Reviews with content warning for Blood - Forged By Blood

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Forged By Blood by Ehigbor Okosun

8 reviews

novella42's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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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dmrains's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

There were a lot of terms introduced that were spelled similarly that I had a hard time remembering what they meant, but thankfully they didn't impact my understanding. She included a "dramatis personae" at the end which was helpful because there were a TON of characters, so I could look them up at the back to help me remember who's who. The last 'act' seemed to escalate really quickly compared to everything else in the plot. Very well written

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manaledi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

3.25

A West African YA fantasy with heavy doses of not so subtle analysis of colorism and colonization and a FMC with a strong hero mentality. The setting was great and the characters were solid but I wanted more backstory. A lot of major historical events were plot twists which left us a little lost on the bigger picture who's who. The non-elemental magic also needed a little more explanation. I'll add book two to my list to see where this goes.

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thereadingmarshmallow's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

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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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skylarkblue1's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

CWs: blood, parent death, racism, rape and sexual assault (off page), child death, parental death, murder, death, torture, slavery, forced pregancy, misogyny, classism,

Thank you to Ehigbor for a free physical proof! (Sorry I didn't get around to this for so long 😭)

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!!

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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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