Summary
Children of Blood and Bone opens with a poetic description of Zélie's mother's murder during the Raid, a genocide waged by King Saran against all magic practitioners, called maji. Zélie then practices fighting with her staff in Mama Agba's school. Zélie is a divîner, a person with the potential to practice magic, an ability indicated by her snow-white hair. Even in school, Zélie faces discrimination and abuse for her divîner status. She fights a girl named Yemi, a skilled warrior who taunts her for being a divîner. After Zélie loses control and harms Yemi, guards enter the school to collect taxes. The guards call Zélie a maggot, a slur for divîners, and threaten her with sexual violence. Once the guards leave, Mama Agba, the headmistress, relates the painful story of the Raid to the girls.
Zélie's brother, Tzain, informs her that their father is in trouble, and Zélie races back home to the seaside village of Ilorin to find her father stranded in the ocean. Tzain dives in to rescue him but barely resurfaces. Baba explains that he tried fishing to get enough food to sell to pay the increased taxes, but because of his frequent blackouts caused by the trauma of his wife's murder during the Raid, he nearly drowned. The guards threaten to take Zélie to the stocks, where debtors perform grueling manual labor. Zélie blames herself for her father's near-death experience, as she was supposed to watch him that day but instead went to train with Mama Agba. Hoping to help ease her father's financial burden, Zélie offers to sell an exotic fish at a market in Lagos.
Princess Amari, King Saran's daughter, dines with her mother and other female nobles, called oloyes. The women passive-aggressively comment on Amari's dark skin tone and suggest she try to lighten her skin with cosmetic products. An unfamiliar girl serves Amari, who realizes that her handmaid and closest friend, a divîner named Binta, has been taken to the throne room. Breaking royal protocol, Amari races to the room where she sees her father discussing the return of magic with his top generals, Admiral Ebele and Commander Kaea. The general explains that divîners can reconnect with their dormant magic by touching artifacts. Guards then drag Binta into the throne room and force her to touch a scroll marked with unusual symbols. Binta's magic flares, and King Saran promptly executes her while Amari watches. Amari then goes to her father's empty chamber, where she finds the scroll.
Tzain and Zélie go to Lagos to sell the fish. Before entering the city, drunken guards question and grope Zélie. Walking through the city, she notes the severe economic disparity between the nobles and the divîners; the divîners live in slums and dress in rags, while the nobles reside in luxurious homes and dress in sumptuous garments.
Eventually, Zélie makes a profitable deal with a noble, capitalizing on the man's pride by assuring him that by purchasing the fish, he will "eat better than the king." Suddenly, the market erupts into chaos as guards chase a fugitive through the vendor stalls. Amari grabs Zélie and asks for her help; unable to leave Amari to die, Zélie helps her escape by fighting off royal guards with her staff. Riding on Nailah, Zélie's flying lion, Tzain rescues the cornered girls; they barely escape the city with the money. Amari then reveals herself and explains the function of the scroll to Zélie and Tzain. Faced with the notion that magic can return, Zélie vividly imagines her mother surviving the Raid if she had been able to use magic.
Inan, Amari's older brother and captain of the Royal Guard, feels ashamed that he let the fugitive escape; Zélie's appearance in the market also haunts him. King Saran reveals that Amari is the fugitive and tasks Inan and Kaea with bringing her home using any means necessary. King Saran explains to Inan that he destroyed magic by cutting the majis' spiritual connection to their gods, which surprises Inan, who had been told that gods are not real. He tasks Inan with finding Amari and returning her, assuring him that Amari can live so long as no one finds out what she did. Inan promises to bring his sister back and kill those who get in his way if necessary. By looking at daily ledgers, Inan figures out that Zélie was the one who got Amari out of Lagos.
Zélie, Amari, and Tzain bring the scroll to Mama Agba, who reveals that she was a Seer, a maji who receives visions of the future. Mama Agba foresaw the Raid and cut her hair to hide her maji identity. Using the scroll, Mama Agba summons magic, though it's only a fraction of her former power, and sees a vision of Zélie, Amari, and Tzain traveling to Chândomblé temple to reinstate magic. Their conversation is interrupted by the village burning. Zélie and Amari go to save Baba and Tzain, who swim safely with Nailah; the pier collapses under Zélie and Amari, plunging them into the water. As Mama Agba tends to their wounds, Baba encourages his children to go to Chândomblé and bring magic back. The group tearfully departs; Zélie hadn't seen her father so emboldened since the Raid.
Against Inan's wishes, Ilorin burned after a soldier lit the fire too early, killing dozens of inhabitants. Inan starts to feel the pull of magic, nearly blacking out on more than one occasion, drawing suspicion from Kaea. He believes Zélie infected him with magic when their eyes met in Lagos. Inan and Kaea try to question the villagers, who know nothing about Zélie's whereabouts; Yemi comes forward to give whatever information she can, an act of vengeance against Zélie. Zélie meets Inan in a dreamland, where he has a streak of white in his hair, indicating that he is at least part magi. Zélie discerns Inan is likely a Connector, a maji with the ability to influence minds and dreams. When Zélie begins to call Inan a "maggot," he lunges for her, and she awakens with her brother, Nailah, and Amari. Having lost most of their money in the fire, they decide to trade Amari's dress for supplies. Zélie and Amari quarrel, as Zélie cannot forgive her for being part of the royal family that persecutes divîners. While Amari changes clothing, Zélie sees a jagged scar on her back. Amari explains that her father made her and Inan spar with real swords to toughen them up. Zélie begins to feel a shred of sympathy and understanding for Amari and grows hopeful for the opportunity to use Amari's resources to save the divîners from oppression. Knowing her sacrifices won't make up for the harm her family caused the divîners, Amari sells the headdress that Binta gave her in exchange for supplies, including a vicious sword. Zélie tests Amari's skills with a sword by throwing a papaya fruit at her; Amari slices it with quick reflexes, impressing Zélie. Meanwhile, Inan's attraction to magic strengthens until it becomes almost unbearable; he starts to believe that if he kills Zélie, he will be able to break his tether to magic. Kaea begins to suspect Inan after he nearly blacks out on the beach; to avoid scrutiny, he lies and says he grew discomposed after mistakenly thinking he saw Amari's corpse.
As she, Zélie, and Tzain climb the mountain, Amari recalls how she and Binta used to climb the castle together to see outside the palace walls. Amari notices Tzain and is embarrassed, as she was never allowed to consort with men or see their bodies; but now, she is developing a flirtation with Tzain. When they reach the top of the mountain, Amari finds a cracked skull; Zélie senses its spirit and begins experimenting with her magic. The aura of magic is so thick that even Amari can feel it, and Zélie deduces they must be near the temple. Zélie conjures an image of the temple's past glory, and a secret passageway opens. The group walks inside, and suddenly, the door closes. Poison seeps into the air, knocking the group unconscious. When they awaken, they are bound with ropes, and all their possessions are missing. A sêntaro, tattooed with symbols like those on the scroll, explains that the scroll was stolen from the temple years before, and he has no intention of returning. With horror, Amari realizes that her father destroyed the temple. Using magic, the man vanishes the ropes binding the group and beckons them to come with him.
Inan arrives in Sokoto, looking for Zélie; he hides his white streak of hair beneath his helmet. Inan notices there are no guards in the town and senses Zélie's presence but knows she has left Sokoto; alarmingly, Inan is relieved that he won't have to hurt her. He speaks to the merchant who sold Zélie her supplies and finds Amari's headdress in the man's possession. Inan flashes back to when he hurt Amari during their sword fight, after which Amari first received Binta's tiara. At first, Inan assumes his sister is dead, as she would never willingly part with the tiara, but Kaea believes the group must have gone to the temple. Inan wants to leave the merchant unharmed, but Kaea kills him.
Analysis
Author Tomi Adeyemi calls Children of Blood and Bone a "love letter" to her Yoruban roots; this love is evident in the celebratory way she incorporates Yoruban material objects and traditions into her world-building. From the first page, Children of Blood and Bone weaves a lush, fantastical setting using rich descriptions of West African-inspired culture. Adeyemi's celebration of her heritage is particularly poignant since colonial writings about West Africa and fantasy fiction historically describe indigenous costume, architecture, food, and culture in pejorative terms. By contrast, this novel highlights elegance and opulence; for instance, West African articles of clothing, such as the gele and dashiki, are described in rich detail. The terms for fantastical peoples are also Yoruban in origin. For instance, the term ibawi, used in the novel to mean maji children who have yet to manifest their powers, is the Yoruban word for "divine."
The text centers and celebrates black characters and explores themes of racism and colorism with lush descriptions of skin tone. For example, Yemi's "complexion carries the soft brown of Orïshans who've never spent a day laboring in the sun," indicating a connection between lighter skin tones and privilege. The text also describes skin tone using evocative phrases such as "brown like worn leather" or "soft copper," depending on the character's station.
The story's opening establishes violence as a major theme when Zélie recounts her mother's gruesome murder during the Raid. The text then immediately contrasts this memory with Mama Agba's training; the girls learn to fight with the staff, a weapon used to protect, not subjugate. The Royal Guards use majicite, a metal alloy that harms divîners, to strip maji of their power and keep them in line. For the Royals, violence and weapons are tools of oppression, whereas the divîner staff is a tool of liberation. Zélie uses her staff for the first time in the outside world to defend Amari against the Royal Guards and help her escape. By contrast, when Zélie first enters Lagos, she sees a guard abuse a young boy with a majacite weapon for no reason.
Amari and Zélie have similarities but were born into very different circumstances. Despite their differences, the two girls experience discrimination and violence. This parallel demonstrates that discrimination and violence affect every member of society, even those who seemingly benefit from oppression. Amari, Princess of Orishan, has every material privilege possible, yet her dark complexion yields scrutiny and scorn. For example, rumors abound that the Princess is a product of an affair, and noble women suggest Amari lighten her skin. Amari also endured violence at her father's hands; to "toughen up" his children, King Saran forced them to duel with real swords, leaving Amari's body disfigured with scars.
The text invokes sensory imagery to highlight the class differences between the divîners and the kosidán, or non-magical people. For example, when Zélie walks through Lagos, she first encounters the slums where the divîners are forced to live and tries to "ignore the smell of sewage leaking from the slum streets." But when Zélie crosses over to the merchant, kosidán quarter, "the odor shifts to sweet bread and cinnamon," contrasting the luxury and leisure of the oppressors with the misery of the oppressed.
On more than one occasion, Zélie endures sexual harassment from the Royal Guards. Though romantic and sexual relationships between kosidán and divîners are illegal, and the kosidán regard Zélie with disgust and derision, sexual abuse is another form of oppression and violence that mirrors real-world violence against women, particularly women of color.
One theme in the text is finding beauty through resistance. In the slums of Lagos, the fading, crumbling buildings "shine with bright paints and colorful art. The vibrant protest defies the title of slum, an ember of beauty where the monarchy sees none." In the text, architecture dramatizes the extremes of privilege and poverty; the divîners beautifying their homes is a visual representation of their resistance.
Amari's brother Inan, captain of the Royal Guard, repeats the phrase 'duty before self' and clutches a pawn from a sênet set, an Egyptian board game. This game piece symbolizes Inan's role in the royal family. Like the pawn, he is used and sacrificed in service of his father's plans. Inan still self-criticizes and does not feel the part of a captain. Unlike his father, Inan abhors violence. Like his father, however, he considers this hesitance to exact violence a weakness. For example, when Inan does not kill the fugitive, he questions whether or not he deserves his title, as a "proper captain would've sent an arrow through that fugitive's heart." He also chides himself for his relief when Zélie is unharmed, when he regrets Ilorin's burning, and when he is disgusted by Kaea killing the merchant in Sokoto. Inan harbors a distinct sense of shame and self-loathing, which intensifies when he realizes he has magical abilities. Though he is not wholly maji, he still feels the need to hide his identity. He wears his helmet even in the sweltering weather to hide the white streak in his hair and steals a bottle of black dye from the merchant.
King Saran severed the spiritual connection between the people and their gods to destroy magic and convinced the nobility that the gods did not exist. Amari and Inan are shocked when their father reveals that the gods and magic are real. Saran's strategic obliteration of maji culture mirrors the real-world colonial violence of distancing people from their beliefs and culture; destroying a community's identity and values is a way to suppress their power.
Through detailed character studies, the text explores the human cost, and human origins, of violence and oppression. For example, maji killed King Saran's father, brother, wife, and first son; in response, the king uses his influence to destroy the maji. Though his actions are motivated by vengeance, Saran convinces himself he desires to keep his people safe. This detail expresses the text's view that violence is cyclical and generational; Inan and Amari initially harbor prejudices that they then challenge as they encounter the human cost of violence and the humanity of the maji.
Additionally, the text explores how and to what extent oppressors and oppressed can make peace and heal. Zélie's assessment of Amari's relationship with Binta is scathing, as she believes one cannot recognize the humanity of a person in their service. However, Amari and Binta shared a core similarity, as they both were held captive by the royal family that oppressed them and eventually attempted to take their lives.
