A diviner girl, a runaway princess and a prince on the hunt race to bring magic back to Orisha before a once-in-a-century solstice.
A fast, emotional fantasy with a rich clan and god system and three narrators who keep the pace up. It is dark, with state violence and forced labor, so check the content notes. Four out of five (draft rating).
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
Children of Blood and Bone characters and magic explained: Zelie, Tzain, Amari, Inan, the ten maji clans and the three relics, before the January 2027 film. Light spoilers.
Children of Blood and Bone (2018) is a fantasy novel by Tomi Adeyemi, published by Henry Holt. It is set in Orisha, where magic vanished eleven years ago and the king hunts the maji who remain, and it follows Zelie, Amari and Inan as they chase a scroll that could bring magic back.
Below you’ll find a characters and magic guide with light spoilers: who is who, how the relationships connect, the ten maji clans and how the magic works, ahead of the film that Paramount has set for January 15, 2027.
A fast, emotional fantasy with a rich clan and god system and three narrators who keep the pace up. It is dark, with state violence and forced labor, so check the content notes. Four out of five (draft rating). Read it if: you like fantasy with big mythology and clear clan rules; you want to read the book before the january 2027 film; you enjoy alternating first-person narrators; you can handle violence and grief. Skip it if: you want a light, cozy fantasy; scenes of state violence, torture and grief are a hard line; you dislike present-tense first-person narration.
Zelie Adebola, a seventeen-year-old diviner from Ilorin whose mother was a Reaper. The story alternates between three narrators: Zelie, Princess Amari and Prince Inan.
The book lists Iku (life and death, Reapers, goddess Oya), Emi (mind, spirit and dreams, Connectors), Omi (water, Tiders), Ina (fire, Burners), Afefe (air, Winders), Aiye (iron and earth, Grounders and Welders), Imole (darkness and light, Lighters), Iwosan (health and disease, Healers and Cancers), Ariran (time, Seers) and Eranko (animals, Tamers).
A bone dagger, a sunstone and a scroll. In the book they are used in a ritual once every hundred years, on the centennial solstice, at a temple on a sacred island.
A diviner is a child of maji with white hair whose magic would have woken at thirteen. Majacite is a metal that weakens magic and burns the skin of maji.
