  They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us. Now we rise. Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy. |
I'd be extremely surprised if you haven't heard of this gem of a series.
This series is about a girl named Zelie, the daughter of a reaper that was killed by the crown. In Children of Blood and Bone, magic once ran in the bloodlines of the people of Orïsha. Diviners, children born with white hair, were destined to become maji in their teenage years, when they would develop abilities to control natural forces such as fire, water, and even life and death. Zelie lives with her father and brother, fishing to make a living, while secretly training to be able to protect herself and other diviners from the ever growing threat of the monarchy now that the diviners are being taxed for existing and magic has been wiped from the lands by the crown of Orisha.
Its during a routine trip to the market that Zelie's life takes a turn and sends her on a quest to bring magic back to Orisha along side an unlikely companion.
While being pursued by the crown, Zelie and her companions encounter trials and battles on their journey.
By book Two, Zelie's companions have grown in number and so has her opponents. Now, her goal is to take down the monarchy in its entirety, a task that will not be easily accomplished...
Tomi Adeyemi, put her whole foot into this series!
Things that I loved:
The Katara/Sokka type of relationship that Zelie and Tzain have.
This story is beautiful. The imagery. The language. The theology.
Adeyemi, gives a great introductory course to the Orishas of West African theology/mythology. The diviners are all sisters/brothers deriving their powers from those of of their patron deity.
Every character is complex and compelling, none of characters felt flat, I love when you can understand even the villain in the story. Which leads me to...
King Saran wasn't evil to just be evil... He had purpose and drive, albeit misdirected.
This story made me happy, sad, anxious, and angry lol... All the things that I want a story to do for me.
Things that I wasn't crazy about:
The ending of Book 2, lol... Definitely not what I saw happening... Which is why I need book three like YESTERDAY
The small things that bothered me about this story is all part of character development and are necessary to the story, but some of the character flaws made me want to fight lol.
I am so ready for the next book... I have been holding the ending of book two in my heart all of 2021. Hopefully we get a release date soon, because I'm going to be on the pre-order list.
On The Other Hand
  "This isn't the Wonderland you remember. The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew. Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job. But when Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she's ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head...literally. |
So... I'm not an Alice in Wonderland fan. With that being said, L.L. McKinney did a good job tying the Wonderland characters into her story and making them recognizable. Also, Hatta sounds super attractive lol.
The Nightmare-Verse series is about a teenage girl that becomes a Dreamwalker, guardian of the gate between our world and Wonderland.
The first novel introduces us to who Alice is and how she became a Dreamwalker, a human who can travel into wonderland to defeat the nightmares in physical form created by human fears. A war in Wonderland led to the creation of nightmares by the evil red queen. Since the red queen was defeated, the realm is protected by Dreamwalkers and guardians of the gateways. After a teenage girl in Atlanta is killed, Alice's mother is worried beyond worry about. For this reason, Alice is considering retiring from being a Dreamwalker. When a disturbance from Wonderland that is a result of Alice's mistake, rears its ugly head, the only person that can fix it is Alice. She is forced to remain active and finds herself face to face with a new foe.
In book two, Alice continues on her fight to end the apparently ever present threat. I don't want to get too much into summary and give everything away... Which may not be hard because I'm not finding it especially easy to recall all the details.
Things that I loved:
The dreamwalker concept... I love how the L. L. McKinney explains the creation and necessity of Dreamwalkers.
The incorporation of Wonderland characters in humanoid form... The best part to me was trying to figure out who was what Wonderland character.
The story... The plot of the story is good. I enjoyed the premise
Things that I wasn't crazy about:
The characters felt flat, leaving something to be desired. And the lack of depth in the characters caused the story to be less compelling even though I really wanted to love it.
The mom, she really got on my nerves. The constant fussing instead of trying to figure out what was actually going on. It was super cliche "angry black woman to me". She did have some moments of softness with Alice, but I feel like there could have been more in that relationship.
Alice's disregard for her mother, where her mom was a bit annoying in her parental approach. Alice was infuriating in her blatant disrespect and disregard for her mother's feelings. For someone that was considering retiring to spare her mother the pain of losing a child... She was certainly flippant with carelessness for her mother's rules.
I'm ready for book three to see where the story goes, so that I have some closure with this story, not necessarily because I love it... I just liked it enough to finish the books and try to see where the story goes. I'm not entirely sure why there needed to be a third book, but I'm in deep now and "gotta see it through my boy".
