Children of Blood and Bone

I...didn't hate Children of Blood and Bone. Adeyemi knows how to construct a detailed, layered sense of place without too many flowery tedious descriptions. She's so good at it, sometimes it almost feels like reading a film.

I think Zelie and Amari are both interesting characters. Featuring both of them allows Adeyemi to explore themes like fear, bravery, family, etc. with more complexity, through multiple characters. They appear as at odds in the beginning, both to the reader and one another. But as the book progresses, they find more common ground and turn to one another for understanding and encouragement.

Here's some things I didn't like as much:
-I don't mind a long book, but I don't like when books feel redundant, regardless of page count. I think at least 100 pages could easily be cut without the story suffering.
-The romantic subplots. Of course, I knew they were coming. But the book kind of stalled in the middle and REALLY WENT IN ON THE ROMANTIC SUBPLOTS. None of it was organic, all of it was corny, and more importantly, there just was not time for it! Children of Blood and Maybe Wait to Bone Until After the Solstice.
-One particular character flip-flopped constantly. It seemed like every time anything happened, they would do a 180. I needed them to just pick a side and stay there for more than twenty minutes. It seemed like their inconsistency was just a way to lurch the plot forward.