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Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi book cover
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Children of Blood and Bone

by Tomi Adeyemi
544 pages 2018 Fantasy, Young Adult 🌶️ Clean Series: Legacy of Orisha
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The Vibe

Zélie Adeyemi wants to restore magic to the land of Orisha — and avenge everyone who has suffered without it. West African mythology meets epic YA fantasy in one of the most important debut novels of the decade. Adeyemi writes action sequences that make your heart race and quieter moments that make it break.

Mood Meter

Romance
5/10
Fantasy / Magic
9/10
Pacing
9/10
Darkness
7/10
Humor
2/10
Angst
8/10

Mood Tags

EpicDarkEmotionalAction-Packed

Trope Tags

Chosen OneRevengePolitical UprisingLost Magic

Spice Check

🌶️ Clean

Clean YA — all the fire is magical and political.

Content Heads-Up

Is This Book for You?

Skip if you dislike:

Ending: Cliffhanger
Pacing: Fast

What This Book Feels Like

Moods: Epic Dark Emotional Action-Packed

Tropes: Chosen One Revenge Political Uprising Lost Magic

Reading Order: Legacy of Orisha

1 Children of Blood and Bone You are here
2 Children of Virtue and Vengeance

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R.F. Kuang
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A Torch Against the Night
Sabaa Tahir
Dark YA fantasy with resistance themes
Babel
R.F. Kuang
Dark academia fantasy with colonialism themes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Children of Blood and Bone based on West African mythology?

Yes — the world and magic system draw from Yoruba mythology and Nigerian culture.

Is the series complete?

Two books are published; the trilogy conclusion is planned.

How does it handle themes of racial injustice?

Directly and deliberately — the oppression in the story is an intentional allegory.

Keep Exploring

Books Like Children of Blood and Bone More by Tomi Adeyemi Legacy of Orisha Reading Order Epic BooksDark BooksEmotional Books Chosen One BooksRevenge BooksPolitical Uprising Books All Books Take the Quiz Subscribe

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How this guide was built

Every Sort By Cravings guide is written after a full read-through — not scraped from publisher blurbs or Amazon summaries. We map tropes directly from the text, cross-reference BookTok and Goodreads reader reactions across 500+ community posts, and calibrate heat ratings against reader consensus before publishing. Mood tags, spice numbers, and “skip if” notes reflect actual reading experience. Read our editorial standards.

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