Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orisha, 2)

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Zélie spends most of the sequel understandably grieving over the people she's lost. Because of certain events that happened in the previous installment, she has developed major trust and anger issues, which occasionally prevent her from making sound and logical decisions. I will admit that she gets pretty unlikable throughout the majority of the story. However, among all the main characters, I think Zélie has the most reason to not be her best self. Nonetheless, her inability to make rational decisions definitely means she isn't ready to lead a group, much less an entire kingdom. Amari is frustrated because (1) she holds no power over the Iyika, (2) she feels that no one properly appreciates her "sacrifice" aka her killing the father whom she hated, and (3) everyone likes Zélie more. She never seems to understand why everyone is distrustful and hostile to the daughter of the man who dedicated his life to killing them. Is Amari sorry for killing an entire village of innocent lives? Nope. All she cares about is that she *might* have killed her friend, too. But she then convinces herself that it's not her fault: " Zélie's sacrifice allowed us to win the war. This is the story we shall tell." He squeezes his palm against mine as the gentle mist transforms to a pelting rain. The downpour chills us to the bone. It’s like even the gods can’t help but mourn. Amari is suddenly the worst character of this series (and no, I won't take any arguments about this). She goes from the headstrong princess who's determined to right her family's wrongs to a culturally insensitive brat who believes she's entitled to the throne!!!

Tomi Adeyemi wants to wrap her readers in a “dangerous but warm” blanket. Her young adult novels—the hit epic Children of Blood and Bone and its highly anticipated new sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance—combine escapist fantasy with clear-eyed confrontations of race and power. “I was thinking: you’re creating a Snuggie,” the Nigerian-American author tells TIME. “It’s a violent Snuggie, but create the Snuggie.” This sequel leaves so much to be desired that I cannot possibly list down every single flaw in this book. So I won't even try. But here are my major issues with Children of Virtue and Vengeance:

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Despite these flaws for me, the rest of the book was great. There is magic and battles, enemies and lovers, twists and turns and villains to hate. Sadly, Amari is no longer a favourite character of mine. I felt like her character was forced out of of character to drive a certain theme and storyline which was unrealistic for her. While I did appreciate the message her storyline conveyed and find it to be such a valuable and important discussion, it felt so off for Amari as a character my heart broke a little bit. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must find a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart. Plot [ ] Exactly. It got creepy. I was like, Why am I living out the third act of my own book ? I pray to God I get to be 60 and do a PBS special about how much insanity went down. For the moment, Adeyemi has put ambition on pause in favor of 20-something fun. There are moments during our conversation—though fleeting—that I’m reminded of Adeyemi’s age. In the past year, she went to her first rave (she said it was awesome). She started to bullet journal, something she’d wanted to do for years. She binged “every dating show,” with the exception of Love Island,which doesn’t move fast enough for her. “That part when you’re watching these dating shows and you recognize something in yourself is so illuminating for me,” she says. “I think that also brings my intensity. It’s a complicated love of psychology.” Like I said—fleeting.

Though her work is “dark as hell,” it is often sanitized in comparison to the inhumanities she’s learned about in the real world. The concepts she broaches, however, are never dumbed down, one of the grievances she has of other books within the Y.A. category. She knows her readers are smart. They crave literature that they can see themselves reflected in. It’s one of the reasons they can’t put Adeyemi’s work down. HOWEVER, Amari decides to challenge the current Elder of the Connectors Clan for the leadership role. During their battle, she uses the incantations to put her opponent in comatose. (Of course, this does not sit well with the other maji and Amari is still all "why does everyone hate me! i just want to be the queen they deserve!")But who should show up and become public enemy number 1? None other than Inan, Amari’s brother, Zelie’s ex and all around pain. Damn right I saw this coming from a mile away! Love interests that die in book 1 of a trilogy 9 times out of 10 return from the dead in the next book. And this was no exception. They called out to me like a lullaby, leading us away from the forest path and toward the sea. The ocean breeze ruffled the loose coils in my hair. Rays of sun spilled through the thinning leaves. The restrictions in the magic system that was introduced in the first book? They don't apply to everyone anymore! Magical abilities that previously did not exist? They just appear and are explained away with "oh, these were gifts given by the gods." The close sibling relationship between Tzain and Zélie? Gone because Tzain's only role in the sequel is Amari's love interest. The unlikely friendship and mutual respect between Zélie and Amari? Poof, gone with the wind. In fact, it's the relationships that suffered the most in Children of Virtue and Vengeance, be it romantic or familial or platonic. I didn’t know what we would find. What strange wonder that lullaby would hold. I just knew I had to get to it. It was like the tides held a missing piece of my soul. Tzain has no personality or function outside of being Amari's love interest. There's literally nothing else that I can say.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance was the gripping sequel to Children of Blood and Bone. I enjoyed it overall, although it suffered a bit of 'second book syndrome'. It took the story to new heights and the consequences of their actions were graver than ever before.

Ultimately, the plot was tedious. Chapters with different POVs became tiresome due to the characters being in the exact same place at the same time, it slowed down the rising action and tension Adeyemi desired, immensely so. Even dialogue from different characters repeated frequently! Maybe this was a struggle for Adeyemi due to pressure (which hello - completely natural - I haven’t written a freaking book!!!), so this result is a shame. Children of Virtue and Vengeance begins with an unexpected twist. Though Zélie has restored magic to the oppressed people of Orïsha, the monarchy and military now have magical powers, too. Why was it important to you to show people who abuse their power gaining even more? Zélie realizes that her newfound power is unstable, and this can be resolved by sacrificing someone she loves. So, she decides to take Amari's life. The plot was stagnant and redundant. Nothing really happens and the inner conflicts between the main characters added nothing to the story. It is also riddled with annoying contradictions. The cover depicts Zélie as this fierce warrior goddess and she talks about how she must keep fighting for Baba and her people, but she wants to give up, but she takes important positions as a leader. Zélie unravels so much in this book that her chapters were almost unreadable. Amari could have been a fierce queen, but her character development was destroyed to the point of no return. Amari and Zélie had the same argument throughout the entire novel, people kept speaking over Amari, but she never left. Inan being conflicted and having no control over his surroundings was cute in book one—not so much in the sequel.