Scan barcode
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
bookish_hollyx's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault
pernrider's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
thereadingmarshmallow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bookstaash's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, and War
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
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
morrigan_gaines_writes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 STARS!
There were a lot of positives for this book, BUT the pacing/transitions made it hard to follow what was happening sometimes. I wanted to love this book but several times I was flipping back through feeling like I had missed something important.
<b>Some things I loved:</b>
The world and magic system is elaborate and engaging.
It is fast-paced.
The magic, creatures, and various fantasy elements are a breath of fresh air after reading so many books with European inspired fantasy.
The overarching theme of colonization was done well. There was so much this story had to offer in surviving as an oppressed people and what it means to rise up against injustice. The internal conflicts/reactions of each of the three characters felt genuine in regards to their part in the political and social issues of this world.
Ehigbor Okosun's writing shows a talent and great potential for wrapping us up into a story. I really enjoyed her writing style. The descriptions don't feel forced or drawn out, the magic system is fascinating and the political/social aspects of the world make you want to read more.
<b>Things that didn't work for me:</b>
We flew through things at times. We'd be dealing with one plot point and suddenly that was resolved and we had skipped through to a totally new conflict in the plot. Normally this would make for a fast-paced book but the transitions made the plot feel disjointed to me. I (on multiple occasions) had to pause and check if I had skipped something or missed an important detail.
I felt like the magic system needed some clarifying. For example, what was essentially a magical leash for Jonas, on several occasions was described as not being able to stretch very far. But then there are times that Demi is a whole room over without concern.
We need a glossary. There are so many terms, words for different types of Oluso, and so much in this world that I had difficulty remembering what was what.
There is a huge cast of characters and we didn't always get enough of an intro about a character for them to stick in my mind the next time they appeared. Again this may be because of the pacing/transition issue for my brain.
<b>Additional Comments:</b>
The love triangle was hard. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between two of the characters, so it didn't feel so much like a love triangle but more like the MC was just using the characters to relieve some of her trauma/stress through physical affection. This does appropriately fall under romantic fantasy genre, not fantasy romance, as the romance is a subplot.
I believe this is suppose to be marketed as a New Adult or Adult fantasy book. But the characters are young and the way they act makes it hard to read it as adult fantasy. HOWEVER, they are young but dealing with very much ADULT issues. So I am interested in seeing if the second book expands on that idea and matures them. I'd say for the general adult fantasy reader, this book may not be what they're use to because of the immaturity of the characters.
<b>Final Notes: </b>
As a debut novel, Forged by Blood did intrigue me. I will be watching Ehigbor Okosun in the coming years and reading her books because there is amazing potential in her writing. I think that if the transitions and plot pacing wasn't so rough for me, this would have easily been a 4 or 5 star read. It's a solid debut and I can't wait to see what comes next!
Graphic: Death of parent, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexism, Slavery, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and War
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy