When reviewing a book, I personally believe it is important to set aside your personal tastes in favor of meeting a book halfway, on the book’s terms. This book is exactly why I am of that opinion.
‘The Blood Trials’ is an B/B+ book which I am not the target demographic for. I appreciated many different aspects of this book, but didn’t love the book personally.
‘The Blood Trials’ is a YA BIPOC power fantasy romantasy, but with crossover demographic appeal for non-BIPOC adults. This book STRONGLY addresses topics like sexism and racism. I personally enjoyed how this book approached these topics, but I will admit it didn’t always work for me. However if you are in the target demographic, you will find something to like.
Spoilers Below. I’m writing this review in good faith, as one author reviewing another’s book, trying to balance positives with negatives.
WHAT IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE? WHAT GENRES? WHAT MAJOR TROPES?
- YA
- BIPOC
- Kickass Lady Protagonist
- Military Coming-of-Age
- Romantasy
- Sex scenes
- Dystopia vibes, a la Hunger Games, but not actually a dystopia
- 15+, but with Adult crossover
- Science vs Magic
- Robots, internet, flying cars on one side
- Giant monsters, cruel gods, and blood sorcerers on the other
- Power Fantasy
MY EMOTIONAL RESPONSE/ FUN FACTOR
My emotions for this book were complex. I was very invested in the main plot of the book; it was a tale of vengeance, and loyalty to the ideals of a nation which otherwise despises you, and shifting politics in a time of war. The setting and magic was really cool, reflecting how a militaristic high-tech culture is forced to contend against a militaristic high-magic culture. I liked Ikenna’s friends; Celene was vibrant and fun and had cool quirks and habits. Probably my favorite bit was Ikenna herself; she has the same magic system/ethnic group as the Evil Dark Lord in this setting, so she’s got a bit of self-resentment to unpack. Overall, great stuff. Clever author here.
However, I’ll admit this book had me rolling my eyes. The racist/sexist antagonists tried to murder the protagonist what seemed like every chapter; I felt it got repetitive. I did not personally vibe with this book strongly overall. It felt a bit ‘Hunger Games.’
HOWEVER, some readers enjoy books which use the tropes of uber-racist/sexist antagonists. This is a power fantasy, where the protagonist gets to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge Romp against these assholes. For such readers, killing racists/sexists are selling points. I can’t in good faith put this lower than a B or B+ because this book accomplished what it set out to do; it’s not useful to yuk someone else’s yum.
If you can tolerate some mustache twirling bad guys, give this a go, you’ll probably find something to enjoy in this coming-of-age power fantasy.
WARNING! QUIT READING NOW UNTIL YOU FINISH READING THE BOOK!
BIASES STATED
I came into this book skeptical for a couple reasons:
- I heard about this book because it won the Ignyte award. I was rooting for ‘The Spear Cuts Through Water’ to win. Being a partisan for ‘Spear,’ I was skeptical about this book.
- I didn’t like book’s cover. (No offense to the artist, it’s good art.)
- I’ve read a few books in the genre of ‘Teenaged Woman goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge Romp against the Patriarchy.’ I never liked them. And that’s fine, I won’t yuk someone’s yum. But if it’s not for me, it’s not for me.
Countering this, I came into this book in the middle of a six-month long reading slump. I wanted to enjoy this, and for it to break my reading slump. While this book didn’t break my reading slump, it was a relative highlight compared to other things I’ve been reading.
CONCEPT AND EXECUTION
This book uses the trope of ‘Teenagers are forced to compete in a bloodsport, murdering one another for the chance of ranking up in society,’ however instead of a Battle Royale, this book is about a military. There is a hierarchy of authority in the army, where the protagonists are forced to cooperate and compete in compelling tasks. Ikenna’s forced to kill, and grieve.
Meanwhile, the protagonist must hunt down and kill the people responsible for her grandfather’s death. She has an overabundance of potential killers to investigate, from spiteful racists who can’t tolerate the color of their skin, to an invading magical enemy nation, to her grandfather’s political rivals. Even her best friend isn’t above suspicion. Time is running out; with an invasion on the horizon, the longer it takes for her to discover and punish the killer, the more likely the invasion will go off without a hitch.
Most of all, this book feels like the author had something new to say. I liked how Ikenna is loyal to the Republic, even though the Republic is majority white. To be sure, she recognizes her nation’s flaws, but she wants to fix the flaws. Above I mentioned I don’t generally like the ‘Teenaged Woman goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge Romp against the Patriarchy’ trope; I’m a dude, so this sort of power fantasy is literally not written with me in mind. However, I enjoyed it in ‘The Blood Trials’ because Ikenna sees the good in the republic, and wants to reform it to be more tolerant. Davenport had an entirely new take on this trope, and it was a breath of fresh air to read.
CHARACTERS, CHARACTERIZATION AND DIALOG
The villains in this book are extremely racist and sexist, to the point of me wondering, ‘How do you even function in society?!’ This book takes place in a society which has white-black racism. The protagonist- who is half black and half white- is viewed as a foreigner even though her family has lived in this land for generations. The protagonist receives all sorts of verbal abuse and slurs, in addition to regular assassination attempts for the color of her skin.
This book is NOOOT subtle in any way about racism or sexism. I don’t want to say ‘I wish the author portrayed villains with more nuance,’ because there is no nuance to racism: racism is evil. However, the villains were a bit boring. They felt a bit like Saturday Morning Cartoon Villains.
Several aspects of this story are similarly bombastic.
- The villains are very over-the-top, but so are the heroes. Ikenna’s best friend Celene, as an example, is an adorable nymph off the clock, and a badass warrior on the clock. They share jewelry and nail paint off the battlefield, and on the battlefield murder their enemies together. They are fun characters.
- Then we have the murderous teachers. Usually I roll my eyes when I come across a book where a school has institutionalized ‘culling the weak students’ as part of it’s doctrine.
These bombastic aspects of the story, from the extreme racism, to the oddball personalities, to the Darwinian teachers, all combine together to depict a larger-than-life setting where EVERYTHING IS TAKEN UP TO ELEVEN. It’s the sort of book where I personally had to turn my brain off to enjoy. This book is popcorn. It’s supposed to be fun and not serious.
(That said, while this book isn’t subtle-for-subtle sake, the author managed setting up some quite enjoyable twists and turns in the plot. The author was clever, using the book’s overall bluntness to conceal plot twists. This is in part of why I’m so impressed, it contains well done political misdirection by the author.)
‘The Blood Trials’ takes itself seriously with moments of high drama… but the author set out to write a power fantasy romp, making this in the same genre as ‘Mistborn’ and ‘Cradle.’ If you want some killer fight scenes and underdog character drama, check this out.
I loved Celene. She’s a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and I usually despise Dream Girls. However, because the protagonist Ikenna is a woman instead of a man, Celene become Ikenna’s wingman. Hilarity and shenanigans ensues. Celene and Ikenna are platonic best friends, instead of the love interests; this works for the Dream Girl archetype.
Ikenna’s friendship with Celene seemed authentic in a way very, very few female friendships in genre fiction feel authentic. I can imagine Ikenna and Celene going to get their nails done together, as an example of authenticity. They felt like characters from our Earth, transported to a secondary world fantasy.
PACING AND STRUCTURE
This book’s biggest problem is it’s length. I listened to the audiobook, and it was 18 hours long. I felt like there was enough plot here for a 15 or 16 hour book.
This book was divided up into three acts: before the Blood Trials, the Blood Trials, and after the Blood Trials.
The Blood Trials were the hardcore tests the Darwinian teachers used to kill students. Quite simply, there were too many of these trials. I felt like some of them could have been removed for the sake of making this book more snappy and flow better.
PLOT, STAKES AND TENSION
This book contains a sex scene. I’ve got to admit, I just skipped it. Not my jazz.
The book begins with a bar fight. The protagonist gets drunk, and beats up some racist assholes who become recurring villains throughout the novel. This is a good way to begin the story: it clearly introduces Ikenna as a violent character who is as much her own enemy as anyone else.
Ikenna’s character arc never quite came together for me. It had a good beginning (her stuck in a depressed spiral), a good middle (her sobering up), but it never quite reached a solid end point. But this is book 1 in the series, so maybe we just haven’t gotten there yet.
Three months before the book begins, Ikenna’s grandfather was assassinated. She must hunt down the killers. I loved this plot, because it wove in neatly with every other aspect of the plot. Ikenna has a fiery personality; this plot humanized her, made her seem like a normal, grieving woman. I wish the book played into that grief a smidge more, but otherwise it felt perfect.
I enjoyed the invasion story. Ikenna’s grandfather was the only person the invading nation was afraid of; with him dead, they’re free to invade again. In the final act, Ikenna is sent on a diplomatic delegation to a foreign nation to secure allies for the war. I truly enjoyed the twists and turns of this political storyline.
And now for the storyline I felt neutral towards: the Blood Trials themselves. Individually, each section was good. I liked the forest sequence, when they were sent to kill an immortal creature and take it’s head. I liked how the book was themed around the military. I liked the cage fight. Individually, every challenge was well written.
I especially loved how the author focused on the emotions of grief. These trials were BRUTAL, and named/interesting characters were regularly killed. Too often in Fantasy, major deaths happen and the protagonists never seem to grieve. Not here. The deaths felt real.
But I found other aspects about the middle act to be less compelling. After the third challenge, it started feeling long in the tooth. I mentioned above this audiobook was 18 hours, and really needed to be 15 hours. It was never boring, but it wasn’t always compelling.
AUTHORIAL VOICE (TONE, PROSE AND THEME)
One aspect of this book’s theme I enjoyed was the fact that the protagonist realized the whole ‘Darwinian culling of students/soldiers’ was stupid and counterproductive. Too often in this genre, I see books fail to question the moral underpinning of the dystopia, and reflect upon why the social structure is wrong and how it should be fixed. This book actually did the questioning. I wanted a little more, but what what there was good.
I spoke on the theme of racism and sexism earlier, so I’ll skip it here.
This book’s tone was serious, but not too serious. It bluntly addresses racism, there’s gore, and people grieve for dead loved ones… but at the same time, the characters never suffer PTSD or anything super dire like that. This felt tonally like classic fantasy, such as ‘Mistborn’ or ‘The Wheel of Time.’ It’s not grimdark.
SETTING, WORLDBUILDING AND ORIGINALITY
I enjoyed, but didn’t love this book’s worldbuilding.
This is a high-tech setting, where magic is taboo. In the Bad Old Days magic and gods ruled the world. The gods demanded sacrifices, and the magicians were cruel kings. One day, technology became advanced enough that normal people were finally able to shake off the yoke of oppression, kill the magicians, and banish the gods. But a few bits and pieces of magic still linger in the dark corners of the world, with various governments in a constant quest to stamp it out.
This world contrasts high tech, like robots, self-driving cars and UV bullets, with monsters like saber toothed tigers and immortal ogres. The magic was visceral and uncanny, inexplicable and terrible; it came off as magic constantly seething beneath the surface, waiting for it’s chance to boil over and take over the world again.
I really loved the tension this added to the story. Ikenna secretly has magic, and she DESPERATELY has to hide that fact. If her magic were discovered, she’d be killed. And yet, she doesn’t begrudge the Republic for being afraid of magic, because the Bad Old Days were genuinely bad. It’s easy to see why she’s so loyal to the Republic, for the other option is far worse. The Republic, as a civilization, is nuanced. This tension adds depth and believability to the story, and helps flesh out Ikenna and the Republic both.
The Republic is a republic, but there is a system of hereditary aristocracy called the ‘warhouses.’ The Republic is supposed to be a meritocracy, but in actual practice only the warhouses have enough money to pay for the lifelong expensive child tutoring need to pass the Blood Trials. This is GREAT worldbuilding.
And at the same time, this book suffered from ‘upper crust syndrome.’ You know how so many fantasy books explore the world from a top-down perspective, with main characters who are kings and noblemen and similar high-flyers? That’s basically what’s going on here.
The ‘warhouses’ are aristocratic clans. All the characters in this book were members of this aristocracy. The one character who wasn’t- Zane- wasn’t fully fleshed out. Even Ikenna is a member of the nouveau riche, which is part of why all the old-blood aristocrats were determined to kill her and her grandfather.
I wanted to see what this world is like for poor people. This world seemed like a dystopia, but it was hard to tell because everyone except Zane has privilege. How hard do non-aristocrats have to work to make ends meet, do they need multiple jobs? Can they afford a robot to sweep the floors for them, or do they have to do it themselves? I wanted this book to address what life is like for common people, but it never did. It’s hard to tell how much of a dystopia this book is because this book never shined a light on the suffering of the common people.
Given how blunt everything else about this book was, the discussion of class privilege needed to be blunt too. It was too subtle in this book. Don’t get me wrong, this book spoke somewhat about class privileges, but it was overshadowed by the bluntness of this book discussing racism. This book needed to be equally blunt about classism as it was racism.
And finally, the magic system. The protagonist in this book has mind control magic. I often find that when an author gives the protagonist a really, really powerful magic system, it causes plot holes to appear in the novel. When you have such a powerful magic, why not use it to solve all your problems? At moments I felt plot holes here.
AUDIOBOOK NOTES
I listened to the audiobook, and credit where it’s due, the audiobook narrator did a GREAT JOB of making the antagonists hateable. Indeed, the narrator was too successful; whenever the narrator used the antagonist’s chosen voice it made me viscerally cringe and want to drop the book. I guess that’s a complement?
LESSONS LEARNED
As an author, I want to improve my own writing/editing skills. To that end, I like to learn lessons from every story I read. Here’s what I learned from this story:
- When you establish a tone for your story, stick to it.
- This book is quite blunt about racism.
- This book is also quite blunt with characters personalities, about a harsh society, and about gore (the gore wasn’t excessively used, however).
- Usually, I dislike when books come off as preachy about social issues. I’m in the midst of reading A LOT of books in this genre to catch up to last year’s awards, and they’re all so obvious.
- This book was blunt about social issues, and that risked coming across as preachy. However, this book never came off as preachy because so much of this book was blunt in tone. Aka, when everything’s blunt, nothing is blunt.
- This book did a great job!
- (EDIT: To all the people who messaged me, condemning me for calling this book preachy, I encourage you to remember that the purpose of preaching is saving souls. I am complementing this book.)
- Have characters in tension with their society, and themselves
- Ikenna is outcast from her society for many reasons.
- Ikenna had magic, but she comes from a society where you get killed for having magic.
- Likewise, she’s black in a majority white nation.
- Likewise, she’s nouveau riche in an aristocracy of old money.
- I liked how Ikenna was loyal to her nation, without being a nationalist.
- Ikenna is outcast from her society for many reasons.
Here’s a link to all the lessons I’ve previously learned.
SUMMARY
I didn’t love this book, but there’s basically no universe in which I loved this book. I read this only because it won the Ignyte, and while I’m happy for the author for winning, this is not my vibe. This is a YA/New Adult BIPOC women’s power fantasy, and I am not in that demographic. Instead, I appreciated it. If you’re in it’s target demographic, check it out.
Did you like this critique/review? Here are some more: The Rest of My In Depth Reviews
On a personal note, I’m open to editing books. I don’t like putting myself out here like this, but I’ve been told I should. Check my blog for details if interested.
John Mendez- Book Reviews and More 