#the blood trials

[caribeandthebooks]

Caribe's New Works by Black Authors TBR - Part 1

Category: Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction & Science Fiction

[read-alert]

The Blood Trials by NE Davenport

This is a fantasy following a young black woman in a majority white society who had been planning to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and join her country's military, until her grandfather died and she lost hope. But after finding out that he was murdered, most likely by another high rank official, she again decides to join the trials for the military so she can investigate herself. All the while, however, she must hide the illegal blood magic she was born with.

This was a reread for me in preparation for reading the sequel whenever libby deigns to give it to me, and I'm definitely glad I reread it because I forgot a lot. What I didn't forget, however, is the fact that I guessed who killed her grandfather pretty immediately into my first read, and how long Ikenna takes to figure it out is so much more frustrating upon reread knowing the entire time that I'm right.

Also, while this book is pretty solidly new adult, in some areas like character relationships and motivations, it felt like it was written for a younger audience. And the pacing was a little off; so, so much happens at the very end and it feels like a complete whirlwind compared to the rest of the book.

I initially gave the book five stars, I think largely because I was caught up in that whirlwind that made the ending feel so exciting, but a reread does make its flaws stand out a lot more.

That said, there's still a lot to love about this book. The worldbuilding is absolutely phenomenal, crafting unique and interesting magic, pantheons, and states which all fit together compellingly and make me excited to learn more about the world. Despite Ikenna's more juvenile traits, she is still a wonder to behold with all of her completely justified rage at the system and situations she has been thrown into. And of course, the book provides an examination of misogynoir, constant microaggressions, and the sacrifices people have to make in order to keep existing in an unjust society. There's certainly some more things to that effect I wish had also been included in this book, but I have faith that the themes I am looking for will be present in the sequel; it certainly seems like the narrative is building towards it.

Unfortunately significantly less enjoyable upon reread, but I still loved this story, world, and main character, and I'm excited to see more in the sequel. 3.5⭐️

[scarlethoodi]

I really do wish I could will some of my own favorite series into having large and active fandoms that have/will exist throughout years like Percy Jackson, The Locked Tomb series, HP, Legendborn, etc.

I don’t want the only content of these books to simple be book reviews. I want to be able to talk and interact with fans of series like The Ending Fire, The Gilded Ones, The Blood Trials, etc. I want to discuss the complex characters and worldbuilding, make memes and theorize about things, pick apart how others imagined scenes compared to me, etc.

They say be the change you want to be so I’ll eventually buy all these books as I can’t go back to my Libby holds to revisit scenes and I will read them and I will start making content.

[simonespeaks]

i can’t believe mareen got ikenna to do their stupid fucking bidding and now she’s openly betrayed her second family for mareen of all fucking places. she has to grapple with the fact that she did this for a place that’s done nothing but abuse and revile her and her grandfather, call her slurs more than her given name, assassinated her grandfather, and made multiple attempts on her life. i’m so sick for her.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Graduate or Die

I'm not here to talk about specific books, but I do want to talk a bit about a trope (although ngl, I am SO tempted to call this a setting rather than a trope) that has been slowly evolving and getting popularized in books. Graduate or die is, generally speaking, applicable when a story is set in a school or college or training center and once you are accepted, you can only leave by surviving and graduating...or dying.

Yes, this is basically exactly what it says on the tin.

But I'm a bit intrigued by this spin on school fiction because as far as I'm aware, this is a recent development. Previous school stories didn't tend to be quite this deadly, and I'm seriously wondering if some of this is stemming from the shift in how North American (and let's be real, primarily US) schools are perceived by students. Given the massive rise in school shootings, is it any wonder that there might be more of an interest in stories where schools are no longer the safe-ish spaces they used to be in literature? Even literature like A Separate Peace, which focuses on a death in a school, doesn't have the graduate or die aspect. Phineas's death is a tragedy tied up in a metric boatload of guilt about culpability and intentions, but neither Gene nor Phineas EXPECTS to die going into school, and they don't expect a certain number of their classmates not to survive.

But that is very much the reality that Ikenna, Violet, and El walk into at the Praetorian Academy, Basgiath War College, and the Scholomance, respectively. They expect their classmates to die, are well aware they could die, and there really isn't a whole hell of a lot to do other than survive.

I feel like I'm just describing The Hunger Games with extra steps here, but there is a different feel to graduate or die stories than there was to the dystopian genre Suzanne Collins popularized. Possibly what I'm getting from at least Violet and Ikenna is a distinctly "grad school" feel. These protagonists aren't teenagers, these books aren't YA. Vi and Ikeena are grown-ass women who made choices and have specific, concrete goals in a way that Katniss never really did. Even El lacks some of the YA flailing, and I think that's from the structure of a school setting. It's much harder to flail around and be lost when you have teachers and a library RIGHT THERE.

I'm interested to see if the graduate or die mini boom expands at all and can actually be tied to a reaction to all the gun violence in schools and universities or if this is just a bit of a fluke. We shall have to see, and if anyone has any additional thoughts on this, please reblog with them!

[shxpeshifterr]

[just0nemorepage]

The Blood Trials || N.E. Davenport || The Blood Gift Duology #1 || 448 pages Top 3 Genres: Fantasy / Science Fiction / Young Adult

Synopsis: It's all about blood.

The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.

The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered.

For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her.

Who trained her to keep that a secret.

But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order.

Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials--a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that--if found out--would subject her to execution...or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather...and then she needs to kill them.

Mareen has been at peace for a long time...

Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that.

Publication Date: April 2022. / Average Rating: 4.22. / Number of Ratings: ~3420.

[kavaleyre]

• The Hanged Man •

“Compared to what Falin went through? This is nothing.”

[starii-void]

going to chb must be crazy like imagine sharing a camp with

-one of the strongest demigods ever who's saved the world like at least 3 times, fought multiple gods & titans and WON (and is a tartarus survivor)

-the literal main architect of OLYMPUS who's also saved the world multiple times (also tartarus survivor)

-THE lord of the wild who's also close friends with the first two (and has helped save the world multiple times)

-an emo kid from the 1930s who again helped save the world and is also a tartarus survivor (TWICE)

-a son of apollo who survived tartarus with nothing but cargo shorts and sheer will (pun intended)

-the main designer and builder for the argo II, also the first hephaestus kid to have fire powers since hundreds of years ago (did i mention killed gaea? no? yeah he did that too)

-a girl who somehow charmspeak-ed gaea into falling back asleep (also side note daughter of super famous actor because why not)

-pretty much everybody is a two-time war veteran

-THE GOD APOLLO who just sometimes comes down to visit in the form of a teenage boy

-did i mention dionysus, god of wine madness and theatre

-also chiron, trainer of pretty much every greek hero ever

[halfblood-hero]

Judge: Does the defendant have any special requests?

Percy: Death penalty.

Jason, from the gallery: Percy, it’s just a parking ticket.

Percy, whispering into the mic: Please kill me.

[seagull9111]

as a fandom we need to talk about how funny this scene was

romans: *nervous*

nico: *enjoying himself*

[read-alert]

Listen, main character, I know you don't know you're in a book, so you don't know just how likely it is that your murdered grandfather's best friend is his murderer, but you can't keep doing "well, there's no point investigating him even though he has the means, there's no way he'd do that" more than halfway through the book and after you've disproven your other suspects

[scarlethoodi]

Ikenna Amari in The Blood Gift

[simonespeaks]

sick and twisted that it’s caiman and greysen that ended up being on ikenna’s side at the end and not selene

[checkoutmybookshelf]

A reminder from Ikenna to get us through Monday. Because we all stand before monsters, and sometimes it's nice to have a reminder that we are strong enough to fight them and win.

Conquer Monday, y'all.