Blood Debts

This novel makes for a compelling tale, set in a world like our own, but in which a significant portion of the population are magic users. Using New Orleans as a setting and voodoo traditions as a base, this story of rival magic users and trauma that stretches across generations makes for a quick read. Two siblings, Clem and Cristina, are at the center of the story, and together they seek to right wrongs made three decades before. I enjoy the story overall -I particularly enjoyed the romance between Clem and Yves- and I will definitely be reading the sequel soon.

Wow. I am still digesting just how incredible this story was. I adored the magic woven in with history. The New Orleans setting made this feel so beautifully eerie. Our two main characters risk everything to try to solve what happened to their family 30 years ago. Clem and Cris are an absolutely brilliant pair to follow. I cannot wait to get my a copy of the sequel coming out soon!

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker is a tricky novel to review. On the one hand, it is a story about intergenerational magic, revenge, and power that is dark, dangerous, and seductive. On the other hand, the execution of the story could be more masterful than the plot suggests. There is much to love and, unfortunately, a lot that would make a reader set it aside unfinished. What you think about the book depends on your patience and willingness to ignore some unfortunate prose for a great plot. Myself, I struggled until the story engrossed me enough to be able to ignore its faults.

To say that Mr. Benton-Walker’s writing style is simplistic is to understate the issue. The problem with Blood Debts is that it reads like a young teenager, still in the throes of puberty young, wrote it. No matter their age, every character sounds like a whiny teenager complaining about not getting their way. While this makes sense for Clement and Cristina, who actually are teenagers struggling to find their identities, school bullies, boyfriends, mean girls, and other high school drama, it makes less sense for the adults in their lives. Even the oldest character sounds a bit like Regina George, crowing at her power over the entire school, or in this case, the council. In addition, each sentence is as basic as you can get. While it makes for easy reading, it does not make for the best descriptions. Mr. Benton-Walker’s metaphors and similes are too prosaic and less poetic. It makes Blood Debts feel clinical, dry, and dull when the plot is anything but that.

Where Mr. Benton-Walker excels is his story. There is something magical about any story set in New Orleans, which he uses to his advantage. In Blood Debts, he takes NOLA back from Anne Rice’s vampires and brings the focus back to the true magical heart of the area, its long history of magic in the hands of its Black citizens. In this case, it is the intergenerational magic given to formerly enslaved people by their gods as a way to break free from their oppressors. With its roots in Hoodoo, Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, and European witchcraft, the magic the Trudeau family practices is unlike what we usually expect when we hear the word “witch.” Theirs is darker, more dangerous, and more prone to cause harm to the person casting the spell as much as to the intended recipient.

The other impressive aspect of Blood Debts is that Mr. Benton-Walker highlights his characters’ failings and uses them as character development tools for them to learn and grow. In Clement’s case, he must overcome his severe anxiety and the trauma he feels upon the death of his father and his mother’s failing health. While it happens more often, a novel in which a character’s mental health is not just a convenient plot device but rather an integral part of the character itself is still rare. For all his writing faults, Mr. Benton-Walker makes Clement a likable character because of his mental illness and not despite it. Through Clement, we understand what it feels like to suffer severe anxiety, and we rejoice when he stops letting it hinder his ability to obtain his goals.

I like Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker. The story is dark and bloody, and revenge stories never get old. Where I struggled, and where I see many people struggling, is with Mr. Benton-Walker’s writing style. It does not match the nuanced and complex story he builds. Every voice is too immature, and each sentence reads like a middle-grade English textbook. Given that, I am still deciding whether to continue the series. I want to discover what happens to Clement and Cristina, but I wonder if I should put myself through the writing issues again.

Let me start off by saying that I love the cover for Blood Debts, though it did make me think it was going to be historical fantasy rather than contemporary given how the two characters are dressed. But still, A+ cover!!

Now on to the actual review. Blood Debts is about two teens, twins Cris and Clem, whose grandmother once ruled the Generational magic council in New Orleans, but was accused of murdering a white woman and lynched thirty years ago. They grew up with their parents and a whole lot of aunts, but after their father died a year ago the aunts all left and neither sibling is dealing well. Cris has given up magic, thinking she is at fault for her fathers death, and Clem is lonely, anxious and depressed, and dates various guys without letting himself ever get close. But what if their grandmother was framed for the murder, and their family should still be ruling the gen magic council?? Throw in a reclusive necromancer, a showboat with some major showdowns, and an answer trapped in the mind of a girl who's been crossed, as well as the family of the new ruling queen and a serious quest for revenge, there's excitement and drama for sure.

I really liked the concept of the book, but I think it suffered a bit from trying to tackle too many intense subjects and storylines in one volume. I never felt like we learned enough about any of the various plots and subplots, as one would be dropped for a bit to focus on another, and then yet another would come up seemingly out of nowhere. This also makes the pace of the first half of the book rather slow, as various elements all have to separately develop. The pace of the second half is much better, and the main storyline is resolved at least.

The magic system was really interesting, and the setting of New Orleans was an excellent backdrop. In fact I am sorry we did not get to see more of the magic use, though that is for a reason in the book. And without spoilers there is some pretty significant magic usage during the last quarter.

One significant thing that I did not love was the relationships between most of the characters. Their family has all fallen out with each other, and I was expecting Clem and Cris especially to be learning to work together and overcome what separated them in the past. However this doesn't happen for most of the book, so mostly its two siblings who don't get along well and their dysfunctional family who also don't get along well. The villians are also pretty much one hundred percent awful without nuance, even Cris's ex-best friend, the daughter of the current gen council Queen. We get a few chapters from her perspective which I think are meant to humanize her but mostly it was like, here is an awful person who has also happened to have some bad things happen to her. There were also a couple chapters from a minor characters perspective and I am honestly unsure of their purpose at all. Perhaps that will become clear in the next book.

The end of the book is also very surprisingly violent. I was not really prepared for it to be quite that brutal. So just a heads up there for anyone who may be a little squeamish.

All in all, a decent but not amazing debut. I don't regret reading it but I probably won't remember to look out for the sequel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.