Leta’s Book Review: Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury

Young Adult Fantasy, 14+

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Blood Like Magic has been on my wish list for a long time. Since I didn’t own a copy, I left it on the wish list and prioritized the books I already owned. But then an amazing thing happened! I received an ARC of the sequel, Blood Like Fate, in the mail from Simon&Schuster. It was the excuse I needed to buy a copy of Blood Like Magic when it came out in paperback earlier this summer. If you want to see what I think of the second book, the review should be up on August 9th, 2022 (which is the publication date for the sequel!).

Blood Like Magic is about Voya, a young black witch living in futuristic Toronto, Canada, who is going through a trial in order to receive the powers and gifts that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Voya’s task is immensely difficult: to find and destroy her first love. Through wrong decisions, personal growth, and misunderstandings, Voya moves closer to her goal of ultimate heartbreak.

I fell in love with this world immediately. It’s futuristic and brings a really cool science-fiction element, it’s Canadian and you can tell, and it’s got a cast of complex and amazing characters that play off of each other perfectly. Voya is the perfect main character for this cast as well, being the only one in the family that doesn’t have a specific role based on powers or abilities. She’s struggling to find her place in her family and in the community of witches.

The magic system is simple and effective: blood and intent. It creates a dark and creepy atmosphere while still managing to stand out from the other books that use blood magic. It is a wonderful juxtaposition to the sci-fi elements in the novel. It makes me want so many more of these urban fantasies with futuristic tech and advanced robotics. It’s like reading both of my favourite genres at the same time.

The one thing that kept popping into my mind over and over again was that this is what I wanted Encanto to be. I loved Encanto, mind you, but I felt like it was lacking depth and it ended too soon without a satisfying ending. Blood Like Magic has a magical family with each member possessing their own unique gift and enchanted house that keeps them safe and protected. But it has the time to go into depth about all the family members and their problems while bringing in the problems of some of the ancestors. I think Encanto is very much worth watching, but I would highly recommend reading Blood Like Magic if you liked Encanto even a little bit. Since this novel is also rated 14+, perhaps your teens would like to read it as well!

Stay tuned for my review of Blood Like Fate, the second part of this beautiful and heart-wrenching duology!