Book of the Month – November 2019
The message I got from this book was when you believe in yourself when you acknowledge the belief that someone has in you, everything is possible. You find a strength you didn’t even know you had to fight, to stand up for yourself and be a leader. This invokes the times Amani has referenced Binta telling Amani to be brave, as if Binta knew that despite appearances and past behaviour, Amani could be brave.
Family and Parental Support
“We fought for his approval, stuck in a battle for his love neither of us would ever win. We raised our swords against each other because neither of us had the courage to raise one against him”.
Amani on her relationship with Inan – how their father brought them up to compete
Children of Blood and Bone reveal children with parental support, those striking out independently, and others desperate for parental approval. Each character embodies a child growing, developing and also crafting a new relationship with more parity with adults in their lives.
Inan felt that his duty was first to his kingdom as Crown Prince but couldn’t comprehend that adherence to the King’s directives wouldn’t give him the love or respect from his father that he desperately wanted. Even before he met Zél, he occasionally questioned his orders and considered alternatives yet like a good boy, stayed in his comfort zone. After meeting Zél, duty, and love inexplicably collided for Inan.
“I think she feared disappointing you more than her own death”
Inan speaking of Admiral Kaea to his father.
The power the King welded was enormous, thus it is not surprising the panic Inan faced over his growing magical ability.
” I can’t wait till he finds out what you are. Let’s see how bold you feel when your father turns on his own son”
This pronouncement from Zél had played on this mind and came to pass.
The hatred shown to Inan when the people he admires (Admiral Kaea) and love (King Saran) find out his magical powers is expected but still shocking, more so as the reader knows that he will be devastated. Inan’s dreaded anticipation was made reality. He becomes nothing to them.
“Not the child who gave up everything to be everything Father wanted”
Amani
The cost of freedom, independent thought is more than hardship – people cannot be free until the truth is known and shared. And hatred doesn’t rule
Whilst I have meandered, I hope I’ve managed to convey how much I enjoyed reading this book and looking forward to the sequel providing it addresses the issues I’m about to raise. Forgive me for leaving this to the end but I did want the ‘like’ to come across before the ‘reservations’.
This is too much of a coincidence?
I really liked it for its strong depiction of females, magic and world-building of weaving African traditions into fantasy. Conversely, I was also underwhelmed by the male characters who were cartoonish in their one-dimensionality. If Inan hadn’t died in the end, it would have been three stars. That is straight-up cold but true; by the time it got to the end, I wanted to take him out. Because between him and Tzain, they were the most irritating and banal background noise. They were wishy-washy nonentities that either took up space or propelled the plot forward. The King was a ridiculously over the top baddie, but I can give him that, as you can forgive one ridiculous character.
But not these many.
What’s up with all of them?
To conclude, I found the majority of male characters to be caricatures – the charming thief, the greedy politician/showman, the petty opportunist – the list could go on. And the reoccurring characters are weak as dishwater in various ways, even Zél’s father. He was reduced to a shell of himself because the love of his life was murdered and consequently became a burden on his children because he couldn’t get over it. Tzain was relentlessly cheerful trying to live in the little moments as he couldn’t see beyond the next day, event, given the turmoil at home.
And not this fr****** guy
But all complaints crumble before the mess that is Inan; words fail me for this guy …. His character wasn’t way out there, because seeking parental love at all and any cost isn’t unusual. It was the way he was rendered as if he had no moral compass. The reader is frequently reminded that Inan was broken, then shaped through his upbringing because he leaned into it rather than away as Amani did. Yet Inan did know right from wrong and could choose to do right but was always swayed by the strongest personality in the room. Ugh.
I have got to leave it there as I don’t want to get into that zone again – mindless rage coupled with bafflement -, but I found Inan unlikeable on many levels. Don’t even get me started on his love story, just why?
Book of the Month though
For those reasons and more, is why it took me almost a month to write the review, even though I liked the book and it’s November’s book of the month.
(Actually, it’s joint with The Changeover by Margaret Mahy which blows it out of the water and I’m not saying that because the male lead was my teenaged crush. It’s because it’s a beautiful book throughout and the characterisation is sublime. Ignoring my digressing apart from, it has to be said that, only for the fact that it was a reread, is why The Changeover is not the sole book of the month).
Thus, to finally close, once I park those significant issues to one side, I can be positive and see a lot that I enjoyed, notably the big ticket themes.
4 stars – really liked it (for the most part)
