Following one girl’s journey of magic, injustice, power, and revenge

This is what they deserve. They wanted me to be a monster. I will be the worst monster they ever created.

Fifteen-year-old Sloane can incinerate an enemy at will-she is a Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods.

Under the Lucis’ brutal rule, her identity means her death if her powers are discovered. But when she is forcibly conscripted into the Lucis army on her fifteenth birthday, Sloane sees a new opportunity: to overcome the bloody challenges of Lucis training, and destroy them from within.

Following one girl’s journey of magic, injustice, power, and revenge, Deborah Falaye’s debut novel, inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, is a magnetic combination of Children of Blood and Bone and An Ember in the Ashes.

Blood Scion follows a 14-year-old, soon to be 15 year old Sloane Folashadé. Sloane lives in Nagea, a nation that was defeated by an invading force called the Lucis. The Lucis are brutal and sought to destroy the Orisha’s that Nagea worship as well as their descendants. Some of these descendants were gifted with powers from their Orisha ancestors. In the case of Sloane, she has a gift with fire, allowing her to incinerate enemies at will. Knowing that under Lucis rule being a Scion is a death sentence, she must hide her gifts or be hunted down and slaughtered.

Sloane is desperate to search for her mother who went missing. Rumours spread that Adeline ran away with another man run rife throughout their small town and Sloane and her grandfather are ostracised, falling on hard times and struggling to make ends meet. 

On her fifteenth birthday, the thing that Sloane dreads the most happens. The recruitment letter arrives, enlisting her to the Lucis army, to hunt down her own people and fellow scions. While there is little chance for escape, there is an opportunity for revenge. If Sloane heads to Avalon and completes their training, there’s a chance that she can take them down from the inside and in doing so, find out what happened to her mother.

The training is brutal and Sloane risks losing herself, becoming a weapon of the Lucis. She has to fight friends as well as enemies and there’s many a betrayal to come her way. 

This story is not for the faint-hearted and does call for some trigger warnings. These are children being sent into war and forced to take part in unspeakable violence. The horrors of war are evident with some children being subjected to abuse, rape, murder, torture, brutality and psychological warfare. That being said, it isn’t gratuitous, it reflects the horrors of their reality for us as a reader. We need to feel the pain of these children being subjected to these horrors.

Blood Scion itself is inspired by Yoruba-Nigerian mythology, it is beautifully woven through this story and has some fantastic fleshed out characters. While there is a relatively small ‘cast’ in this book, each character has a purpose and adds depth to the story. Even characters that have small parts within the story can break your heart. 

There is betrayal, injustice, magic, revenge and horrors. Thank you to Harper360 for the arc! I couldn’t put it down!

Deborah Falaye has delivered a masterpiece! Blood Scion is brutal, beautifully paced and the ending leaves you desperate for more. I can’t wait to read what comes next.

Purchase links:

Waterstones | Forbidden Planet