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abby_can_read's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I had a good time with this book. I liked the magic system. I loved the worldbuilding and the lore. I adored Demi -- I thought she was strong and despite her struggles, it is easy to see she's still learning and growing as a person with impulsive and reckless actions.
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
metaphorsandmisc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Torture, and Classism
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Rape
kendal_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Racism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail
rhi_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racial slurs and Slavery
Minor: Confinement, Rape, and Sexual violence
roseleebooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I loved how strong a person Dèmi is in this story. She is powerful and holds to her identity and ideals. A really wonderful MC to follow and I'm looking forward to seeing how she grows in the next book.
The pace of this book is very fast, and I found myself wishing for some more internal dialogue or reflection to help me frame the information. There is one particular chapter in which there are several reveals about multiple characters and I had to reread it and review a previous chapter to understand what was going on. There was a little more explanation/review of that information later in the book which I appreciated, but it would have been helpful closer to the events as well. I also felt the relationship/love interest subplot could have been developed more, but suspect this will be explored in the next book.
Although there were some things I thought could have been developed more, the world building, main character, and setup for the next book were all well done and I'll be looking forward to reading the rest of the story.
Graphic: Child death, Death, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape
honeycupreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Slavery
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
hobbithopeful's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
The beginning sucked me in and I was absolutely in love with the story. Sadly it went downhill immediately. The plot was completely lost after the timeskip. The story changed numerous times, and at no point made any coherent sense or followed any sort of structure. I had absolutely no idea what any of the point was.
By the end Dèmi has become so ridiculously overpowered, and so many twists and reveals happen firmly establishing her a mary sue type character. So many plot events happen to the end that just make no sense and felt more and more outlandish as they occurred. Dèmi gets everything a main character could possibly want:
Seperate but a huge ick of mine, this happens towards the end by the time I had given up on liking the book.We need to discuss why BIPOC authors love writing love triangles that have the BIPOC fmc ending up with the
All in all it felt like the book had no idea what it was supposed to be about. I liked the setting, the magic, and the different creatures, but everything in terms of plot made little to no sense. I did also enjoy the parallels with colonialism, and all of the food depictions. I did get quite hungry reading this.
I am not going to read the next book, and I don't know if I would read anything by Ehigbor Okosun anytime soon. Maybe further down the line with her next series.
I would personally NOT recommend this book.
Love the cover, the cover is so amazing. The book will likely do pretty well because it is a gorgeous piece of art, the perfect blend between composition and design. People will definitely pick this book up because of it, and truly it is likely the books saving grace.
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and War
mj001's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Minor: Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and War
bettysbookishworld's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Forged by Blood is a fantasy debut novel isnpired by Nigerian mythology. The mythology is what intrigued me about reading it and it delivered on this front. I enjoyed all the folklore and how it got effortlessly woven into the magic system and the worldbuilding. The story even takes part in a Spirit Realm, which was my favourite part of the book and the most interesting one, too. If this is the reason why you got interested in the book, too, the author does a great job with that and definitely try reading it.
However, I could tell this is a debut novel. The story was missing some sort of nuance. I feel like everything was happening at once without any room for a reader to actually get connected to the story and characters. Events were rushed, plot points got resolved too quickly and characters didn't have much time to actually develop further. It's also supposed to be an adult fantasy, however, the characters and their reactions felt very juvenile. There was also a romance aspect to the book, which consisted of tropes I don't enjoy. I think the love "triangle" was unnecessary when having fated mates/souls, because of its predictability.
I really wanted to enjoy this story, but it just didn't work for me at all. On more positive note, I definitely want to read more fantasy inspired by African mythology and folklore, as I loved it in this book.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Suicide and War
Minor: Rape and Pregnancy
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Thank you to Ehigbor for a free physical proof! (Sorry I didn't get around to this for so long đ)
I absolutely adored this world! It's so rich and well described, it really does feel alive.
I'll try not to go too deep into this synopsis as it's best to kinda just go into it. Its pretty fast to get into the main story beats and it doesn't dawdle. Essentially Dèmi and her mother live alone, her father is dead and they live in a world ruled by colonisers who kill or enslave any magic user (rightful owners of the land) that's found. Unfortunately, both Dèmi and her mother have magic. When tragedy strikes and her life is splintered even further, she takes up the task of attempting to change the fate of the lands and her people.
I loved Dèmi as a character a lot. She strong, but fallible - though it does fall kinda into the trope of the female MC needing to lean a lot on the male love interests (alongside a love right-angle). I did get a tad confused at the cast for a bit, there's so many background characters that's given a decent chunk of info each that for my brain wasn't sticking too well in my memory.
The world building is "book 1" world building, there's a ton of questions but a very good base has been made. It's creative, vibrant and full of life. I can't wait for the next book to learn more about the world, the magic system and how it'll all come together!!
Graphic: Genocide, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement and Death
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault