Review: Blood Heir

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a little hard to rate this book and/or review it without thinking about the controversies that erupted around it roughly this time last year, leading to the book first being pulled from release, then rescheduled for almost six months later. It's especially unfortunate that a lot of major plot points (though mercifully not all of them) got spoiled in the name of exposing what some perceived as severely problematic content. Given, though, that Zhao wrote a lot of the in-universe atrocities in this book in reference to contemporary issues in Asia - most notably human trafficking and slavery - I'm actually glad that she, based on what I'm seeing in this finished copy, didn't shy away from the content that caused such strong reactions in the community before.


Sure, the general feel of the book does kinda borrow liberally from Leigh Bardugo's bibliography - right down to the world map vaguely resembling that of the Grishaverse, with the Russian-like empire (hell, Zhao even tweaks the Russian language in a lot of ways that would call to mind some of Bardugo's own bizarre and inaccurate borrowings, even giving the heroine a patronymic surname that would, in real-world Russian, be given to a man) that dominates the book's location in the east, another large continent to the west, and some islands between them down south. Sure, that one infamous death scene makes a lot of references to Rue in The Hunger Games, a character who herself was designed to conjure up uncomfortable memories of racism and slavery against black people in the Deep South (though watch how many fans appeared to have missed the point and gotten angry when Amandla Stenberg was cast as Rue in the movie and people were all, "she's supposed to be black? Since when?!") But as Zhao originally said in the tweet where she initially cancelled this book, it's not meant to invoke anything related to American historical atrocities - because as much as some like to insist that Westerners are the root of all evil when it comes to slavery and genocide, Westerners really have no such monopoly. Hell, just look at Asia today, where Islamophobia runs rampant in Indian immigration policy, China and Myanmar carry out genocide against Muslim ethnic minorities, Persian Gulf nations build a lot of their rich, ritzy cities with low-cost labor exported from India and Africa...I've heard way too many stories like this over the years and more.

I have to say, though, that a lot of charges of unoriginality on Zhao's part don't hold so much water after reading the actual book. As much as the whole "Affinity" system is just another elemental magic system that doesn't do a lot of different against other such systems in other fantasy novels, the fact that our protagonist is a Blood Affinite, not unlike a vampire - or a bloodbender, as shown on Avatar: The Last Airbender - helps give this book a significant edge. Dark and edgy is the name of the game in this book for sure, when our deuteragonist Ramson Quicktongue (who got ridiculed right and left for his use of such a silly epithet, and his perceived over-similarity to Kaz Brekker), is introduced in a prison cell with overgrown hair and beard, and immediately proves himself to be grossly arrogant and willing to throw anyone and everyone under the bus. More Tyrion than Kaz, I have to say. Honestly, I think Zhao might have become the closest YA writer to emulate the George R.R. Martin style yet. Which might also explain why some were so quick to try and cancel her, especially knowing that at least one of her biggest critics is close friends with Margaret Owen, who also published a debut Russian-like, Bardugo-like fantasy novel in 2019. (Incidentally, as much as I dislike Kat Rosenfield, there's something to be said for the theory she once proposed that it may even have been some kind of long-gamed revenge for Zhao implicitly calling out Justina Ireland that time when she excluded Asians from the PoC label. Having seen the sort of shenanigans YA Twitter in particular likes to pull, I honestly wouldn't be surprised.)

I'm sad that this book hasn't sold as well as it might have if it'd come out on time in the summer, but hey, at least Zhao's finally on the market. Now here's hoping she finally gets to tell the trilogy she wanted.

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