before the fighting begins. There's more to say about what lies behind the strife. There's more to tell us about what will be lost before we actually lose it. "

I'm sad to say that the long-awaited book did not fulfill this wish. If anything, there's even more fighting, and less substance. We have new enemies: King Baldyr and The Skulls and new allies: New Gaians. We barely get any time on Orisha to even care about what is happening in healing old wounds. There's a formula applied to the four main characters: Zelie, Tzain, Inan, and Amari -- each has regrets, each thinks about those who have passed, each cuts down and fights enemies...but there's not a lot else that is happening. We see hints of the deeper character studies present in the wonderful first installment, Children of Blood and Bone, particularly with Zélie teetering on the edge of her power being usurped for evil or for good, and there is one particular scene with Tzain, who is going through a similar struggle, that invests in the deeper themes. The book is too short to really get into too much world-building, so the net effect is one of a passive interest in the mythologies and theologies that seemed so crucial in the first book.

I don't know what it is to write a trilogy, and I imagine the creative commitment is immense. Is it still a good read? Sure, and if anything one might benefit more if they haven't read the other two (although I also want to recognize I probably should have gone back and reread the other two books because I was a bit iffy on some of the details). Adeyemi's descriptive writing is a pleasure, and her skill with it enlivens this particular book, especially in how she captures the Green Maidens, Mae'e, and Zélie's transformation(s).

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2020 #3: Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) - Adeyemi

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, I am disappointed that I am disappointed. 404 pages of the "Children of the Gods" not learning from their mistakes. And perhaps that is the point? Maybe we are all doomed to be victims of our own hatred?

I would have liked this second book in the Legacy of Orïsha to dig into the time of discovery that evidently took place after the climactic ending of Book 1. I wanted to know more about tîtáns, the Maji, the Iyika, reapers, burners, tiders, etc... Adeyemi deftly invited us in with the first book, giving us three characters whom we might really care about. In Book 2, however, she doesn't really follow up on the loose ends of the mythology, introduces characters who seem a bit "after-the-fact" (e.g. Nehanda), and seems to have a plot structure comprised of battles and little else. Again--I get that the war is tireless, but it doesn't necessarily make a convincing narrative for a book. I love that the characters are all flawed (that's a generous description in some cases), but there seems to be so little growth. They all make shades of the same mistakes. Over and over and over again.

But I haven't walked away regretting this reading experience. Adeyemi's gift for description and characterization has not faltered here. While I found myself frustrated with the same conflicts bouncing back and forth between the three main characters, I am still invested. I want to know where they are headed. I want to be invited back to the world of purples and golds. But I hope that the third book will let me stay awhile before the fighting begins. There's more to say about what lies behind the strife. There's more to tell us about what will be lost before we actually lose it. These are stories of truth-telling and testament, but they are still stories that have invited us to translate the lessons of a different world into our own. I'm not asking for a redemptive ending, but I hope Book 3 will help us dig in and invest a bit more into that different world so that the universality of the themes are illuminated even more clearly.

My review of Book 1 Children of Blood and Bone

2019 #10: Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let me start with: this is a very important, very violent, and wonderful book. And I'm going to read the next book in hopes that it rids me of my one real criticism of the book.

It is very intense for any book--not just for a ya book--but that intensity is the point. Anyone who pays attention to the news and who cares should understand the metaphors laced throughout this book. Sadly, there are those that will need to read the Author's Note to "get it." It can't really be critiqued as a standard ya/fantasy novel because that isn't its purpose. This story is more and it digs into the complexity of conviction, of faith, of heritage, and of legacy. The characters are amazing---flawed, multi-dimensional, ever-growing, ever changing. Life is about choices--some of which are made in an instant, some of which are made for us, and some of which blossom slowly along with our own growth. It is a "fantasy" epic, yes---but it doesn't rest upon all the tired clichés of the genre. Our alliances with the characters split and rejoin as much as their own.

I was so entrenched in it all and then...the end. And an epilogue that obviously throws the door open for part two, but did an insufficient job of closing out this book as a novel. There's so much more to say---not just in terms of the narrative, but in 523 pages leading up to the real point of the sacrifices, the page of Epilogue really doesn't do it justice. I will say that in the brief paragraphs of the epilogue, the end result was exactly what I had hoped for, except that the final sentence left me wondering. I wanted to give it five stars, but there's an imbalance toward character development here--which is a criticism I almost NEVER have. The book has a great rhythm of narration and characterization, with the bigger picture undergirding it at all times. But then the final few pages of the book renders them all basically irrelevant, which I can't think was the point. This is a small criticism, at the end of the day, but I will say that were it not for the greater importance of this book, I might be tempted to set the continuation of the story aside.

Overall, however, I want to know more. I love the use of African religions and my own limited exposure to some West African theologies resonated. This is a book worth reading--hands down. It is an important book and one that deserves to be on reading lists for young adults and probably older adults. Maybe especially older adults.

My review of Book 2 Children of Virtue and Vengeance