A review by venanana
Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

5.0

This book is amazing!
Could have definitely used trigger warnings at the beginning: Racism, Murder, Lynching, Hate Crimes (Both Racial and Homophobic), Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Car Accidents, Necromancy, Sexual Assault, Sexual Coercion, Bullying, Gun Violence, Spousal Abuse (Wife striking Husband)

Blood Debts is a perfect stand alone book, that ties up all but one loose end so well I can't even imagine what's going to happen in the next book.

I think the one thing that I didn't exactly love is how predictable it is. I was only ever shocked the once, about the one thing. That's subsequently dropped until the literal last chapter of the book. Which was insane to me, I was like 'wait... we can't just roll past that like that didn't just happen!'

Cris and Clem have completely unique voices, which has to be a godly talent. Cris is very introspective, and notices small details. She pays attention to things like bugs, and smells that adds a lot of depth to her POV. While Clem is very in the moment, feeling his feelings has they happen with not as much deeper thought to where those feelings originate from or what he could do to solve them.

While Cris takes on a lot of internal blame. It's /her/ relationship to magic that ruined her life. /She/ cast the spell that killed her father. Clem blames the external. The world takes everyone he loves away. He isn't going to lose anyone ever again. Which is such a wonderful contrast to each other. They are compared to the Sun and Moon in the book, and I think that's going to carry over into the next book.

Which I am absolutely ready for in a couple of months :)