Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

14 reviews

natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Why did I take soo long to read this!? It’s definitely gonna be one of my fave reads this year — and one I won’t be forgetting for a very long time!

Drawing on her Nigerian heritage and her beautifully skillful prose, it’s easy to see why Tomi Adeyemi’s sweeping YA fantasy debut has become such a beloved book to millions worldwide. 

The rich magic system, vividly detailed lore and pacy, high stakes action will have any fantasy adventure aficionado on the edge of their seats. But Adeyemi’s ability to weave such dark (yet incredibly relevant) themes into such an empowering story — imbuing her cast of characters with such depth and poignancy that had me crying (and during the lighter moments laughing) alongside them.  

Zelie (one of our MCs and the first POV of  character we meet) was probably my favourite of all three of our POV characters. Headstrong, short tempered but utterly invested in protecting her family from the kingdom’s oppressive regime.

Delving deep into her fears, insecurites and childhood trauma we get to explore Zelie’s connections with the Orisha, her magic and her bond to her maji powers —which really brought her to life for me and helped me to understand her motivations and thought processes. 

Runaway Princess, Amari and Zelie’s steadfast older brother, Tzain were both really fascinating characters too and I look forward to following the journeys in the rest of the series, I just wish we got the explore Tzain’s POV.  

With the themes of oppression, inequality and genocide at the forefront of the story, it’s definitely not hard to see comparisons to current world events— highlighting the work that still needs to be done to create a safer, more equal society for everyone. 

It’s rare that a book will leave me utterly speechless (and unable to think about anything else) but this one certainly managed to , and that ending?! I won’t spoil it, but if you love your plot twists frequent and shockingly unpredictable then you’re gonna be incredibly satisfied. 

Overall, a phenomenally adventurous, epic fantasy that really lived up to the hype, I’m soo excited to read the rest of the series! Though do check TWs beforehand.

Also, a huge thank you to Pan Macmillan/ Macmillan Children’s Books for the finished copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

mattyb's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty and Alcohol

black_rainbow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

beaky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Fantasy is really not my cup of tea but I did quite enjoy this book. The character develop and world building was amazing! I’d totally recommend if you’re a fan of fantasy with a lot of lore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Vomit

micaelamariem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

I’ll post a full review on my blog in the morning but omg this was a wonderful book! Based on Orisha mythology from West Africa, and inspired by the urge to fight back against police brutality of unarmed Black citizens, Tomi Adeyemi examines a fantasy world where magic users are stripped of their power and beaten down until a few characters decide they want a change, and how they can fight back against how they were taught their whole lives. Loved the character development, the world building, the important themes, and the shocking betrayals. Ends on a cliffhanger and I need the next book now! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

squinnittowinit's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Edit: After thinking on this book a bit more, I've decided to lower the rating from a 3.75 to a 2. I kept trying to convince myself that this was a good story because I keenly understand the place it was written from, but beyond the bare bones of it, I don't think it actually was. I didn't enjoy the characters and I felt like the plot didn't actually make a whole lot of sense. I've decided that I will not be reading the sequel.

Original review:
Overall, this is a good story with a (unfortunately) very relatable setting: an oppressive society that treats certain people as lesser due to something inherent that they cannot control. I felt the author's pain and anger surrounding this real-world issue in the writing, and perhaps if this had been my first exposure to the mindset of the oppressed group, I might have found it more impactful. However, I personally found it a little tiring for specific reasons that I will mark as a spoiler below. 

Again, it is a good story, just one I've seen many times already. Nothing about it surprised me and as much as I was rooting for them, I didn't love any of the characters by the end. I'm not sure if you're supposed to or not.

The specific reasons I found this book to be tiring have a lot to do with the main characters. All three were naive to a fault, and retained that naivete throughout the entire book, even as their views on certain things changed. I suppose it's realistic, as they are all teenagers and teenagers are very naive, but I found it very frustrating to read about them doing impulsive and very ill-advised things over and over again and then only afterwards thinking that they might have been bad ideas. 

Next, there is the issue of trauma. This is a book based in racial trauma, which makes it automatically not a fun read for me. Again, I really want to stress that I'm not saying it's bad, but it's very real, and it's hard to laugh at any of the jokes or moments of levity when the whole book is about oppression and I already experience oppression nearly constantly in my real life. 

Next, as I said above, nothing about this book surprised me. I was never on the edge of my seat or uncertain about the fate of the characters, because I've seen this story so many times. It hit all the beats I was expecting it to, and the only death I didn't predict was a character that I didn't care about at all. 

Finally, the romance. I'm all for a good romantic subplot, but I couldn't get behind this one. It was going for "enemies to lovers" but was done with no subtlety, I felt like I was being bashed over the head with foreshadowing about this relationship. Then, the actual enemies to lovers part happened seemingly overnight, and they suddenly didn't hate each other anymore. The romance gave me some emotional whiplash and made me feel like I was missing time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Death of parent, and Classism

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

puggreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Sexual harassment

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

The world-building was a bit slow in the beginning, but once our characters’ stories started intersecting, the book moved so quickly. Inan’s character was a bit confusing to me (though I think he is also just confused generally), but I loved watching Amari & Zélie’s growth and relationship development.
Also, the complexities of revolution against oppression were present in the characters’ struggles and conversations, which inspired me to consider these same complexities in reality. I want to know more about this world, and I want to know what happens next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Slavery, Grief, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, and Trafficking

desiderium_incarnate's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

"I won't let your ignorance silence my pain."

1. Please read the authors note, if you've read the story. 
2. This was fascinating, the story and it's characters took so many turns in their character development. It all made sense though. There was a lot of hurt and grief in a few days storyline. The characters also had noticeable trauma, and all handled it differently, which is very good writing, because I've also read books where that was completely disregarded. So all in all worth the read, I think it's better to read it not spread out over months though. 
3. Crooked Kingdom vibes at times. 

"Everyone else feels like being caught in the rain. You're the whole tsunami." 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bookwitch934's review

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

This book was really good, but super heavy.