Welcome Back, Booklovers! I'm here with my first blog review of the year. Blood at the Root is one of the most anticipated YA releases of 2024. And as someone who spent all of 2023 searching for an HBCU set fantasy this one caught my eye after I saw it trending on Twitter. And then when LaDarrion Williams offered me the chance to read the arc I jumped at the opportunity. So preorder it here and then keep reading to hear my thoughts.
10 years ago Malik's life changed forever after he lost his mother during an attack where he discovered he has special powers. Now, newly emancipated Malik decides to use his magic to help escape with his foster brother to start anew. However their plans go awry after an incident at a gas station. Malik ends up meeting a mysterious man who tells him about a long-lost grandmother who has been searching for him. Malik finds himself in New Orleans being pulled into a world full of magic and secrets. And it seems the key to unveiling the truth about his mother is attending a magical university for Black students. While Malik is reconnecting with an old friend and learning how to wield his powers, students are disappearing and it may have a connection to a powerful type of dark magic his mother was dabbling in.
The book started a slow build up to Malik attending the school and though I would've preferred we end up on campus right away I did understand why that was done. And good bit of care is put into tying different plotlines together. Often in these types of stories set at schools, the school aspect becomes an after thought. Williams does a good job utilizing the school. Different sororities and fraternities were introduced that I can see playing a larger part in the next book. The world pulls from a lot of different elements from hoodoo to Kreyol with class sessions combining magic with Black history lessons.
Outside of some very millennial references here and there the dialogue did feel pretty realistic for Black boys from the hood in college. There was some AAVE here or some descriptions here and there that threw me off but it wasn't egregious. It's possible that will be cleaned up in the final version of this book. But then there were some references though maybe corny at times were well thought out and clearly sending a message to young Black readers.
While previously the author said this is a book without trauma I'd like to refute that. The book is not trauma free. Malik has been through it in life and still goes through a lot. There's some reflection on history that includes slavery. There's a side plot with Black children disappearing. But what set this apart from some of my other YA fantasy reads is I didn't see a lot of graphically detail violence on page. And we get to see Black people fighting back without having to suffer at the oppressor's hands first. White people were never centered. Absent was that white bff that often appears to show white readers that Black people are human too. At a time when writers are advised to write for everybody it was very clear the audience here was Black boys who haven't really seen themselves in fantasy.
Overall this is a very engaging story with enough twists and turns to keep reader's interested as secrets unfold.
Sounds like a great find. I really like the cover and premise.
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