I'm Black Ya'll! - a book review

A few thoughts on Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone:

This book is so BLACK! AND I LOVE IT!!! It is spewing with #blackgirlmagic from page 1.  Upon cracking the spine of this book, every Black woman that reads it can feel a connection to Zelie Adebola that she won’t get from the likes of Katniss Everdeen or Bella Swan.  We feel Zelie’s hair, we feel Zelie’s mother-figure of a teacher, and we feel her presumed nemesis.  We think back to the day we embraced our natural hair, the auntie that had permission to whoop our tail, and the girl down the street that stared at us when we walked to the corner store. This book was written for us and I am here for it!

After we make it pass the initial shock of very literally being in the book, we realize there is a rich story to be experienced.  Children of Blood and Bones is the story of the maji of the fictional country of Orisha.  Zelie is a diviner.  She is a young would-be maji.  Sadly, her people’s magic has been stripped away for years now.  When it is discovered that magic may have returned to Orisha, Zelie goes on a quest to restore the glory of magic to her people.

I was enthralled from beginning to end.  I wanted the maji to win!  I had to see how it would end.  That meant that I had to read a 523-page novel.  Wow! I did that (in eight days!!!)!  That is one heck of a feat for me.  But… I was committed.  When I heard about this book and its anticipated movie, I was intrigued.  I was intrigued by this young African-American author.  Tomi Adeyemi is a graduate of Harvard, daughter to Nigerian parents, and this was her debut work.  She was offered a movie deal BEFORE the book was even released.  Can we scream #blackgirlmagic again!?!!? I will: BLACK GIRL MAGIC!! YESSS!!!  Ms. Adeyemi was compelled to write this series by the ever present story line of unarmed Black Americans being killed by law enforcement.  Knowing this, I expected a story that would hit hard.  I was not disappointed. 

Here is just a short list of the dichotomies that are scattered throughout the book.  I do believe that this list entails why some of our non-Black fellow readers may not appreciate this book the way that Black folk will.  If you have no experience with these dichotomies, you may be lost. 

good hair vs. bad hair

light skin vs. dark skin

upper class vs. middle class

police vs. Black Lives Matter

woke vs. Sunken Place

Now, I have told you as much as I can without spoilers. Would you please go out and get the book, order it online, or download the audio.  I’m going to need you to check it out so we can talk about it.