Arising (Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi)

Let's start with the content warnings first. If you don't read books that have multiple deities and/or magic in them, then don't read this book. If you do read metaphorical, symbolic, and allegorical books, then you may or may not like this one depending on what you bring to the reading. I've pictured Children of Blood and Bone (CBB) by Adeyemi with The Master and Margarita (MM) by Bulgakov because what Elena N. Mahlow writes of MM is true of CBB: "...the subtext is the reason...the main story" (The Master and Margarita: The Text as a Cipher).

That subtext is socio-political with a good measure of religion thrown in...but make no assumptions about which is which. In Bulgakov's case, the religious parts of the story held the truth about the reign of Stalin whereas the political parts that looked like they held to a political line, were not really acquiescing to the current political state at all.

I'm not saying that Adeyemi had that deep of intentions in Children of Blood and Bone (CBB)  but Adeyemi, like Bulgakov, did have some political issues in mind (because Adeyemi tells this to her readers).

Also, like Bulgakov, Adeyemi is a powerful storyteller. I don't normally like authors to switch to a different character in the story for each chapter, but I was so engrossed in Children of Blood and Bone (CBB), the changes and transitions seemed flawless and smooth. I started this book on February 23 and finished it on February 24 -- a 531 page book.

A quick read through the reviews of the book really do point back to my first comment about how what a person brings to the reading determines how the reader values the book. A Yorùbá woman pointed out the flaws in the story (even though the story is fantasy, the Yorùbá really are a Niger-Congo ethnic group), and that took away some of the excitement I felt with the story; nonetheless, I still have to admit once again: I read the entire book within 24 hours.

The book was given to me by a daughter along with two other books. I kept putting her off on this book because I thought it was going to be scary (I don't like horror books or grisly realistic murder anything) so when we finally read it, I found the story intriguing and raced ahead of the daughter (just had to put that in here).

💕💕💕 I found out later that CBB is a YA book, which probably explains the light touch in the romance/sex department. I don't know that I would recommend it as a YA book, but I saw that a teacher has put together a classroom guide. I don't know that I'll buy it, but I am curious about what he pulled together. The "cutting" part of the book disturbs me a bit because the cutting in this book leads to powerful magic unlike the cutting in Storm Siren by Mary Weber -- in Weber's book, cutting is a mark of slavery.

--- The power in blood shown in CBB goes way back in time. In fact, I recently heard an old hymn about the power in the blood. Since this is my spiritual transformation section of my blog, I'm going to ask a question here that others have been raising. Has the emphasis on the blood of Jesus rather than the life, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus actually led to a lot of Vampire Christians (just a little bite of Jesus' blood gets you into eternity)? 

Surviving (Small Country by Gaël Faye)

Small Country by Gaël Faye is a difficult novel to read, not because of the prose, which is outstandingly beautiful, but because of the horrors within it, which are tragically ugly. Why in the world would I recommend the book to anyone? Let me answer that with a conversation in the book itself as the main character Gabriel asks Madame Economopoulos if she has read all the books lining the shelves on her walls.

"Have you read all those books?" I asked her.

"Yes, I've even read some of them many times over. They're the great loves of my life. They make me laugh and weep and question and reflect on things. They allow me to escape from myself. They've changed me, they've made me a different person."

"A book can change us?"

"Of course a book can change you. It can even change your life. It's like falling in love. And you never know when such an encounter might happen. You should beware of books, they're sleeping genies." (140)

There wasn't much laughing or escaping from myself in this book. Weeping, questioning, reflecting -- there were plenty of those times. I'm trying to think of how to explain those times without giving away moments in the book, moments so real and detailed that the story feels more autobiographical than fiction. A character named Donatien brings up God, but rather than asking where God is, he puts the blame on humankind. The question to reflect upon becomes how can one help? Do we allow two small countries to annihilate each other along with all the powerless ones trying to survive? Rwanda and Burundi are extremely small. It took me three times and a final Internet search to find them on my world map.

Follow the boy's first finger out horizontally and just a tad bit up, and you can see two tiny pieces as if they are small puzzle pieces of Tanzania. They also both touch the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda sits above Rwanda. If you want to feel where prejudice can ultimately take you when it tears apart an entire country or two, this is it.

If you're willing to face the challenge of reading the book, you will have excellent writing to read. Kudos to both the author Faye and the translator (in my case, Sarah Ardizzove translated it into English). On Goodreads, reviewer Liberty Hardy had the best recommendation I've read for diving into this book: "Don't forget, books that break your heart also strengthen your soul."  It is one of those books that can be read quickly but sit long on your mind and heart.

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I don't have the answers for how we keep our children from being overwhelmed by tragedy, keep them from being inured to violence because they may see so much of it in media, and keep them from being without compassion. I'm not sure if I lived in that tension between all those poorly or well. I was surprised as 2011 came to a close by how many of my students (living in the West) grew bored with 9/11 stories. Yet some of the most vocal became caring medical professionals. Perhaps the expression of boredom was a way for a teenager to keep fear away. Feel free to comment on how to address this with children, students, teenagers, adults. Again, my apologies for making you wait before seeing your comment appear, but if it is on topic (and not trying to sell anyone something), I will add it to the blog.

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In the formation of spirit, a human navigates a variety of streams. Six that I am familiar with as a Christ-follower are as follows: 1) Incarnational -- practicing life every day living as Jesus would live my life if Jesus were me 2) Holiness or wholeness or virtuous -- practicing life aiming for good and thriving 3) Spirit-filled -- practicing life living and loving with passion and joy 4) Word-centered -- practicing life with a life-giving message (and when necessary using words, as St. Francis supposedly said) 5) Contemplative -- practicing a life of prayer 6) Compassionate -- practicing a life of compassion. All of these prepare my mind, body, heart, soul for both tragedy and joy. For more on the Six Streams, use this link here.