Ikenna's trials and tribulations: awesome. The ridiculously violent training that leads to hundreds of young people being murdered: awesome. Ridiculous, but awesome. The awful interlude where you have to sit through her watching cannibals roast and eat a fellow student: violent, disgusting, and a great indicator of where this book firmly sits. My favorite was the main character, which is a bit too on the nose but hear me out. She is amazing. She has anger issues that seriously needs to be worked on. Well, I kinda liked how angry she got because I personally translated that to a lot of energy and passion for everything she does. At times though, she was just doing the most. For now, I believe Davenport wrote her this way to reveal how her rashness was the reason for some of her downfalls in this book. I hope she recognizes this more and would really encourage Davenport to write her character with some growth in this issue while mainiting her vivaciousness. Ikenna is an interesting if frustrating character to follow, because she never met a conclusion she couldn’t jump to without the slightest bit of evidence, and she doesn’t hesitate to act on those conclusions. She has a lot of maturing to do. She’s incredibly good at fighting and tactics, but she has a temper and is impatient. But you can’t help rooting for her, not only to figure out who killed her grandfather, but also to make it through the beyond brutal trials to become a Praetorian—trials in which washing out doesn’t involve just leaving, but death (there’s one scene where a recruit is blown up because he couldn’t hold a plank, so that’s the level of intensity we’re working with here). The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. Much has been said about the violent nature of the books... and maybe I'm just a horrible person that has been desensitized... nothing here felt particularly worse than something I read a decade ago in The Hunger Games or experienced while on my Criminal Minds rewatch.... but that's going to be a reader by reader basis. I'd say that while the book feels very juvenile and filled with a lot of half baked ideas, it does mostly read as a book for the adults it's marketed toward. I also think it's one of the rare books with characters in the grey space age of early adulthood that doesn't feel like it's trying to split the difference and appeal to two age categories, despite the nature of the writing.

Another highlight for me was the worldbuilding, which incorporated an intricate chess board of geopolitical rivals, each with their own goals and societal quirks. Once again, contrast is key. The mostly white-skinned, techno-capitalist, militaristic society that Ikenna lives in is compared to their innovative, dark-skinned neighbors and an empire of bloodthirsty magic wielders led by a despotic emperor. All this when Ikenna is a mixed-race female with dark skin who has to hide her blood magic, and she’s been indoctrinated by a misogynist, military industrial complex that prejudices her very own skin color and magic. It was fascinating commentary on our world, on modern America, and the contradictions of Ikenna’s life panned out toward a satisfying conclusion. I've read some raggedy books in my day, and while this is a little better than raggedy it still leaves a lot to be desired. I could not connect to or care about any of the characters besides Ikenna. A lot of minor characters I got mixed up because they would be referenced once or twice in the beginning and then not at all in the middle and then again at the end, or there would be a ton of side characters introduced at once with no distinguishing traits between them and I was expected to remember them all. Just not very good character work in this book, in my opinion. I really enjoyed The Blood Trials when it came out last year. It filled that Hunger Games and Red Rising hole in my heart with a clever twist on the “dystopian death games” genre. One way it did this was just my taking the genre and making it more adult (similar to Red Rising), which allowed Davenport to not only amp up the violence, language, and sex, but also to explore deep-seeded themes of racism, sexism, and the monstrosity of both empires and corrupt democracies.

That said, Ikenna felt all over the place as the narrative voice of this story. Her internal dialogue often swung from logical to filled with rage in ways that could be hard to follow. These mood swings were conveyed through telling, rather than showing, which made them seem almost performative on Ikenna's part in a way that didn't make sense. There’s also a lot of internal narrating, which often popped up in the middle of a scene that otherwise had a lot of action going on. Ikenna’s musings usually restated information that the reader had already been told numerous times while completely ignoring obvious questions or further areas of investigation. Tonally this book had a different feel from book 1 which was more adult and gritty. This one felt more YA than book even though this is an adult fantasy. When I was hoping it would go further into embracing the adult fantasy space. It didn't help Ikenna is very childish in this one and people such as Ajani who is only a few years older than her constantly refer to her as a child. At times it got a little too over the top for me and the dialogue didn't really fit this very heavily structured environment they grew up in where the children were adultified at a young age. The plot was honestly really well developed and I honestly loved the mystery aspect of things, trying to work out who murdered Ikenna’s grandfather and we are given quite a few suspects which I definitely felt kept things interesting and you’ll be pleased to know the culprit is eventually revealed and the outcome for it is really satisfying. The first has to do with Ikenna. Look, I get that she was always going to be special as our main character. She has the Blood Gift and all of that. But her level of special receives like three upgrades over the course of this book, and I guess it's not something I expect to see if we're talking about an adult fantasy. This much Chosen One-ness is something I see more often within YA, and it irked me. I also had trouble buying into her supposed development. One of my biggest issues with the first book was how little she thought things through, and how she kept deciding that people were murderers based on very flimsy "evidence". Only now I'm supposed to believe that she has become some sort of strategic mastermind. I did enjoy my time with The Blood Gift, and fans of The Blood Trials will likely enjoy it too. I just wish that the book was a bit longer or was split into two books to give Davenport the time to really flesh out the characters and plot a bit more.

In this stunning conclusion to the Blood Gift duology, Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demigod if they hope to save their world from the oppression that threatens from every side… All the characters in this book were written really well, including the “evil” characters. Also, there’s just something about sexual tension in a book that is mainly advertised as fantasty and action. Let’s just say my ass thought this was YA at first. Please please let there be more of that in the next book. With a high-octane sci-fi setting, a twisty murder mystery, and a badass heroine, THE BLOOD TRIALS is a damn good time’ Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the WolfBah. I was disappointed after such a strong first book. The first book was a journey; this was just Super Ikenna going from place to place communicating in silent glances with everyone around her.