Reviews with content warning for Racism - Forged by Blood

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Forged by Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

18 reviews

rhi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

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bookstaash's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring 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? No

4.0

This epic fantasy debut follows Dèmi, a magic wielding Oluso, who is trying to survive a brutal regime that murdered her mother and invaded her homeland. She and other Oluso must hide their powers, as capture would mean death or enslavement. When a regional lord offers Dèmi the chance to secure the safety of her people by kidnapping a prince, she embarks on an adventure that will challenge everything she knows about her heritage, her magic and herself.

This debut from Okosun was a really fun and unique read! The Nigerian mythology and cultural setting were new but, very well-explained and illustrated throughout the novel. I liked the author’s writing style and enjoyed the overall story. The love triangle/romance was adorable, and one of my favorite aspects.

My biggest criticism is that I didn’t understand the motives or histories of the “villains” throughout the story.

Alastair Sorenson and Mari seemed to have started a war based on Dèmi’s mother rejecting them - ?. It’s possible I just didn’t understand but, their reasoning seemed kind of lame. I also don’t feel like I really understood how Yétunde fit in to their lives before the war.

I think some of this is due to the fact that the story is told from Dèmi’s perspective, and I’m sure their will be more details in the next book (as she learns more).

Thank you to Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

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hobbithopeful's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

Incredibly disappointing, the only reason I pushed myself to finish this is because I kept hoping the writing of the beginning would come back. I was wrong.
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:

adopted by forest spirits, fights the King, somehow avoids instant death because she's special, can use all the magic LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON HERE! Of course the reveal about her Father was just another moment in the long line of ridiculousness.

The plot armor was plot armoring.
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

white guy.

Why does this always happen! Especially because they always have to be the

son or nephew of some super racist guy. It's just, UGH.

The chemistry Dèmi has with Collin and Jonas was fine? I rarely see a book do love triangles well, and this is no different. It's difficult to keep a serious tone when the fmc is waffling between two guys who really aren't that different or special.
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.

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mj001's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

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

I find the premise of the book interesting. However, in the end, I don’t think I liked it. Colin was a man-child 90% of the time, Demi called her Mother “Mommy” even though she was an adult, which I’m sorry, but is an ick for me. Jonas was cool. There’s a lot happening at the same time, some of the dialogues at time make zero sense and there are so many gods and like separate magic species that I did get very confused at times. Not sure why water sprites exist to be honest. They bring nothing to the book. The part of the book when they were in the forest was completely unnecessary in my opinion. The fight with the King somehow gives me “a court of thorns and roses” vibe. And also Demi is like a holier than thou person which is very YA and that’s what this book is…YA that’s being marketed as Adult. Not sure if I will read book 2.

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bettysbookishworld's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I would like to thank the publisher, HarperVoyager UK, for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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.

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shelvesofivy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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? It's complicated

4.25

From my first impressions of the STUNNING cover and the synopsis of a fantasy inspired by Nigerian mythology, I was super excited to get to this book. Once I got into the story, the author's way with words became clear: she gives very poetic and vibrant descriptions of Dèmi's emotions and the world around her.

Despite the lovely prose, it admittedly took me a while to become invested in the story. There seemed to be a slight imbalance between exposition and action, giving the feeling of a slow plot—despite the fact that this was not a slow or low stakes story by any means at all.
Around the halfway point, I finally felt hooked by the action and intrigue going on. I can't wait to see what the next book has in store for the characters and their (and my) unanswered questions. This is also the type of book that I'll definitely need to reread! There was a mix of twists that I predicted and did not, so I'd be interested to see all of the foreshadowing in hindsight. (I also want to reread a finished edition; since I originally read an unproofed copy, there were some punctuation and formatting errors)

When it comes to the characters, they really shine! Dèmi makes an incredible protagonist who's both strong and flawed. She has strong beliefs and her actions align with those beliefs throughout the book.
I adored one of the love interests from the beginning, and even though the other one annoyed me (as is usually the case when I read love triangles), I still grew to at least appreciate his character.

This is not a light story by any means (please check CWs!), but it remains hopeful and even humorous at times with the character dynamics. The moments of banter and heart are what I live for, and this delivered ♡

|| Thank you William Morrow Books for the advance reader's copy! I won this arc in a Storygraph giveaway, but all opinions in this review are my own. ||

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aliteraryescape's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.75

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canascorner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.0

Forged By Blood is the first book in a fantasy duology about a young woman named Dèmi. After losing her mother in a tragic way for which she feels responsible. Dèmi is forced to cope with being born with magic that has been forbidden and losing the only family she had left. Dèmi and other people like her, Oluso are persecuted and subjected to mass genocide by the magic-less Ajes. Demi makes a deal that has the opportunity to restore balance but she has to decide what she’s willing to risk and if the potential reward is worth it.

I enjoyed the story as a whole. Dèmi was a well crafted character. Her plight and struggles felt personal. The magic system and inclusion of Gods and deities was so intriguing. Calling her world beautiful feels wrong because of all of the cruelty they were subject to however, Ife sounds like such a beautiful place.

This book discusses some difficult points such as race, class, trust and the power of choice. The oppression of the Oluso people for being born magic wielders felt all to familiar. Dèmi’s refusal to settle for constant victimization kept me invested. She knew there was a better way for her and people like her to live and she fought to find it without compromising herself in the process.

Dèmi was a walking contradiction at times and it was frustrating. In a certain scene she would be so hyper vigilante that it bordered on unreasonable and in the following scene she would make a rash and very dangerous decision. There are times that Dèmi is angry and reacts before she has a chance to be given the full scope of the situation. I recognize that there are situations that require immediate action but it seemed that she jumped first and thought later so frequently that she was getting reckless.

While reading my overall experience was enjoyable and engaging. Participating in Dèmi’s grief process and battle with trust issues gave me things to consider. Dèmi’s selective impatience and anger got her into things that could have been avoided. In spite of the rough hand Demi was dealt, she never gave up and for those reasons I give Forged by Blood 4/5 stars.

This book would be great for people that enjoy mythological based fantasy books with diverse characters that have tear down the unjust political system mindset. If you’re sensitive to violence, death of parents, discrimination and mass genocide this book might not be for you.

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