2018 book 44

Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone
This book has been getting a lot of hype, but I was sure it was going to be some generic YA fantasy/action/romance novel, just set in Africa, which, hey, the world needs more of those, too. From the very first scene this had me hooked, though. It's great! Now I see why my mom was texting me when the author was on Good Morning America last week. :) ANYway, this story centers on Zelie, a young woman from a mythical African country, who is part of a group that SHOULD have magical powers—but the magic was mysteriously lost. And now she, and others like her, are persecuted and oppressed. But maybe she can restore magic with the help of a mysterious scroll—and the local princess? (The princess and her brother, obsessed with his duty, are also both POV characters.) This did start to drag a little at a certain point, and there was the occasional clumsiness in the writing—I wished the editing was a bit tighter, as usual with YA books, occasionally found the romance to be overwrought. But still, a really solid story and I look forward to seeing where it goes next. A-/B+.

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Content warning for rape threats and lots and lots of brutal violence.