This is one of those stories where you fly through it because it is fast paced and extremely interesting but it holds on for a while when you are done. I wasn't necessarily waffling on my rating for this book but ruminating on the themes explored here: grief, guilt, power, agency, and family. This was a powerful debut by Terry J. Benton-Walker and I am SO intrigued to see where this series will go. The magic system is powerful and I LIVE for witch councils that experience a dramatic coup. I almost wish I was able to read this on a sprawling porch in New Orleans during a rain storm. I don't really know how to summarize this book in a distinct way - I'd say if the blurb appeals to you then RUN and snag a copy of Blood Debts because it is so good. I'd say fans of Tracy Deonn and even Kalynn Bayron will enjoy this title!

This was a very enjoyable YA contemporary Fantasy. It has well-developed, complex characters and a compelling plot. There are multiple twists I didn't see coming which really helped me stay engaged.

The one thing I didn't care for in this book was all of the "high school" feeling drama. That being said, I'm not the target audience for this book, and if I had read it in my teens, I would've eaten this is up.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a fun audiobook to listen to! I absolutely loved the full cast. The narrators really brought the story and characters to life.

There was definitely a lot going on and many characters to keep track of.. but I loved it all! The magic, the drama, the mystery and the setting of New Orleans! Based on how this book ended, I’m hoping there is a second book soon!

This is a tough one to rate because while I was incredibly excited to read Blood Debts, it didn't quite work for me as I had hoped it would.

The good:
- I LOVED the setting, it was perfect for the story
- There was fantastic mental health rep
- Great representation
- It's obvious the author put a lot of care and passion into writing this novel

The bad:
- The writing was a little too juvenile for my tastes
- There was a little too much going on with so many POVs and plot points that I had a hard time following and felt a little unsatisfied by the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eArc of this book.

I put this book down, thinking I may not finish it.I decided to give it another chance and ended up loving it. The story gets gritty, bloody, and deadly. I love New Orlean stories and this one did not disappoint. There was a little bit of info dumping in the beginning but it all came together and spread out nicely in the end. The different POV made it interesting and real. Will love to continue these character’s stories in the next book.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this ALC.

This book was WOW! The writing was so real. It was very easy to fall into the story. The characters were relatable on many aspects. (For myself it was trauma and mental health as I'm a basic white girl 😅.) I loved the difference in magic systems. Some twists were a bit predictable but over it made sense for the story. The character development was great and I loved how Clement stayed true to himself in the end. I don't know if there is a book 2 in the works but I really hope so! I need more this family ASAP!

There were some clunky parts of the plot and unnecessary charter povs that I didn't love but overall The main characters' culture and queer rep were terrific. 3.5

Did Not Finish (DNF). This book had a lot of potential, but it was not a good fit for me at this time.

This isn’t a bad book, it’s just kind of a confused book. It’s not really sure what it wants to be. Is it about magic? The Black experience? The queer experience? Difficult family dynamics? Politics? Two bars fighting to take each other down? Hexes? Zombies? Some mystical experiences that I still don’t understand? Bullying?

My read of Blood Debts is that it is primarily a book about the Black experience, especially as it’s linked to a particular kind of magic. And, on this concept, it really shines. There’s also a secondary commentary on the Black experience as queer people. Again, good.

It starts to devolve a bit though when it jumps from perspective to perspective to perspective, two of which added more confusion than help. The first half of the book we get a dual POV from twins Clem and Christine, as they try to figure out how to help their sick mother, who has been hexed.

But then the story splinters like a piece of paper tossed into a shredder. I was able to follow Chris’s investigation of their hexed mother to some degree, as well as Clem’s relationship and general poor treatment in life by family and schoolmates.

Although this book professes to be about magic, it’s really about tangled family politics, in-fighting, and confusing ancestor and spiritual connections. I honestly didn’t understand why an aunt’s former fling was resurrected as a zombie, and a lot the book is given over to this plot line that just didn’t seem to add anything but more words to an already confusing story. Though the cliffhanger suggests that the necromancy plot point will be explored further in the next book. The pacing on this book was also slow.

Overall, I enjoyed the twins’ stories and their personal life experiences, but the rest of it was a bit of a tangled confusion for me.

Also, the narration was superb. As a Louisiana native, I often find Southern narrations overdone and grinding, but the narrators of this book had the soft NOLA accent down. It was a comfort to listen to!

I was expecting to be super scared throughout this book but I was more on edge. This is a story of generational trauma and how far it can reach and affect us within its path.

Twins Clem and Christine have discovered that someone is trying to kill their mother and the next. But could this be something new or stem from the way their family was thrown off the throne of gin magic?

I enjoyed this story and I will be reading more should the story keep going. I did think that some of the storylines went on kinda long.

I didn't mind the multiple POVs however of them I don't think we needed

All in all, I had a good time reading and enjoyed the magic and the family eventually coming to get her to break the things that were holding them back

This was narrating by Narrated by Bahni Turpin; Joniece Abbott-Pratt; Torian Brackett; Zeno Robinson

- all the voices were great and with the number of characters, I am happy that there was more than one voice actor. I enjoyed the difference and the emotions that went into this production

This book had all the makings of a winner for me: politics, family feuds, NOLA backdrop, a budding romance, and of course magic… but it just didn’t seem to click for me. I never connected to any of the numerous characters despite their unique backgrounds and the plot never grabbed me like I had hoped. This took me far longer than books usually do because there was always a more interesting option available.

Ultimately, I think I wanted more NOLA roots and more magic maybe? It’ll be interesting to see where the supposed sequel takes us. It hints at more of what I was hoping for in this book, and maybe we’ll continue to see growth and gain connection to the characters.

I listened to this fantastic YA fantasy new release in the car with my teens during our ski trip over New Year and several other long car rides - we all loved this one and the well built urban fantasy world set in modern day New Orleans sucked all of us in.
Here are my daughter’s words: “The audiobook „Blood Debts“ follows a pair of twins Clem(ent) and Chris(tine) - just living beside each other, Christine has her relationship with her boyfriend and has sworn off magic whereas Clem firmly believes in their family‘s moon magic and has his own life. What divides them are their very different reactions to their father‘s death a couple of months before this book starts and their mother‘s grave illness that makes them caretakers far too early. They need to join forces and find the root to their mother‘s illness and get rid of it. Old family secrets begin to unravel, a whole circle of aunts has very different ideas and wishes on how to proceed, old hostilities and old enemies start to turn up and Chris and Clem will have to get their whole family to work together - and use the moon magic they have wisely to stand a chance - this means first the two of them need to come to terms with their legacy and start working together.”
The book is for older teenagers (14, 16 and 18 in our case and their was one scene that I would have liked to have skipped for the 14yo. It was great world building and the magic was well constructed definitely the kind of YA fantasy an adult can read and listen to and love as well !
We were provided this audio through @netgalley and @macmillanaudio and Bahni Turpin one of my very favorite audio narrators narrates this dual viewpoint book. Joniece Abbott- Pratt is the second narrator and she does a fabulous job as well - this book kept us very well entertained and has been out since Tuesday April 4th.

This is not a YA book, but was a thrilling tale no matter what!

Mourning their fathers death and fearing the worst for their sick mother, twins Clement and Cristina begin unravelling a series of questions about their family's history soon to set off a bomb in their life. The first being that their mother isn't sick, she's been cursed by an unknown magician and one of them could be next. Their only clue lies within a three decade's old murder that claimed the life of their grandfather and grandmother--who used to seat the Queen of the Magical Council in New Orleans. If they cannot figure out the true culprit, their family might just implode more than it already has...and take New Orleans with it.

Blood Debts was an amazing story, filled with magic and murder and mystery. The narrator for the audiobook leaves you hanging on every word, wondering what will happen next. The ending leaves you wanting more and clutching for hints of what's to come in the next book! But like I said, this book is not YA. I was so excited to vet this, because I had requested it to be added to my branch's YA collection, but immediately had to take it off my Teen list. This would best be classified as New Adult (NA) due to sexual content and I would advise librarians to take care when recommending this title to teens, especially in our current state of having to fight against censorship. It's a wonderful and thrilling story that, if not for one explicit scene, would be a perfect YA book centered on POC characters and New Orleans culture.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgally for an ALC of this one.

Twins Clement and Cristina know magic, but will it be enough to save them when they discover a plot thirty years in the making to hurt their family and keep someone else on the magical throne?

This was so good! I love the atmosphere and the magic system. Honestly the magic spells and things are so cool to read about! I really like the characters and loved the story!

CW: sexual assault/rape, racism, homophobia, bullying, death, death of a parent, grief, murder

I absolutely adored the setting of this one and I think it’s an important story that really did need to be told. Sadly this book really wasn’t the one for me, I wish more of the story had been fleshed out for me which hurt my overall enjoyment of the book. I encourage people who enjoy this setting and type of story to give it a chance because I honestly truly wanted to love it and it’s sooo clear that the author put a lot of time and effort into this book. It just isn’t the book for me.

Recently released is Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker IG: @icecreamvicelord I recommend with reservation.

I'm struggling with this being categorized as YA. Although the main characters are teens, I don't think this qualifies as YA. The sexual scenes are more graphic than any other YA novels I've read before. I like the twists and turns, the magic, integrating racial conflicts, and the excellent descriptions of being in NOLA. I just wish the author had either made the main characters adults or backed off some of the graphic sexual content. I would be reluctant to recommend this to a younger high school student or the parent of a high school student.

As for the actors who are performing the audio book, they are amazing!! It transitions back and forth between two main characters - brother and sister and the actors have such a unique ability to voice for each other. And based on the ending, I'm looking forward to seeing where Clem and Cris go next.

Unfortunately, I am DNFIng this at about 50%. Blood Debts should have been everything I loved. Diverse characters. Magic. NOLA. But I struggled to pick the book up. I hated every character. I don't mind unlikeable characters, usually, I prefer them. However, here they aren't interesting enough for me to like them. They are all whiney and petty. It got old very quickly.

The audiobook was done well. I always like a full cast.

This. Book. Is. Long.

It’s so freaking long and for no reason…at least not one I found. If you’ve been looking at my reviews for awhile though, you’ll find that I like there to be a reason for all of the words and if I can’t find one then I’m not a fan - but I don’t even think that’s the main thing here.

I went in expecting magical realism with a YA setting and characters. While technically I got this, it was more hormonal teenagers and equally hormonal acting adults than just young adults and that caused the excessive wordiness - the hormones did the talking.

The representation was here, but I felt it was almost overshadowed by the a lot of POVs and on audio it was hard to keep up with. I’m sad - I really thought I’d like this a lot. I just don’t. I think maybe I’m not the target audience. It happens!

⭐️⭐️💫

3.5 stars

I overall enjoyed the performance of this audiobook. The cast did an excellent job and I enjoyed the different narrators for the dual POV. I really enjoyed the writing and the complicated relationship dynamics. However, this book suffers from the same problem that many other “YA” books struggle with and that is, that this book was very obviously not written for the majority of the YA audience. This was a book written for 17-25 years olds, but with 16 year old characters. This is one instance of a greater trend in publishing that does disservice to both teen readers and authors alike.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

As a 44-year-old married white suburban mother living in the west, I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience for this novel. That being said, I really enjoyed this book. The book was immersive, with likable but flawed main characters.

At the center of the plot was a complex tangled mystery. At times, that plot felt a little overly complicated and perhaps the world was populated with more minor side characters than strictly necessary, sometimes making it a bit difficult to keep track of everything and distinguish what was important from details that were there for atmosphere and context. However, that's also what made the world feel lived in and rich. Another consequence of the complexity of the side plots and characters is that many questions never resolve in the book; just like in real life, the reader doesn't get to see how the story ends for many characters and many issues of interest remain up in the air.

Ultimately, the main story line has a satisfying resolution and the book's diverse cast of characters and approach to issues like oppression, generational trauma, and coming of age is refreshing when set against a fantasy background of magic.