I received a free digital ARC from Netgalley.
This was excellent. Malik is 17, emancipated so he could get out of foster care. His mom is gone, dead maybe. He remembers the night she disappeared, his magic manifesting. Then the ten years of foster care, his little brother Taye, family, if not by blood. Things happen and he and Taye wind up at his grandma’s. He starts a summer program at an HBCU, a magic one. Meets other young Black magical students. Learns more about his magic and his ancestors. Good things happen and bad things too. There is Black Joy and Black Magic. Highly recommended for older teens. (Lesbian, White, cisgender YA Librarian).

Blood at the Root is a promising start to a young adult fantasy style I want to see more of. I adored the use of Ebonics and Slang within the dialogue of the writing as it made the speech feel more natural and called back to the immersive dialect experience I had reading classics like Mark Twain's work. I would have liked to see more of the actual hoodoo faith and practice represented in the narrative but understand that by the nature of fiction and fantasy some liberties needed to be taken. I will certainly be reading more by this author in the future.

The slang and language in this book made it almost impossible to read. I honestly think this book would've been better served if it had been written in 3rd person. The world building was okay, but it never really felt fully fleshed out. The ending and plot twist was cliche and predictable. I really wanted this book to be good because we need books like this, but this one just doesn't work.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really did want to like this book, but it just wasn't for me- which is not to say that it won't be for anyone else, it just wasn't to my taste. Beware, there will be some SPOILERS below.

Things I Liked:
*The premise - a magical HBCU? Yes! Amazing!
*The magic system - based on vodun and hoodoo
*Mama Aya
*In the end, where Malik is referred to a therapist and considers going to therapy (mental health is so important!).

Things I Had Issues With:
*All the slang and pop culture references. In a few years, this book will feel very dated because of them.
*The characters, besides Malik, lacked depth and interior lives and motivation
*It felt, at times, an awful lot like a copy-paste of Harry Potter (also, the Harry Potter references. Ew)? Orphan goes to magical school. There's a rich kid there that doesn't like him. SPOILER: The adversarial authority figure was in love with his mother at one point, etc.)

When I learned the author came from a playwriting background, the way the book is written started to make sense, because it definitely reads more like dialogue with stage directions rather than a narrative. Overall, again, this wasn't my personal favorite, but I loved the idea.

Absolutely loved this book! Can’t wait to get the physical copy. I enjoyed this the whole way through. Amazing job.

I really enjoyed the way this was written--I found Williams' writing style super well suited for a story with such a fast-paced plot idea. As a person of color, I love seeing books with black joy and magic, especially magical schools. I loved it. You especially don't see a lot of boys of color in YA, or in this magical capacity so that was really awesome to read--I think my younger brother will really love this, getting to see himself reflected in a book like that. The story flowed so well and I loved the characters, and the way they interacted with the setting/world-building. Overall, I absolutely cannot wait to get physical copies of this in my branch and I am pre-ordering a physical copy for myself right now. I need more in this world and with these characters pronto!

With all of the hype about this book before the release, I was excited to get my hands on a copy of the book. I struggled in the beginning of the book with the use of modern language but I also recognize I am not apart of the demographic for this book, but I quickly settled into the pacing and language usage of the book. BOY am I glad I did! This book was amazing!

Malik is a vivid character that was well developed and voiced throughout the book. The writing in this book really takes off when he arrives on campus and I could not read this book fast enough! The magic, the HBCU vibe, the drama of young love, and the development of trying to find your place in the world was painted well throughout the book. I 100% recommend this book and cannot wait for the next adventure!

Malik is a teenage boy who has really been through it. He's 17, emancipated and ready to take on the world. But where he decides to start is by rescuing his foster brother Taye from their abusive foster parents. But his plans to rescue Taye go awry and he ends up meeting a mysterious man who reveals to him that he has a grandmother who is out there looking for him. Malik finds himself in New Orleans being pulled into a world full of magic and secrets. And it seems the key to unveiling the truth about his mother is attending a magical university for Black students.

So Blood at the Root was one of my most anticipated 2024 releases.

Malik is a teenage boy who has really been through it. He's 17, emancipated and ready to take on the world. But where he decides to start is by rescuing his foster brother Taye from their abusive foster parents. But his plans to rescue Taye go awry and he ends up meeting a mysterious man who reveals to him that he has a grandmother who is out there looking for him. Malik finds himself in New Orleans being pulled into a world full of magic and secrets. And it seems the key to unveiling the truth about his mother is attending a magical university for Black students.

This book was action packed and the plot keeps readers guessing until the very end. Malik has a strong voice and distinct personality and I appreciated that he and his supporting cast felt imperfect. Young people don't speak the same way those of us who are older do. Sometimes they say things that can be offensive and it's not from a place of malice. I thought that was captured well here.

Were some of the references a little too millennial and at times a little much? Yes, but that improved as the book went on and the story started to unfold. Once we get more into campus life and classes the book really shines. Sometimes fantasy books set at schools tend to stray away from having the teens attend classes but this one does a great job showcasing life at this school as Malik is training.

Now to say this is a book without trauma would be inaccurate. Malik has undergone and still undergoes a lot. But what made this book stand out to me compared to many other YA fantasies by Black authors that I've read was the authentic voice and constant centering of Black characters. There were no prominent white characters taking up space here. There was no token white bestie who said all the right things. While some of their problems do stem from hundred's of years of racism and mistreatment it never felt like whiteness was centered here. The messages here felt like they were for Black readers to appreciate and celebrate their history rather than for white people to see their humanity. There were a lot of little touches where I can tell the author put a lot of thought into building this world.

And I'm interested in seeing how things continue with the revelations we had at the end.

I received an arc from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the journey from the moment I was introduced to Malik, and I can't wait to continue reading the next installment when it's scheduled to come out.

A teenager on the run from his past finds the family he never knew existed and the community he never knew he needed at an HBCU for the young, Black, and magical.

Really great characters, great plot, well-written. Reminded me a little of Legendborn. Loved it!

Thank you to netgalley and Random House Children's, Labyrinth Road for allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this book. Its nice to see black boy joy and to see that we have a space now in magic

LaDarrion Williams has a fantastic style for this type of book, I really enjoyed how good everything flowed with the plot and the characters. I was invested in what was happening in the story. I enjoyed the characters and how they worked with the magic elements created.

Some of the book's greatest hits, "...I'm ret to go","Ahhhh sookie sookie,", "BFFR", & "...bruh, you hella corny". This book is a mixture between, Stomp the Yard, Wakanda Forever, & Harry Potter(if they all were black). The story takes place in the south with a young, hard shelled, young man named Malik who is just trying to find his place. After losing his mother ten years ago and discovering his magic, he seeks answers. So off to Caiman University! Some pros...the world building and the ancestry of the characters were excellent to read. I loved all the past and current connections in the story. I did also love the fight scenes. Now some cons...you can tell a millennial wrote this. I found myself turned off and distracted by some of the speech in the book, some I included at the beginning of this review. My advice to the author is to take down some of that because it got in the way of the storytelling, especially when all these older adults were around. Also, the levels of betrayal in the story seemed too predictable. Overall, I finished it in two days on my Kindle and I would read the sequel.

Gave me legendborn and harry potter vibes but with a male black mic. Loved every minute of it and can’t wait for the rest of the series to come out.

After reading most of the first chapter, I realized this wasn't going to work for me. I checked out Goodreads to see if my thoughts were seen, and there are many reviews that were saying the same things as I was thinking. I no longer which to read this, but I do hope there are readers out there who will like this story!

Blood at the Root is promising start to a young adult fantasy style I want to see more of. I adored the use of Ebonics and Slang within the dialogue of the writing as it made the speech feel more natural and called back to the immersive dialect experience I had reading classics like Mark Twain's work. I would have liked to see more of the actual hoodoo faith and practice represented in the narrative but understand that by the nature of fiction and fantasy some liberties needed to be taken. I will certainly be reading more by this author in the future.

HBCU pride to the fullest. I follow this author on TikTok so seeing him promote this book, had me super excited to get a copy of it. This book was everything I needed in a magically world, the character development, to the world building along with how the pride of HBCU'ness (idk if that's a word) was heavy placed in this story. I hope that Mr. Williams does a second or a spin-off!

I was not a fan of how this book was written, more specifically the Ebonics. It made the story hard to read, and I was sooooo excited for it.

Black boys in the fantasy genre is not something we get often, and when we do, it’s inspiring to see it being done in a way that feels considerate. The author explains at the beginning of the book how he came to realizing Malik’s story, and this might be emotional of me, but I was moved. I connected with that reality and was able to enjoy the book more because of it.

Overall, I’ll say that this is a solid debut. Some aspects of the novel were not my favorite, particularly what I considered to be over use and even misuse of slang for Gen-Zers. Either way, this is the kind of book I’d recommend to my teenage brother and cousins!

Wow does this main character go through A LOT. Blood AT The Root is well written, has a great narrative town but the trauma this boy goes through is going to make or break the reader. I love the idea of a magical hbcu but the world building there could have been sharper.