Upon seeing her brother stabbed, Amari kills her own father, and as he dies, she vows to become a better ruler. Marked by white streaks, the tîtáns appeared in the nobility and military after the ritual, displaying magic similar to one of the ten maji clans. But unlike us, their powers require no incantation to come forth. Like Inan, their raw abilities are quite strong.” I am so disappointed by this book—so much so that it breaks my heart. I am emotionally spent so I want to keep this as short as possible without ranting. I adored Children of Blood and Bone so much that I gave it five stars. The only reason why this isn’t getting one-star from me is because it’s not a bad book and I don’t want it to come across like it is because I have respect for Tomi Adeyemi. Amari was one of my favourites at the beginning of the book. I really felt so sorry for her and for the fact that even though she really wanted to share her plans, no one seemed to give a shit about her. She was deprived of consideration and low-key hated. And she didn’t deserve that. But by the end of the book, she started being more and more absurd in her decisions, becoming as stubborn as the rest of the characters.

Sadly, Amari is no longer a favourite character of mine. I felt like her character was forced out of of character to drive a certain theme and storyline which was unrealistic for her. While I did appreciate the message her storyline conveyed and find it to be such a valuable and important discussion, it felt so off for Amari as a character my heart broke a little bit. Good lord give me patience! There was so much potential for Inan’s character and... it all went to waste! Instead of forming his own opinion and doing the right thing he let himself be influenced by his mother and the people around him. Inan had absolutely no – I repeat – no character growth and even though he tried to find a peaceful solution for everyone and wanted to avoid a war it felt like he never really wanted to stop it. If you want to stop a war you take the risk and go through with it no matter the cost. No wonder Inan wasn’t successful; all his attempts at peace were just half-hearted and half-assed! You do things properly or not at all. Period! His stance of “I want peace but I still want to be king” was so illogical and it was no surprise the maji didn’t trust someone who held on to his crown like that. Uff... HOWEVER, Amari decides to challenge the current Elder of the Connectors Clan for the leadership role. During their battle, she uses the incantations to put her opponent in comatose. (Of course, this does not sit well with the other maji and Amari is still all "why does everyone hate me! i just want to be the queen they deserve!") Be careful,” Tzain warns as the tremor in my hand makes drops of oil spill over the jar’s rim. After three weeks of bartering to get enough to soak Baba’s casket, the rippling liquid feels more precious than gold. Its sharp smell burns my nostrils as I pour the last of it onto our burial torch. Tears stream down Tzain’s face when he strikes the flint. With no time to waste, I prepare the words of the ìbùkún—a special blessing a Reaper must pass to the dead.Considering the two year gap between releases, I was expecting a polished and well written follow up. But what I got was a half baked sequel that I felt like needed another round of revisions. I felt like the writing- which was so well done in the first book- lost its spark and became bland. I didn't highlight a single line I liked. Trigger/Content warnings for strong war themes; death and violence; genocide; mass murder and attempted murder; blood and blood magic (not explicit); torture; depictions of grief; loss of parents and loved ones; emotional and verbal abuse from parental figures; trauma. Zélie was also stubborn and too smug to listen to anything or anyone and she always acted like she’s the only important creature in the world and no one else comes at least a bit closer to her own, colossal pain. She was the only one allowed to suffer, and no one else. And, (bonus!) you could always count on her to say or do something worthy of a facepalm. After the shattering conclusion of the previous book, Orïsha was in a great state of upheaval. Although the ritual went wrong, Zélie achieved her goal of returning magic to the magi but she also accidentally awoke it in the nobility. She ended up creating a new type of magic wielder called tîtans who unlike the magi didn't need incantations for their magic to flow. This added a new dimension to the story and raised the stakes even higher than they already were. The irony of it was that she gave her enemies more power to use against her people and while the nobility hated the magi for their magic, most of them felt justified in using it themselves. Both magi and titans pushed the boundaries of their magic beyond belief accomplishing staggering feats and using it creatively. Although I don't think the ways in which they used their magic was explained very well it was still exciting to read.

Guilt cages me like a casket, trapping me in a tomb of my own mistakes. Maybe it’s a sign I don’t deserve to bury Baba. Tomi Adeyemi wants to wrap her readers in a “dangerous but warm” blanket. Her young adult novels—the hit epic Children of Blood and Bone and its highly anticipated new sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance—combine escapist fantasy with clear-eyed confrontations of race and power. “I was thinking: you’re creating a Snuggie,” the Nigerian-American author tells TIME. “It’s a violent Snuggie, but create the Snuggie.” For all of these things, the world-building, the change of pace, the dynamic action, this book gets all of my admiration. As the Romanian in me would say, it’s beton armat, reinforced concrete (aka super cool).

Don’t get me wrong, the first book was great. I mean I had my issues with it but I was really looking forward to read book two because I believed that the author would learn from the mistakes of the first book. Unfortunately what I got was something totally different than I expected. There was so much potential! We had the tîtáns that suddenly appeared after the ritual and we could have had such great character arcs and a really solid and good story line but this wasn’t what we got. No. I didn’t know what we would find. What strange wonder that lullaby would hold. I just knew I had to get to it. It was like the tides held a missing piece of my soul. They stare at each other, and it’s as if we all disappear. Unspoken words pass between their eyes. Roën’s shoulders slump when he rises to his feet. “Me too.” Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the stunning sequel to Tomi Adeyemi's New York Times-bestselling debut Children of Blood and Bone, the first book in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy.

Zélie realizes that her newfound power is unstable, and this can be resolved by sacrificing someone she loves. So, she decides to take Amari's life. It’s been really cool because it’s with Disney/Fox and Lucas Films. It’s been three years and even though the team has shifted and grown, just to have so many people at the top of their game so passionate and excited and enthusiastic about bringing my world [to the screen], it’s ridiculous. I made that world up in my head, in my room, super sweaty, my hair looked like crazy, I was in my pajamas. I’m like, this is going to be that? It’s really wild.Amari confronts her mother (aka the person responsible for the genocide of maji) and spares her life because she wants to be the "better person." (Never mind the fact that she committed MASS MURDER a handful of chapters ago.)