Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Tomi Adeyemi
3/5
I want to start by saying that the world building, the magical elements of this series, are pretty great. It's poetically cruel for the maji to suffer so much at the hands of the politically powered ruling class after losing their magic, to suffer so much to bring the magic back, then to have to share that magic with them. It seemed so typical of the wisdom and chaotic energy of the gods to pull such a cruel joke on the maji.
It's understandable that both sides want revenge. What got me here is how little it feels like any of the characters genuinely care about one another. Amari and Zélie are supposed to be best friends who love each other. I didn't feel that all that much in the first book, here it was practically non-existent. I will give Adeyemi credit though for confusing me on the justification of either side. They both changed their perspectives so rapidly, it felt kind of unfair on Amari's part. But it really fit in with the title here, they couldn't decide between virtue or vengeance.
I also didn't care much for the romantic arcs. Zélie seems to fall for people kind of quickly since I didn't feel much genuine interaction between the two men who are her love interests. Amari had it better, but the ending of that made it feel similarly superficial. Hopefully there's better justification and unity in the sequel. The characters just didn't meld as well as they should have and I was a little disappointed in it.
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