Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha, #2)

by Tomi Adeyemi

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I must be completely honest.

I struggled a little bit with Children of Virtue and Vengeance.

It wasn’t a difficult book to read, and I’ll be honest, when I sat down and focused, I read it pretty quickly. It’s significantly shorter than Children of Blood and Bone… and it’s significantly less organized. I’m going to discuss it, but this seems like a good time to warn you all of spoilers if you haven’t read the first book. Also why are you reading a review of book 2 without reading book 1? Go read Children of Blood and Bone, it’s fantastic.

On most levels, I really do understand why and what’s going on here. At the end of Children of Blood and Bone, things were uncertain, chaotic. Magic returned to Orïsha, but that doesn’t mean all was well. Things did not go according to plan, people died unexpectedly, and results were surprising. Effective in many ways, but also surprising. That leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the book, and a lot to unpack in this one. Amari and Zélie are in a difficult position as the ones who brought magic back, but both from very different sides and now they have different needs. Alliances are complicated.

As is often the case with war, there were a lot of people shouting and very little forward progress for the costs incurred. At the end of Children of Virtue and Vengeance, it didn’t feel like there’d been any progress since Children of Blood and Bone. Characters did not grow, the plot didn’t make significant progress. It felt like filler. Filler is not always bad – the filler episodes of Supernatural are my favorite ones – but after such a startling debut, it was a little more difficult to swallow.

And I’m determined to be okay with all this. There were romantic moments (no, not the ones the extended fandom wants), and there were girl power moments, but a great deal of hate flowed through these pages as well. Again, this is reasonable and expected. It is war. And more than just war, it’s about oppression and elitism and trust broken. That much darkness was difficult to read at times. It was complete understandable from a sympathetic view, but so much time was spent fighting within allies that eventually, as a reader, I found myself going numb.

I know the world doesn’t work like this. I know that these big issues, ones that Tomi Adeyemi alludes to, do not simply go away because one person has good intentions. There’s intention and blood and reparations to be made and it doesn’t get to be easy. But I am trying to be honest and the amount of sheer force of loathing was hard. For a lot of the book, it was hard. Only extremes.

At the risk of hinting at spoilers (you are being warned! Turn back now!) I really didn’t like what she did with Inan. It is Adeyemi’s book and her choice and who knows there may be Big Plans… but the choices made around Inan’s character in this book felt too easy and I’m never a fan of rewinds. The dances between the POV characters in this book honestly felt forced and repetitive. Yet another factor in the whole “going nowhere” thing.

For those of you who, like myself, have been anticipating Children of Virtue and Vengeance for a while will know that this book was pushed back about six months. Tomi Adeyemi announced the delay herself on Twitter. As such, we as readers already know that this sophomore novel had been a bit of a struggle. As book bloggers and avid readers, we know that book 2 often does not live up to book 1. And furthermore, when we’re talking series or even trilogies, very often book 2 is simply the glue between books 1 & 3. A lack of movement and development is not uncommon at this stage, and I don’t think it’s a reason to step back from this series.

I am still so excited to see what happens in the next installment, whenever that may be. I still think Tomi Adeyemi is a strong author with fantastic ideas. Her debut shows that in spades. And regardless of my rather “meh” reaction to Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I’m sticking with her.