Tomi Adeyemi released the final installment of the Legacy of Orisha trilogy, Children of Anguish and Anarchy, on June 25th of this year. After a five-year wait for what is supposed to be the epic finale to an epic series, some fans have mixed feelings.
We are spotlighting comments by South African content creator Nokukhanya Ntsaluba. In the video, she remarks, “I almost had to shake [the book] and ask, where’s the rest?” She also takes issue with how Adeyemi introduce a new arc, new language, new prophecy, new characters, and villains without tying up many loose ends. While she acknowledges that “the writing is good,” she said it “felt so rushed” and felt like the series moved past the beginning two books and included elements and storylines that seemed tangential to the original arc. It was like a new spinoff series was being set up rather than closing the Orisha trilogy properly.
she feels that this is “no way this is how you close out such an epic fantasy series.”
Watch the full Instagram live from @pretty_x_bookish below:
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Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy began with Children of Blood and Bone, which introduced a world where magic had long been suppressed by a brutal monarchy. In the first book, Zélie, a young divîner with dormant magical powers, embarks on a dangerous journey to restore magic to the oppressed maji people of Orïsha. In the third and final book, Zélie’s triumph over the monarchy quickly turns to despair. Now a prisoner on a foreign ship, she faces an even greater threat: King Baldyr, the ruthless leader of the Skulls, a race of warriors with iron skulls who have devastated entire civilizations in their search for Zélie.
Ntsaluba is not alone in this. There has been buzz about Children of Anguish and Anarchy on TikTok, Goodreads, Amazon, and Reddit, everyone giving their own opinion on the ending of the trilogy. In a Reddit thread about the book, BananaPancake3000 thought that “the story had so much potential but didn’t fully develop.”
Other readers acknowledge the failure to resolve the major conflicts from the previous two books before pivoting to another villain arc but loved the world-building. @Booksblabbering on Goodreads writes: “Whilst this felt almost like a cheat out of the building plot from the first two books, I did like seeing more incredibly vivid worldbuilding as our characters ventured further from their kingdom.”
In Publisher’s Weekly, an article was posted with comments from Tomi about what she wanted reader’s to get out of the final installment. She said, “‘I feel very lucky, because we’re saying goodbye here, and then we’re saying hello, here [with the film]…We don’t necessarily have time to grieve, because we’re about to be on a new adventure.'”
If you look at comments like Ntsaluba’s in that lens, it makes sense why the story felt unfinished. The Orisha trilogy is being adapted into a film, giving it another opportunity to be expanded on, which could be why the ending of the trilogy was rushed.
At the end of her Instagram reel, Ntsaluba wants to know if other people have had the same experience reading this that she did. In her comments section, it seemed like all of her followers agreed. @Mel.a.nat.ed_nwellread commented, “My thoughts exactly! This book felt like she rushed it just so we can get a book and that was not the answer! I was thoroughly pissed!
Clearly fans care about the series and are taking them time to dig into Children of Anguish and Anarchy. Even though the ending wasn’t what everyone hoped, after almost 5 years of waiting, the mystery is over and the trilogy can be put to rest.
It will be interesting to see how the series is adapted on the big screen!
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