Book Summary of Children of Blood and Bone Book Summary
Check out my book summary of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, the first in a series of fantasy novels based in West African mythology. This summary is to help you remember and understand the book before you read my book review, so if you haven’t read the whole thing with all the details and world building you should.
Chapters 1-2
Zélie Adebola is secretly practicing fighting to defend herself with other girls at Mama Agba’s hut when they hide everything because guards come to collect more taxes. Zelie and the girls are diviners, magic wielders with white hair, supposed to be blessed by the gods, but now kept as the lowest laborers of society. One day, the gods seemed to take the magical abilities back so most diviners could no longer use magic powers, and in that moment of weakness King Saran killed the rest of the diviners in the kingdom of Orisha.
Then, Zélie’s brother Tzain comes to tell her something’s wrong with their father, Baba, so they both race across their ocean village of Ilorin to find him in the waves struggling to swim. Tzain jumps in to save him, and Baba tells them he was trying to fish by himself because of the new taxes. To get more money, Zelie and Tzain decide to go to the capital city, Lagos, to sell a rare fish they caught a few days ago.
Chapters 3-4
Princes Amari is at lunch with her mother and some nobility when she hears from a servant that her father the king has summoned her personal maid and best friend, Binta, also a diviner. Thinking Binta got caught selling the diamond bangle Amari gave her for the new taxes, Amari rushes to the throne room but only hears Admiral Kaea telling the king that magical artifacts, a scroll and a stone, washed ashore and gave some diviners back their abilities, so Kaea and the soldiers killed the diviners who turned into maji, magic users, bringing the magical scroll back while the stone went missing.
The guards bring Binta forward to the scroll which makes golden light erupt from her, but the king quickly stabs her with his sword.
When Princess Amari runs away to be sick over her friend dying, she sees a guard carrying the scroll to Kaea’s chambers, and decides to go in and take it. In the market of Lagos, Zelie trades her fish for five hundred silver pieces when a young woman grabs her for help, and then the market is swarmed with royal guards. With the girl in tow, Zelie fights their way to the city gate.
Chapters 5-6
The king’s guards surround the girls when Zelie’s giant lionaire jumps between them, and the girls hope on its back. As the lionaire is running out of the city, Zelie locks eyes with the young captain of the guards and feels a connection between them. The young captain and also Amari’s brother, Inan, goes back to tell his father what happened, and when they’re alone, his father sends him after the two girls alone because no one else knows that the girl with Zelie is Amari, daughter of King Saran.
Chapters 7-8
The king admits to he discovered and tried to destroy the magical objects, and then killed all the maji the day of the Raid because they’d fight to get the magic back. The crown prince Inan is shocked but still believes magic is a threat. He volunteers to go retrieve Amari from Zelie who gave her name and village at the city gate when she entered, and the king tells Inan to burn the village down after.
Zelie and Tzain discover the girl is Amari who gives the scroll to Zelie. She feels a shock through her body when she touches the scroll but nothing happens right away with her latent magical powers.
Chapters 9-10
After getting to the village and showing the scroll to Mama Agba, her magic is awakened when she touches the scroll, and uses it to see a vision of Zelie, Amari, and Tzain going to the sacred temple to find out how to fully restore magic. Mama Agba tells them she’s a maji Seer who got rid of her white hair before the Raid, so the guards didn’t know to kill her. Then, the village buildings start on fire, and Amari and Zelie rush out of there to find Tzain on the lionaire’s back to swim them to safety.
Mama Agba and Baba who are behind them in a boat tell them to get out of here before the guards find them. When they make it to shore, Mama Agba says she’ll find them again with her visions.
Chapters 11-12
Inan is angry that they haven’t found Amari or the scroll and that a soldier lite the fire too early. Suddenly, he’s overwhelmed by a prickling underneath his skin while it seems like he’s seeing a vision of Zelie and hearing someone else’s thoughts. He thinks Zelie infected him with magic when they locked eyes, but he also feels it pulling him towards the southern forest.
After they ride awhile into the forest and fall asleep, Zelie wakes in a dream with Inan who accuses her of bringing him here. Remembering that Amari bumped him with the scroll during their escape of the city, Zelie realizes that Inan is a Connector, a maji of the mind, spirit, and dreams, and he’s the one who brought them here with powerful magic. As they both notice a white streak in his hair, Inan seems furious about it, and Zelie is shocked because the gods haven’t blessed a royal with magic in generations after they abused the power.
Chapters 13-14
The next morning, Tzain, Zelie, and Amari decide to sell Amari’s dress for supplies, and they see a large scar across Amaris back that she admits was from when her father forced her and Inan to spar with real swords. At the market, they trade Amari’s dress and headdress for all the supplies they need. Inan is having trouble forcing his magic down to hide it, but he blames his odd behavior on worrying about Amari when commander Kaea asks.
Chapters 15-16
After climbing into the mountains all day, Tzain, Amari, and Zelie make it to the temple, Chandomble, where Zelie can feel the spirits from the bones they see on the ground because she’s a Reaper, a maji of life and death, like Zélie’s mother. They find a hidden staircase that opens by Zelie’s magic, but at the bottom they get trapped and the poisoned air makes them pass out. Inan and his troops pass through the market where he finds out from a merchant where the group went, and Inan is going to let the merchant go when Kaea kills the merchant for knowing too much.
Chapters 17-18
After waking up in a cave somewhere, Tzain, Zelie, and Amari wake to a man named Lekan, a Sentaros, or spiritual guardian of the connection between Sky Mother and humans who tells them how Sky Mother made both gods and people, but gave pieces of her magic soul to each god to then share with people (maji).
Lekan tells them that every hundred years, a woman from his people does a sacred ritual using the three magic objects, the scroll, the sunstone, and the bone dagger, to keep the connection between Sky Mother and people which is what keeps magic around. The king found this out before he slaughtered all the Sentaros, except Lekan who was not in the temple at the time, so the connection was broken.
According to the scroll, they must do the sacred ritual at the next solstice to bring magic permanently back, but Lekan says Zelie must because it has to be a woman maji. They still must travel to find the sunstone, but Lekan can sense it. Then, Lekan performs a ritual to fully tether Zelie to Sky Mother and fully awaken her magic.
Chapters 19-20
Lekan and the group start grabbing scrolls and things they’ll need as he senses people coming, and Tzain has to carry Zelie because she’s still weak. Inan and Kaea make it to the ruins, and start chasing the others through the jungle as they make their way to a rope bridge. While Lekan holds off Kaea and Inan with his magic, the others and the lionaire make it over the bridge before it snaps, and then Kaea stabs Lekan.
Chapters 21-22
Inan decides to stop surprising his magic and use it in order to find and kill Zelie after he felt powerless against Lekan. Zelie, Tzain, and Amari make it to the desert town of Ibeji where they find a lot of diviners and laborers chained together. They say they’re headed to the amphitheater to compete for the jewel of Babaluaye, the god of health and disease, which grants eternal life.
Chapters 23-24
In a large crowd in the amphitheater that night, Zelie feels the souls of lots of people who have died in pain here, and they watch as bottom fills with water with ten large boats each with a rowing team of dviners in chains. The boats fight for the jewel, which Zelie recognizes as the sunstone, but everyone dies in the fight resulting in no one winning the stone that night. As he makes soldiers build him a new bridge, Inan explores the temple, seeing Lekan’s memories as he goes, and comes to realize his magic comes from Ori, the god of mind, spirit, and dreams.
Chapters 25-26
After getting caught trying to steal the stone, Zelie makes up the lie that she was coming to volunteer for the games, and spends the night using Lekan’s scrolls trying to learn to reanimate the dead. That night, Inan purposely pulls Zelie into his dreamscape where he can’t help but notice how striking she is, but she also lets slip that she’s in the desert. When he awakens from the dream, Kaea is there having realized Inan is a maji, and they get into a fight when Inan accidentally kills her with his magic he can’t control.
Chapters 27-33
Getting ready for the boat fight, Zelie, Tzain, and Amari bring food and water for their boat crew of diviners, and devise a plan with them. Fighting the other ships is gruesome, but Zelie reanimates some of the spirits while staying unseen to take out other boats. When their ship is about to sink, Zelie uses dangerous blood magic to save them and the ship, but then passes out.
With just one other ship left, the other boats crew boards theirs, but Amari kills the other captain when he tries to go after Zelie’s unconscious body. After the show is over and Zelie awakens, they’re presented the sunstone, and, when Zelie touches it, she sees a vision of Sky Mother. Then, instinctively, Zelie uses the sunstone and her magic to help all the souls who died in this arena pass on to alafia, or eternal peace.
Chapters 34-36
After they get pulled into celebrating, Amari helps Tzain bandage his wounds, and he offers to let her go back but she wants to stay. Inan makes it to Ibeji alone and can still feel Zelie’s scent, but it leads him to an empty hut they recently vacated. After stopping to rest from traveling through the desert for days, Inan catches up to Zelie, Tzain, and Amari, and Amari tries to convince him to listen but he attacks Zelie instead.
Chapters 37-39
While Zelie and Inan are fighting, poachers sneak up and throw nets on Tzain, Amari, and Nailah carrying them away. When a net gets thrown over Zelie, Inan kills the two poachers around her, and pins Zelie down to kill her. But when he touches her, he sees all her memories and all the horrible things the soldiers did to her family, and cutting off the net, Inan realizes that his father is the real monster.
Chapters 40-43
Once Zelie scrambles free, she argues with Inan who convinces her to work together to find Tzain and Amari, so they try to interrogate one of the poachers who got knocked out in the fight. Amari awakens inside a tent with a group of diviners who appear to be after the scroll, but their leader, Zu, tells them to clean up Amari and Tzain. Inan and Zelie find the camp with the poacher they still have, but find it heavily guarded.
Chapters 44-45
Inan wants to go to the nearest town to bring guards to the camp insisting he’ll control them so no diviners get hurt, but Zelie refuses and thinks she can summon enough reanimations to get in. In their argument, Zelie breaks down that she’ll always be afraid for her life in the society that King Saran created, and because of his magic, Inan feels all of Zelie’s fear and pain realizing he’s been wrong about the guards and the whole society.
Chapters 46-48
Inan breaks down and apologizes to Zelie, and she shows him the sunstone they can use to give her more power to fight. Amari finds out that Zu and two other maji here are the ones who found the scroll and stone when they washed ashore, and Zu uses her magic to heal Tzain. Zelie uses the sunstone to raise a small army of the dead at the gates of the camp.
Chapters 49-51
As the guards all leave for the fight at the gates, Amari breaks free of the ropes and tries to help Tzain walk out. A Burner maji joins the fight and ends up getting the sunstone after Zelie is hit with an arrow. Inan jumps in front of Zelie to protect her from the Burner when their leader yells for the fight to stop.
As Inan carries the injured Zelie into the camp, Zu explains who they are, how diviners from all over heard of their refuge camp and came to join, and how they know want to help Zelie on her quest. Zu suggests that they throw an Ajoyo, or celebration for the Sky Mother, to celebrate. Then, Zelie tries to get Tzain to let Inan come with them, but Tzain won’t trust Inan even though Inan says he also wants to make a better Orisha with them.
Chapters 52-55
The next morning, when they’re preparing for the celebration, Inan tells Zelie she looks beautiful, and Zelie notices he’s in pain from suppressing his magic in order not to hurt anyone accidentally. Away from the camp, Zelie offers to help, and they enter his dreamscape to talk. When they’re about the kiss, Tzain pulls on Inan’s body in the real world, and in the ensuing argument, Zelie accidentally cuts Tzain with her magic.
Chapters 56-58
Zelie admits to Amari that she scared to share magic with everyone in case it gets out of control, but Amari encourages her that more good will come of it. At the festival, Tzain asks Amari to dance, and Inan pulls Zelie away so they can dance alone. Zelie admit she’s scared because she lost control, and Inan cause her how he’s scared of his magic because of what happened with Kaea.
Chapters 59-60
Inan asks Zelie to come back to Lagos with him to rebuild their society, and keep the new maji in clans to train them with their new magic so it doesn’t get out of control. Then, Inan kisses Zelie after she agrees, but Tzain sees them. While Tzain starts to storm off and leave camp, Amari tries to convince him to stay when royal soldiers show up.
Chapters 61-63
As the soldier start attacking the diviners, the burner uses dangerous blood magic to burn up a bunch of the soldiers, but also burns himself out in the process. In all the chaos, the guards take Zelie, and she wakes up chained up when Inan walks in wearing his guard uniform again. He tries to convince her to destroy the scroll because the guards are all scared of magic now, and the king won’t let her go if they think magic might come back. As Zelie is arguing that they need magic, Inan’s father enters the cell and threatens Zelie to give him the artifacts.
Chapters 64-65
King Saran gets his guards to cut open Zelie’s back in order for her to talk, and he has Inan removed from the room because Inan tries to get him to stop. Outside the room, Inan brings Zelie into his dreamscape but she passes out there too. Tzain and Amari go to a diviner bar in the town they’re keeping Zelie, and share the scroll with him in exchange for them using their magic to help get Zelie back.
Chapters 66-69
In the middle of the night, Inan sneaks into Zelie’s cell and starts carrying her out when the guard tower starts shaking. Tzain and Amari lead the few new maji in, and diviners who declined the magic throw firebombs at the fortress to distract the guards. In the chaos, Inan finds Tzain and Amari to give them Zelie, but he decides to stay behind to fight for them from the inside.
Chapters 70-71
They get Zelie to a healer, so she doesn’t bleed out while Inan meets her in his dreamscape to comfort her. When she wakes up, Zelie and the group decide to continue on to the sacred temple in Zaria even though Zelie secretly can’t feel her magic anymore since the torture. They only have a day left, so they have to go through the criminal city of Jimenta where there’s no laws or guards.
Chapters 72-75
In Jimenta, the group seeks out the mercenary group with the fastest boat, and it turns out to be a man Zelie met at the diviner camp, Roen. When Zelie tells him the plan and offers for him to work for the next Queen of Orisha, Amari, he and his men agree. On their ship that night, they come upon a warship, and take it over from the soldiers to get to the island faster.
On their own ship, King Saran tells Inan how his own father tried to create a society where maji were equals, but a group of maji ended up killing the king and the rest of the family, including Saran’s first wife. Saran makes Inan believe that magic is the problem, and Inan believes he can save Zelie but get rid of magic.
Chapters 76-77
Zelie can’t stop thinking about the torture or get to sleep because of it, so she goes to Amari. She’s finally honest with Amari that she can’t feel her magic, but Amari assures her that if the gods chose her then it’ll still be able to work. As the sun rises, they make it to the island dressed in the guards uniforms because the rest of the guards and ships are already there patrolling the island.
Chapters 78-79
Posing as soldiers, the group makes it the temple where the spiritual energy is so thick, and they follow the pull down the stairs to a room with all the statues of the gods. Then, Inan steps out with soldiers, king Saran, and Zelie’s dad and says he’ll trade her father for the artifacts. When everyone tells her not to, Zelie admits her magic is gone, makes the trade but switches out an ordinary dagger instead of the bone dagger, and is taking her father away when he gets shot with an arrow.
Chapters 80-81
As her father dies, Zelie’s rage restarts her magic which starts killing guards around her, and the rest of her group joins the fight. Inan grabs the scroll and goads Zelie into getting mad enough to attack him with her magic but the magic destroys the scroll. When King Saran comes to help Inan up, Inan uses his own magic to stop a man from killing Saran, but when Saran sees the magic, he stabs Inan saying he’s no son of his.
Chapters 82-84
From across the room, Amari comes to defend her brother, and ends up killing Saran when they fight. Zelie tries to put the scroll back together, but when that fails, she cuts herself with the bone dagger while holding the sunstone. She uses her Reaper magic to call on all the souls that came before her in her line all the way back to the first humans to receive magic from Sky Mother for their help.
There’s a blinding light as the sunstone shatters, and Zelie passes out.
Chapters 85-Epilogue
Zelie is surrounded by darkness when she sees her mother who embraces her and comforts her. Her mother reminds her she’s always been with Zelie, but it’s not her time yet so she must go back. Zelie wakes up in a rowboat with Tzain, Amari, and the group, and notices that Amari now has a white streak in her hair.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’re reminded of all the main points of the book, check out my full book review here. There’s even recommendations of what to read if you liked this one. Otherwise, move on to the next book in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, Children of Virtue and Vengeance
