Blood at the Root

Summary: An orphan who aged out of foster care breaks his (chosen, not biological) brother out of an abusive foster care family, and that starts his discovery of his magical roots, a family he didn't know he had, and a magical HBCU.

I have been trying to intentionally read more fiction this year. That has mostly been young adult fiction because it is what has drawn me in so far.

Blood At the Root was published last year and I have seen it on the shelves of a few friends on Goodreads or seen social media posts about it. As I try to generally do, I avoided reading anything about it other than seeing that people I trusted recommended it.

Malik is 17 and petitioned to be released from the foster care system. His mother died when he was seven and people around him, blamed him for her death. He doesn't really understand what happened. But he knows it has to do with his magic. Since the day of her death, he has magic. But it is mostly uncontrolled and comes out when he is angry or emotional. So he tries to repress his emotions to stay in control. (He is not always in control.)

The book opens with Malik stealing a car so that he can break his (chosen, not biological) 12 year old foster brother out of an abusive foster home. They have grown up in a small predominately Black Alabama town and they dream of going to California to get away from everything. I won't give away too much more than spoilers from opening chapters, but in the midst of running away, they run into trouble and that leads them to find Malik's grandmother who he didn't know he had. She and all those around her also have magic and Malik finds an underground world of magic and Black community which he is not sure he can trust. He has been on his own for 10 years without anyone watching out for him. And it is hard to trust that there could be family that is trustworthy if they had not come for him earlier.

Part of what is revealed is that there is an HBCU which is designed to train students like him to use their magic. Almost immediately after finding his family, he is invited to go to a summer program to prepare him to enter the school in the fall. And that sets up the rest of the book.

Part of what I love about young adult novels is that they are explorations of what it means to grow up. Part of what I hate about young adult novels is the angst and mistrust of family and mentors that are trying to help those young adult grow up. The angst may be cliché, but it is based on a common reality. I very much remember going to a pretty angry phase. And Malik both has some reason for anger, but also quite a bit of developmental trauma. That is openly discussed in the novel and I think the normalization of the discussion of trauma in realistic terms is a good trend in young adult literature.

Blood at the Root is a very consciously culturally Black book. The magic system is rooted in Black culture and history. The HBCU makes complete sense with the magic system and history of the story. The geography of Alabama and Louisiana matters to the book's development. This is not Harry Potter with a culturally Black gloss. The book is pitched to a late teen audience. There is language and some violence and sexuality, but it is appropriate to a late teen audience that matches the age of the characters.

I was disappointed to learn that the sequel will not be released until late July 2025. But I will pre-order it and wait expectantly for it.

This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/blood-at-the-root-2/

When Malik lost his mother at a young age, it was violent and traumatizing. And with the rush of emotion at seeing his mother torn from him, his magic exploded into life. Igniting everything around him. Placed into the foster system, he not only had to cope with the loss of his mother but also abusive foster parents and a power he had no idea how to control.

The trauma Malik endured is deeply seeded into his character. Flashbacks of the night his mother disappeared constantly plague him, and his trust does not come easily. He immediately goes on the defensive with all adults. Even when they are trying to comfort him, it is heartbreaking to see people try to make a connection, yet readers will also understand why Malik isn’t ready for them yet. He is easily overwhelmed by affection, and when he suddenly has a family he never knew existed it is way too much for him to handle.

However, Malik’s foster brother is one of the most important people in his life. As soon as he is able, Malik tears his brother away from his abusers. In the process, Taye enters a life filled with magic and family alongside Malik. While Taye remains a secondary character, he is never far from Malik’s mind.

Blood at the Root aligns with the younger generation's grasp of the world. There is also a fair bit of generational slang young adults would connect with and understand. The romance is pretty reflective of the genre involving a long-lost childhood crush. This would be best enjoyed by young adults.

*dnf

Thanks to the publisher and Libro.fm for the alc!

I will happily recommend this to older teens looking for a magical story with some bite. The audio production was very engaging and I was definitely rooting for Malik. That being said I thought it got a bit repetitive, and I was a little disappointed about how the mystery unfolded. It's still nice to see a fierce Black boy get to do awesome stuff at a magical HBCU!

I was a little skeptical at the beginning, but I just got so absorbed in the world that I kept going. And that was the right decision! The best parts: the writing in dialect, the suspicious people, the twists and the magical school tropes.
I love the way he wrote in dialect. A few times I had to stop and reread the line out loud to hear it, but I liked that because it really made this world come alive. It reminded me of Wuthering Heights with the level of dialect. It is hard to know who to trust because there are so many people with so many of their own goals. That lack of trustworthiness helped connect me to Malik. There were a few twists that I saw coming and some that I didn't. By the end of the book, those twists all came together logically. Several of them are painful, but Malik is determined, so I am excited to see what happens next in book two.
There were several places in the book that reminded me of pieces of Harry Potter and then the author turned that piece into something special in his world. So I really enjoyed recognizing a trope or characteristic and then seeing how Williams used that creatively in his book. He doesn't overdo it and it isn't obvious to the point of campy. So it is a perfect balance in my opinion.
I enjoyed the various languages that show up and the history moments that we see as well. That was another thing that helped create the world. It gave me a hint that there was more to come and we were only seeing a snippet.
The romance parts of the book were not well done. The friendships got better by the end of the book. I am hoping to see some of the interpersonal relationships improve in the next book.
So great world building, characters with strong motivations, and lots of interesting moments to create the overall plot. I can't wait for book 2.