Author: Deborah Falaye
Publisher: Harperteen
Published Date: March 8, 2022
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
REVIEW
I'm not going to lie, when I saw this cover I was immediately intrigued. It is so beautiful and striking. Then I read the synopsis and man, did this sound like it was going to be original. I have not read much African mythology, but this being based off of Yoruba-Nigerian myths, as well as inspired by true events, I thought it was going to be a thought provoking and entertaining YA fantasy. As you can tell by my rating, that was not the case.
SUMMARY
This follows Sloane, a fifteen year old who is drafted into the Lucis army. These people invaded many years ago and are now trying to wipe out Scions by forcing the young people they conquered to fight and die for them. The thing is, Sloane is a Scion. Scion's are descendants of Orisha gods, each with different abilities. In Sloane's case, she is the descendant of Olodumarè, and possesses fire energy inside her. She must tamp it down or risk being exposed. If she is found out, her and the people who have protected her will be killed .
In the Lucis army, she is forced into a brutal training regimen which goes against everything she has learned growing up. Surrounded by people who wish to kill her, Sloane comes up with a plan and can only hope she survives long enough to do it.
MY THOUGHTS
After finishing this, I realized I am definitely in the minority. This book has a 4.14/5 rating on Goodreads and 4.4/5 on Amazon. For some reason, I just did not enjoy this as a whole. The beginning was quite good. It started off quickly and kept the pace going but then about halfway in, I knew how this was going to end. This book was just so predictable to me. The twists I could see coming from a mile away even though they weren't there until the end. It almost had me questioning myself because they hadn't happened yet.
I also found this book somewhat frustrating in the way it portrayed the characters. For such a brutal environment, I really wish it delved more into the emotional impact. Being forced to kill someone you love is no small feat, yet it shows these fifteen year old's just moving on with seemingly no long term (or short term) effects. And the fact that the author chose to include a romance is just textbook YA. I mean, if any book were to subvert that trope, it should have been this one. The environment these teens are in should in no way involve a romance, let alone a romance with someone on the "opposite" side.
Now, I did love the world-building. Learning about the different powers and the history of the land was one thing that kept me reading it. I do wish we got to see the different powers more clearly portrayed rather than just talked about, but that portion I had no real issue with. My complaints boil down to the fact that it just didn't feel like an original story. It almost felt like there was inspiration taken from other popular YA books that were all squished into another one. I couldn't connect with the characters because it seemed like the emotional element was put on the backburner. To me, that is how I connect with characters and thus, connect with the story. I don't want emotion ignored, especially in the situations described in this book.
Overall, I will not be continuing on with this series when the next one is published. Plenty of people loved this book, however. If it sounds interesting go for it, Blood Scion just was not written for me.
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