They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
The best thing about Children of Blood and Bone is that it doesn't borrow a European map and repaint it. Adeyemi builds Orïsha from Yoruba gods, language and Nigerian geography, and reviewers are quick to say it is specifically Nigerian, not vaguely African. That gives a familiar quest a texture it wouldn't otherwise have.
The maji, marked by white hair and a slur, are persecuted in a way that reads plainly as an allegory for racism. Adeyemi has said police violence against Black Americans pushed her to write it. The quest carries real doubt too, because restoring magic isn't presented as simply right. Three narrators keep things moving, and the pace is breathless when it works. When it doesn't, the magic rules get murky and the romance feels pushed along by the plot.
The reviews land where the book does: big-hearted, high-stakes and furious at injustice. Publishers Weekly loved the complex characters, while Common Sense Media found it exciting but noted the battle scenes can strain toward overwrought prose. Readers were mostly enthusiastic, with pacing and the fuzzy magic system the usual gripes, and it won the 2018 Andre Norton Award.
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Legacy of Orïsha
2 books in catalog
Young adult fantasy reached a major milestone with the publication of the Legacy of Orïsha series, a West African-inspired fantasy trilogy that brought rich mythology and high-stakes magic to modern speculative fiction. Author Tomi Adeyemi achieved widespread acclaim with her debut novel, Children of Blood and Bone, which debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list and earned prestigious honors including the 2018 Andre Norton Award, the 2019 Waterstones Book Prize, and the 2019 Hugo Lodestar Award. Her trilogy has sold over three million copies worldwide and has been translated into screen adaptations.
Born in San Diego, California, on August 1, 1993, Adeyemi earned her honors degree in English literature from Harvard University. After graduation, she spent time studying West African culture and mythology in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on a Harvard travel grant, an experience that sparked the foundational concepts for her debut world-building. Writing her first novel in her early twenties, Adeyemi quickly expanded her creative career into screenwriting, modeling, acting, and public speaking. In addition to collaborating with major media platforms such as Disney, Amazon, and Netflix, she penned the feature film adaptation of her series for Paramount Studios and teaches writing masterclasses at thewritersroadmap.net to mentor emerging authors.
Adeyemi's narrative style is characterized by fast-paced action, rich world-building, and multi-perspective storytelling featuring shifting loyalties and complex character motivations. Drawing deeply from Yoruba folklore, West African mythology, and Afrofuturist concepts, her fiction addresses real-world issues of systemic oppression, prejudice, power dynamics, and resilience. Her work balances high-concept magic systems and visceral conflict with philosophical questions about fate, justice, and community connection.
