The story of a girl forced into fighting a war against her own people and the choices one must make to force change. Blood Scion by debut author Deborah Falaye is a fiery reflection of the impacts of colonialism. A warning: this story is filled with scenes of horrific violence, death, racism, and the forced conscription of child soldiers. Please take care before reading on.

Sloane has just turned 15 and with that comes her letter of conscription. She will fight for the Queen against her own people or she and all her loved ones will die. Sloane is harbouring a secret, she is Yoruba and a Scion, the very people the royal bloodlines are hunting and killing at every turn, enlisting children from the poor regions to do their dirty work. Living with her grandfather, her mother having mysteriously run away two years before, Sloane is fighting at every turn, fighting rumours, fighting her magic and fighting to stay alive. Will Sloane survive her training? Will she find the answers about her mother she’s so desperate to find? Will she lose herself along the way?

Deborah Falaye plunges readers into the heart of darkness. For YA this is a very dark and haunting story that I think walks a fine line between YA and adult fantasy. She builds a world rooting it in Nigerian/Yoruba mythology and clearly throws readers into the harms of colonialism. The visceral descriptions of the pain of seeing someone wearing traditional garments stolen from your people long ago, to seeing your artifacts on display for their enjoyment is eye opening.

The story takes time to develop. Deborah Falaye takes great care to build the world of Nagea slowly in the first part of the story, allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the time and place but the brutality starts right away. Once Sloane makes it to training the story races along, not letting you take a breath for a minute before something else grips you. There is no rest for Sloane in the colonial world where the bloodlines turn children into killing machines, pitting them against one another and never hesitating to demonstrate their brutality. Thankfully, Sloane finds allies among the recruits but they only serve to eventually steal her humanity.

There are no tropes in this story. The reader will truly not know who to trust. Even at the story’s eventual conclusion, there are still many questions that linger. If you are familiar with the YA fantasy formula, this book will challenge your thinking. You won’t get any sort of tidy conclusion or really any feeling of hope. A fast paced, action packed read that I hope continues in subsequent books.