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Zachary Williams

Mrs. Cramer

College Comp Pd. 5a

18 December 2020

Characters: The Blood and Bone of the Book

What would you do to achieve justice? The Children of Blood and Bone is an extremely

intriguing novel that explores that question through enlightening themes and ideas. The story is

about a diverse group of main characters who are attempting to restore magic. Zelie, a young girl

with a newfound magical power of the dead, Amari, a royal princess who fled from a capital

with a vital artifact, and Tzain, Zelie’s brother who proves unmatched in physicality, are on a

quest, on a time limit, and up against grand foes in order the complete a ritual that would bring

back magic to the abused race of diviners in Orisha. The book masterfully carries out this plot,

while also exploring ideas of oppression and the fight against it, as well as other important

sentiments such as self-love, the ability to change, and numerous others. One of the biggest ways

the author expresses these themes is through the characters. Tomi Adeyemi’s The Children of

Blood and Bone is a captivating read because she successfully creates characters who are

relatable and dynamic.

The first idea that should be mentioned about the characters is how realistic and relatable

they are. Possibly the biggest example of this in the book is the main character Zelie. On page

25, Adeyemi allows the reader to learn about the death of Zelie’s Mama, which is later revealed

to an extremely violent, cruel, and unjust circumstance. Throughout the book, more and more is

learned about Zelie’s traumas as she experiences more in real time, but this death is an obvious
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mental toll on Zelie and is the main source of numerous character foibles. Possibly the biggest

flaw is that her actions are purely driven from vengeance rather than anything else. Having the

protagonist of the book clearly portray and be based upon such a raw and “villainous” emotions

is a rare occasion that typically puts them on a negative path, but in this circumstance, it only

makes Zelie more realistic as a character. These justified emotions humble and humanize Zelie,

and allow people to connect with her character on a deeper level on concepts such as loss of a

loved one or faith all the way to negative emotions. Speaking of loved ones, the book also

contains incredibly well executed interpersonal relationships and interactions. The audience

learns about the family dynamic of the royal family in chapter 3 (Adeyemi). It can be obviously

inferred that this is an abusive and broken family for various reasons, such as the way the father

would force the two children to sword fight until near death or the way the mother would force

the children to be silent. This is in stark contrast to the way the other main family mentioned in

the book functions, where there is a system of unconditional trust, love, and support. These two

examples just go to show the vast range of bonds the author makes an effort to create. These

multiple takes on various character relations allow more chances for the characters involved to

become more realistic and relatable to a reader. Overall, the characters are beautifully written

and thought out as to make them more realistic, which truly does captivate the reader.

The second idea that Adeyemi executes perfectly is making the characters dynamic and

everchanging. One of the main characters, Amari, is put on a beautiful slow-burning

developmental arc. The line “‘I am a princess, not a prop’” (page 264) perfectly depicts this

growth (Adeyemi). It takes the entirety of the book for Amari’s character to truly become what

the audience desires of her. She went from being feeble and complacent to being called “the

lionaire,” one of the strongest mystical beasts in the book. Through various trials and tasks, such
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as rallying a group of diviners to perform a prison break to killing her own father who was the

tyrannical king, she realizes her strength and abilities. This is just one of the countless examples

of character growth and developmental arcs that happen in the book that hold the reader’s

attention. Another important character in the book that had a rather intriguing character

development was Inan, Amari’s brother. Page 322 contains a piece of his puzzling stance in the

story. This is when he decides to team up with Zelie to raid a camp and get the last artifact for

the ritual (Adeyemi). The reason why this is such a strange circumstance is because up to this

point, he was the antagonist. This is an extremely obvious start of the trope of a villain to hero

arc, but even more interestingly, he does not go on it. All throughout the story he continues to be

the antagonist, even while saving and helping the protagonists. He falls in love with the

protagonist, and yet still goes against her. He finds out that his dad is in fact an evil tyrant yet is

still trying to do his princely duty. Magic runs through his veins, yet he is still trying to destroy

it. This constant shifting in his character is just one of the examples of continuous flux in

character mindsets. These dynamic viewpoints of multiple characters give them in depth layers

that the reader must unfold piece by piece, character by character, giving this book an additional

edge. To summarize, the characters that Adeyemi creates are constantly changing, making the

book a captivating read.

In conclusion, Adeyemi’s ability to write beautiful characters that are realistic and

dynamic makes her book, The Children of Blood and Bone, absolutely captivating. She was able

to write out characters that are always changing and growing in unpredicted ways that hold the

reader’s attention. The characters were also written to be both unconventional and conventional,

allowing them to reach out to a larger audience and be more believable. Tomi Adeyemi’s work

does justice to what she was trying to achieve.

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Works Cited

Adeyemi, Tomi. The Children of Blood and Bones. New York: Henry Holt Books for Young

Readers, March 6, 2018. Print.