They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
An amazon summary in which I skipped over the praise at the end, if you want to see all the reviews and praise, click the amazon link of JUSTICE, "With five starred reviews, Tomi Adeyemi’s West African-inspired fantasy debut, and instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, conjures a world of magic and danger, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir.
They killed my mother.
Now we rise.
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
The world USED to be full of magic. 10 different kinds of magic, that the diviners (maji) were able to use...until the magic disappeared. The diviners who were old enough to wield magic were murdered in the raid, and those who were too young to tap into their magic were left with broken homes, broken families, and broken hearts.
Zelie is a diviner who grew up alongside her brother, Tzain, and they keep careful watch over their brokenhearted father. Their mother was murdered in the raid. They both do things they help them feel somewhat in control of their lives as they suffer under the cruelty of the monarchy.
Meanwhile, the princess, Amari, grew up in the castle where she also suffers from the monarchy. The king is merciless and expects everything from his children. One day in the palace, Amari overhears the king speaking with one of his subordinates, and they present her servant, Binta who is a diviner, to the king. Binta is Amari's best friend, so she's in awe when Binta is forced to touch a scroll, and a beautiful light emits from her hands. ...then Binta is immediately killed. In shock, Amari hides, but watches where the scroll goes, and steals it.
As Amari flees with the scroll, she runs into Zelie in the marketplace. A crazy escape scene happens.
Then there's Inan, Amari's brother. He's the successor to the throne and has been tasked to retrieve the scroll... only the King and Inan know Amari is the thief.
DUN DUN DUNNNN
That's kind of enough summary, but basically an adventure is about to happen where magic is involved. Okay now I'm done.
The world is very, very rich with details, history, and culture. There's so much content presented in this alternate world that there is a lot to unpack from each chapter. Which, of course makes it very hard to talk about without accidentally revealing spoilers from later aspects of the book. So let's talk about some characters.
The story switches narrators between Zelie, Amari, and Inan, just for reference.
I liked Zelie overall; she was fierce, strong, but also flawed. I thought her character flaws made her a more sincere character that felt more realistic based on the events she's presented with. How she carries herself, and how she also experiences her kind of coming of age moments just feels more authentic even though she's in the midst of magic, and well magic. Did I mention magic?
Tzain was an interesting character that I really wish had been a narrator. I kind of wish Tzain had been a narrator instead of Zelie, because his perspective on the story probably would have been the most fascinating since he essentially, followed his sister into chaos. But, what we did get to see of him was great.
I understand the value of Amari's voice and perspective, but I wasn't entirely thrilled with the depth of her character.
I liked the story overall, but it did start to feel a bit drawn out towards the end.
...I also didn't really care for Inan. I know how they were most likely supposed to come across? But I found them very aggravating to read. Probably because the monarchy was BAD. BAD.
I'm also not really fond of how the book ended, I know it's leading into a sequel. However, it had one of those weird kind of surfacing sensations of an ending. Like the calm in the eye of a storm of plot, and suddenly the storm is just over, presumably to resume in the sequel. I've only seen a handful sequels that have actually successfully picked up where a book one like that has left off. I'm willing to be tentatively hopeful. Hmm....
Happy reading!
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