Editors Reads Verdict
A stronger middle book than most fantasy trilogies manage: Adeyemi resists simplifying her factions into good and evil, the Orïsha world is more fully realised in this instalment, and the rupture between Zélie and Amari is earned by what both have become.
What We Loved
- The moral complexity of the revolution — oppressed becoming oppressors — is handled with genuine sophistication
- The rupture between Zélie and Amari is earned across both books rather than manufactured for drama
- The Orïsha world's mythology and geography are more fully realized than in the debut
- Adeyemi's action sequences are crisper and more spatially coherent than in Children of Blood and Bone
Minor Drawbacks
- The middle-book structure means readers must be invested in the trilogy to appreciate its payoffs
- Some new POV characters are less developed than the returning cast
- The romantic subplots occasionally interrupt the political narrative's momentum
Key Takeaways
- → Revolution that succeeds inherits the structural problems of the regime it displaced
- → The cost of survival shapes the survivor in ways that complicate their capacity for subsequent justice
- → Two people who shared a goal can be separated by how the pursuit of that goal changed them
- → Power distributed asymmetrically creates resentment even among those who fought together
- → The middle of any conflict is where moral clarity is most difficult to maintain
| Author | Tomi Adeyemi |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Henry Holt and Co. |
| Pages | 449 |
| Published | December 3, 2019 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Young Adult, African Mythology, Epic Fantasy |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
| Best For | Readers who completed Children of Blood and Bone and are invested in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy. Not suitable as a standalone entry point — the trilogy should be read in order. |
Children of Virtue and Vengeance Review
The second volume of Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy opens in the immediate aftermath of Children of Blood and Bone’s resolution: magic has been restored to Orïsha, but the restoration is messier than the revolution that achieved it. The maji have their powers back — but so do the kosidan nobility, the class that previously used those same powers to oppress them. What Zélie and Amari achieved is not a new order but a new conflict with more dangerous weapons on both sides.
This is, structurally, a more difficult novel to write than its predecessor. Children of Blood and Bone had the clarity of a quest narrative with a definable goal. Children of Virtue and Vengeance must sustain a civil war while navigating the deteriorating relationship between its two central protagonists — and it does so with more sophistication than the middle-book curse might lead readers to expect.
The Fracture Between Zélie and Amari
The most important development in the novel is the rupture between Zélie and Amari. In the first book, their alliance was forged through shared necessity and genuine affection. In the second, what each has experienced and what each has become diverges along lines that make trust increasingly difficult. Adeyemi does not manufacture this conflict for drama — it grows from who both characters actually are and what the events of Book 1 required of them.
Revolution’s Second Morning
The novel’s most sophisticated theme is what happens after a revolution succeeds: the oppressed acquire power, and the question of what they do with it does not have a clean answer. Adeyemi refuses to let her maji characters be simply heroic, and refuses to let her kosidan antagonists be simply villainous.
Reading Order
- Children of Blood and Bone (2018)
- Children of Virtue and Vengeance (2019)
- Children of Anguish and Anarchy (2024)
Our rating: 4.2/5 — One of YA fantasy’s better second books, earning its moral complexity across both volumes and resisting the simplifications that would have made it easier but less honest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Children of Virtue and Vengeance" about?
The maji have their powers back — but so do the kosidan nobles who once oppressed them. As civil war breaks out across Orïsha, Zélie and Amari must fight enemies on multiple fronts, including each other. The second book in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy deepens the world's moral complexity and raises the cost of revolution.
Who should read "Children of Virtue and Vengeance"?
Readers who completed Children of Blood and Bone and are invested in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy. Not suitable as a standalone entry point — the trilogy should be read in order.
What are the key takeaways from "Children of Virtue and Vengeance"?
Revolution that succeeds inherits the structural problems of the regime it displaced The cost of survival shapes the survivor in ways that complicate their capacity for subsequent justice Two people who shared a goal can be separated by how the pursuit of that goal changed them Power distributed asymmetrically creates resentment even among those who fought together The middle of any conflict is where moral clarity is most difficult to maintain
Is "Children of Virtue and Vengeance" worth reading?
A stronger middle book than most fantasy trilogies manage: Adeyemi resists simplifying her factions into good and evil, the Orïsha world is more fully realised in this instalment, and the rupture between Zélie and Amari is earned by what both have become.
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