Man I just do not know how to feel about this. Like, it was excitingly written and way cool, but it had a truly large number of murders and horrible deeds (how could she do that to her cousin? How?!) for a character/family who wasn't even really written as an anti hero.

Blood Like Magic is a perfect combination of a dystopian future mixed with fantasy and magic. I enjoyed how Liselle Sambury blended together a potential future of genetic modification and improved technology with the heritage and culture of Voya's family and community. I loved the magic system and the inclusion of a wide variety of characters so seamlessly that you felt that each supporting character received the detail they deserved. This is something you don't see done often (or well) in a book with so many moving pieces and characters - but Blood Like Magic truly makes you feel like you get to know each character. This book has amazing representation and wonderful character development - not only of our main character but also for those characters around her. I also loved the magic system, blood and intent.

As we follow Voya on her journey to complete her Calling task, we are taken on a journey of friendship, family, and a slow burn romance. We see the world through Voya's eyes and as someone who also struggles with indecision I felt like I was able to relate to her. It is always easier to make decisions or provide advice for those around you - but doing so for yourself is a lot harder. I don't think I realized going in to this that this was book one in a series, but I am here for it and interested to see where book two takes us. Amazing debut fantasy novel and I think my new favorite genre is sci-fi fantasy. Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this eARC in return for my honest review!

A compelling urban fantasy, Blood Like Magic focuses on the present without sight of the past and the injustices based on power, sexuality, gender, and skin color.

Compelling Storytelling
Blood Like Magic is a richly told urban fantasy that pulls together the past to create a new and compelling debut novel. It is incredible to think of this novel as a debut because the writing is so powerful, pulling the past forward to highlight the injustices that continue.

The story follows Voya, a young girl from a witch family who just got her calling – the moment where the ancestors gift her power. She just needs to pass a test, and then she is all set. That is until her task is to sacrifice her first love.

Voya has to constantly straddle this line of morality, questioning whether she can destroy one life to save another. It puts her position into perspective because she is a young black woman with power, making her dangerous to some. But Voya has a code, she has hope, and while her indecisive nature makes others look down at her, it is her greatest strength.

Voya’s indecisive nature gives her perspective. She can look at a situation and come up with various alternatives. It is what saves her and her family, this ability to find creative ways to solve a problem.

Furthermore, the story gives the reader much to think about. While the reader sees Voya think outside the box and grapple with the tough decisions she is forced to make; the reader also sees the past.

There are some brutal scenes in the novel, scenes depicting the cruel brutality that is slavery. These scenes should hurt; they should make the reader feel uncomfortable because we should never forget the past atrocities or be doomed to repeat them.

And Blood Like Magic is about uncovering the secrets of the past and learning from them.

Final Thoughts
There is so much about Blood Like Magic that was amazing. From the way it moved, the way it captured the pain of the past and brought it to life, using it as a teaching moment for readers. Injustices continue for people of color, and it is essential to highlight that. Voya and her family keep their magic secret so that they are not exploited as their ancestors were. But the story is about more than that.

The way Blood Like Magic was diverse, never letting anyone just be a “sidekick,” and highlight how unfair society is to transgender people or anyone in the LGBTQ+ community. It is incredible how Sambury was able to highlight those injustices and inequality by giving readers an incredibly diverse cast of characters. I loved it; every minute, every page was full of thoughtful storytelling and powerful characterization.

This was one of the most unique story I have read in a while, with a perfectly balanced blend of fantasy and science fiction that I would have never thought would work but somehow...did. Neither aspect ever overwhelmed the other, on the contrary, the author worked on making them complement each other. And succeeded at it. The technological elements were really cool. The magic system, and how it's ancestral and tied to someone's family, whether chosen or blood was really well done. How powers were passed down, all the rituals, etc...

But by far, what I loved by far about BLOOD LIKE MAGIC is its emphasis on family, and platonic family love. Which is something I rarely see done so deeply, and in a multigenerational way, in YA. I loved how it showed that families do not have to be perfect to love and be there for each other. They can be dysfunctional, have secrets, hurt each other in many ways while being well meaning, and yet would drop everything at the first sign of danger for each other. Voya's love and devotion to her family was heartwarming.

Voya was such an interesting character to follow. I felt empathetic to what she was going through and the way that was put on her teenage shoulders and couldn't help but grow to care for her. I loved how she wasn't perfect, made mistakes, and was so scared of the consequences of said mistakes that she made a reputation for herself for not being able to make a decision to save her life. And when the whole plot hinges on her making a decision, it only made it all the more complex and interesting to follow.

At its core this is a story about choices, their consequences and how in most instances in life there isn't really a perfect choice to make. The plot drove that point over and over again with the many sublots the author threaded together to make the bigger picture. I loved how events that were seemibly unrelated came to connect in such a clever way. It kept me on my toes and on the edge of my seat.

This book has a great concept! However the writing isn’t awesome - Sambury takes a lot of time telling the readers things (exhaustive detail on pronunciation for example) instead of letting the reader figure things out. It was, unfortunately, a little tedious

Blood Like Magic is a book that pulled me in immediately and I just couldn't stop reading until I was finished! Voya is such a beautiful and complex character who is forced into an impossible situation. And even though she has had difficulty making choices in her life, the one constant is that she will do anything to protect her family. Anything. I cried, I laughed, I cheered, I even got mad (I'm looking at you Justin), it wasn't just a fantastic read.
Full review to come on my YouTube channel.

Blood Like Magic is a rich, dark-urban fantasy that follows Voya who comes from a family of witches. When her calling happens she is told she must sacrifice her first love in order to save her family's magic.
Mind-blown!when I started reading I thought this was going to be a topic YA urban fantasy but this was so much more. Voya is a character who some may say is gray because she is willing to sacrifice her first love for her family. There is a large cast of characters all of who play an important part in this story.
The plot is hard to talk about because I don’t want to spoil a single thing but it's plotted out greatly, nothing is rushed and the ending is something that still stands out for me. This is almost 500 pages and while read I felt that every pager was needed. I fell madly in love with the writing, the author has skill. The way the magic is written, the development of the characters, just fell in love. The way she writes about food made me very hungry. The world it's set in is easy to understand as it's based on our world but set in the future, maybe dystopian.
This magical yet emotional read about family, traditions, making hard choices. This page-turner is worth that breathtaking cover, that will hit you in your heart.

Voya is a teenage witch who will gain her powers after completing a task—to kill her first love.

I loved the strong set of diverse characters and cultures shown in this book. I also enjoyed the world building and the futuristic Canada being described. I genuinely thought the ending of the book was shocking and am glad the author went that route because it left me wondering how this will play out in this series!

I did feel the dialogue could be off at time, with certain words and phrases being used too often. This lead to the set of characters falling flat at times and leaving me confused about their motives.

This was definitely a strong debut and I am looking forward to seeing where this goes in the sequel! Thanks NetGallery for the ARC💜

A great, original concept! Blood Like Magic blends SF with a witch fantasy and creates a really fresh and interesting futuristic Toronto. Readers of both genres will enjoy the mash-up. The centering of a Blak family was also enjoyable to read as this is something that is often shown as broken or a source trauma although the family is such a big part of Black culture (makes a difference when the creator is Black!). Zola's love for family def felt real to me, and as a sucker for romance, I also found this part of the plot another point of interest as well. the. Chapters 7-16 were. tad bit slow (couldn't put my finger on why) but the rest of the book gets back to the plot. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and honestly a much more original concept and engaging plot/characters than the more "buzzier" YA debut SFF books I've read this year

DNF not because this is a bad book at all. Just not how I thought it would be. The premise and world is cool but pacing is a big issue and I’m having trouble getting into it. Wouldn’t say no to revisiting this at a later time

I ended up listening to the audiobook of this one and I found myself really enjoying it! I loved the Canadian setting and the scifi elements that set this apart from other recent Witchy releases.

I really enjoyed Voya’s family and how each family member was completely different and related to Voya in their own way. It felt really authentic and brought a lot to the novel.

The challenge system was a little confusing at first and I did just have to suck it up and hope it would eventually make more sense at some point, which mostly happened. I was left with a few questions but overall this was a fun read that was unlike anything I have ever read before.

I would happily recommend this one to anyone who enjoys sassy sarcastic family, scifi mixed with fantasy, and strong female characters who don’t lessen themselves for love.

What a GREAT book. The magic system felt fresh and new to me. I loved how food was so important in this book and always felt like I needed a snack. I'm a sucker for anything with witches and couldn't put this down.

This book was amazing. A girl grows into her power and faces an impossible decision. I was startled at first by the sheer amount of blood, and it was quite intense, but worth it. The magic system was unique and the stakes were high. I won't add it to my 6th grade classroom, because it is just too intense, but I will definitely recommend it to high school and up.

It took me months to get through this one! Overall-just ok.

Ok, so I desperately wanted to love this one. Just look at the cover. And that synopsis?!?! Magic? Futuristic setting? Diverse rep and Trinidadian culture? Killing your first love? SIGN ME THE HELL UP.

Sadly, there was just too many words and so much info dump for my attention span. I could have used a much tighter edit to really get sucked into the story. There are SO many interesting characters and side plots to explore, but some things were just so redundant and repetitive. Seriously repetitive. I just couldn't get into it, feeling like I was rehashing some of the same things every time I read it. There are plenty of people who really enjoyed this one, and honestly, I'd love to see how the final edition compared to my arc. If it was a tighter edit, I'd definitely give it a higher rating.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books for my advanced read of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Setting and character background notwithstanding, the premise of this book merits a lot of interest on its own. In the scope of the story itself, it seems to be the only reason for me to continue reading as this book suffers from a murky middle in which I wasn't sure whether I would keep turning to the next page. I ended up not getting past the reveal of the character's mission as I wasn't invested in their journey.

*I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was such a fun, futuristic take on familial magic! I can't wait to see what else the author writes.

Let me say off the bat that this is not a bad book by any means. In fact, there were loads of elements that I absolutely loved!

🧡 Likes 🧡

The Trinidadian / Caribbean representation felt absolutely on point, and I loved the richly detailed descriptions of the food, music, and Caribana! The Trinis can tell me if it was an accurate portrayal, but in my opinion, the cultural elements were done in a way that felt authentic and never over-explained.

What really took me by surprise was the scifi aspect! The world is so cool! I looooved that it is set in the future, and you get introductions to new technologies. Moreover, there is a fascinating exploration of the implications of those technological advances, including power imbalances, and social and economic inequality. Great balance of magic and tech!

😪 Disliked 😪

Here's where I get to the struggle.

The MC was honestly so... exhausting. Her defining personality trait is that she can't make decisions. It could be small, like what to eat for breakfast, to bigger decisions like, I dunno, WHETHER TO SAVE HER FAMILY OR NOT.

Kid you not, it was pages and pages AND PAGES of her indecision. It was such a tedious slog, because there were many points where it brought the plot to a complete halt. I have anxiety, so I would love an MC with a mental health disorder, but that's not how it was portrayed (to me, at least).

It was just unnecessarily detailed and imbalanced writing, which ultimately, took away from the otherwise great aspects of the book.

🔅🔅

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

🔅🔅

Thanks to @netgalley @simonandschuster for the e-ARC!

Blood Like Magic is a must-read if you're on the hunt for fantasy with witchcraft centered around black characters. Where was this type of book when I was growing up.?

Voya Thomas has just received her task for her "Calling". Voya has a decision to make that has literal life or death ramifications. I am excited to read more from this author and more about this family. Blood Like Magic reminds me of Wings of Ebony in a good way. Representation matters and I truly appreciate there are more black voices in this genre. Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read such an amazing book.

Blood Like Magic is filled with richly-plotted worldbuilding and complex magical hierarchies.  Overall it’s quite a satisfying and engrossing read, with a few minor issues that kept it from getting a full-on A grade.  It’s a full-tabled banquet loaded with treats – most of them of a rather chilling flavor.

This book opens with our heroine taking a soak in a tub filled with her own menstrual blood-stained water.  It’s her Bleeding, and at sixteen she is a late bloomer, and its arrival means that Voya Thomas has entered into her Coming-Of-Age and she is now a fledgling witch.  The next day she will take part an amplifying ceremony to trigger her Calling – a trial which every witch must go through in order to receive her powers. The Calling tends to have dire consequences for anyone who fails it – and if Voya does not succeed, she’ll remain a non-magical person.  For people without uteruses the process is rather more gross – you bleed out of your eyes, your nose and various other orifices.

This definitely sets the tone for Blood Like Magic, which is the right kind of matter-of-fact about its gore and portrayal of racism and gender issues. Blood magic is the sort the Thomas family practices, and the sort that governs the entire universe in which they live.

Every post-pubescent member of Voya’s family has powers. Her cousin Keis can read minds, her mother is a blood bender, her Granny, the Matriarch, rules over them all, and her bones are made of iron.  No one in her family has failed a Calling in over a hundred years, so the Pressure Is On for Vo.  It intensifies when the ancestor who answers Vo’s Calling turns out to be Mama Jova.  Mama Jova tells Vo she must accept her chosen task, or every living Thomas and every member of her bloodline born after her will lose their magical abilities.  When Vo says she wants to talk about this with her family first, Jova says she has failed, but Vo begs for a second chance - and receives it.  Mama Jova tells her she must destroy her first love or suffer, and she has until the upcoming Caribana Carnival – where the ancestral ghosts of the living reveal themselves once more – to complete the task.  Since the Thomases are pure witches – they do not murder for their magic, unlike impure magic wielders – this seems odd and suspect to them.

Voya – who does not date – has never been in love.  But a face pops into her mind.  While at NuGene trying to score an internship opportunity – NuGene being a company which grew out of a DNA testing ancestry website and now provides matchmaking, gene therapy and other services based upon manipulating a person’s genetic material  – Vo catches sight of blue/gray-haired Luc Rodriguez, who is being mentored by the head of the company.  Luc is not popular with his peers – in fact he humiliates Vo during their first meeting - but Vo is instantly interested in him.  She volunteers for beta testing a new meet-your-soulmate-via-genetic-testing kit, and learns that Luc is her match to nearly a hundred percent.  Setting about trying to figure out a way out of the complex knot of ancestral expectations and new feelings, Vo, her family, and Luc try to work through the complexities of it all without shedding Luc’s blood.  But Will Vo have to do so if she’s to save her baby sister Eden?

Blood Like Magic is a big, complex, brutal, violent, intriguing, dazzling book.  It could have used a couple of extra editing passes and maybe been tightened up by dropping a quarter of its page length, but really, what is page length when you’re being fed a spread like this one?!

Sambury does a good job of setting up a star-crossed romance between Voya and Luc, one that makes sense and evolves out of some understandable anger and bitterness.  Voya is not a perfect protagonist, and her humanity makes her quite relatable.  Her cousin and mother encourage her to create a back-up plan in case she never gets her Calling, but Vo has one big problem – she’s bad at making a decision and then sticking to a course of action.  This carries through the book and echoes very well.  Much of the story is about family and the weight of what we bear as we explore our connections to the older generations. Sambury explores this through a Trinidadian lens.  Voya slowly but surely comes into her own.

Blood Like Magic is not an easy book to read, but it's an incredibly strong tale with a very memorable heroine

Note: The author provides a list of content warning in the forward to the book – be sure to read it before you delve in. She does not mention the period blood bathtub scene, so I took care to mention it above.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent retailer
Visit our Amazon Storefront

Visceral and badass. Voya struggles with the feeling of belonging in her family, her witch community, and in Toronto in general. Her love interest is a trans guy and I like that Luc's character felt authentic (even when he's a jerkface!). The magic system in this book is unique and felt 100% integrated with the setting and Voya's life in general. Excited for book two.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.