In this section of Children of Blood and Bone, Zelie, her brother Tzain, and Amari are on a quest to restore magic to the world.

Spoilers ahead!

One interesting aspect is how the relationships between the siblings are portrayed. We have Zelie, our protagonist, and her brother Tzain as well as Amari and Inan. It’s interesting to see how the love between siblings is similar, but given certain situations, their expressed love has different results. In this sense, the contrast between the brothers’ love for their little sisters is highlighted.  There’s something to be said about the importance of not only intention, but context as well.

On the group’s journey to restore magic to the world the group reaches the temple and encounters a sentinel. The sentinel explains the creation story of this world, The creation story involves a great creator called the Sky Mother who created the gods and bestowed powers on humans. The gods passed on their powers to humans, but over time it was learned that only certain people could possess magic based on their wisdom and patience. The story also includes a tale about the royal family losing their magic and only certain people being able to possess it.

In interviews, Tomi Adeyemi has stated that she was influenced by African mythologies. I wonder how much real-life mythology or spirituality has made it into this book.

First draft written in 2019.

Feature Image: Zelie – Children of Blood and Bone by JoPainter, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License