Tomi Adeyemi

Tomi Adeyemi is an American author whose debut Children of Blood and Bone launched the Legacy of Orïsha series, a YA fantasy drawing on West African mythology and addressing racial violence.

Tomi Adeyemi published Children of Blood and Bone in 2018 when she was twenty-four, and the novel became one of the most anticipated YA debuts in years, arriving at a cultural moment when the parallels between its fictional world and contemporary America felt painfully direct. The book is set in a West African-inspired world from which magic and the maji — a people with innate magical abilities — have been violently suppressed by a monarchy that fears their power. The protagonist Zélie is a maji girl who discovers a chance to restore magic to her world, pursued by a young prince whose family enacted the original slaughter.

Adeyemi builds her world with genuine care and draws on Yoruba mythology to create a setting that feels specific rather than generic. The violence and racial allegory are direct: the scene in which soldiers kill unarmed maji is unmistakably written in dialogue with Black Lives Matter, and the book asks readers to engage with that parallel seriously. The action sequences are well-paced and the protagonist’s grief and rage are compelling. Some readers find the romance plot less developed than the political story around it, and the trilogy’s sequel faced difficulties that delayed publication for years.

Children of Blood and Bone is a significant debut that succeeds in bringing West African mythology into the mainstream of fantasy YA while engaging honestly with questions of state violence and cultural erasure. Its ambition is evident on every page.