This was definitely different than what I was expecting but overall I really enjoyed this one. I pretty much love any book set in New Orleans, but add in some magic and I'm hooked. Would definitely recommend this to those that like a little bit of darker fantasy in their YAs. It was a fun one.

My only complaint about this book is that I didn't read it at soon as I got it. It started slow but once it got going, I devoured this story. I love books that have vivid details that paint the scenery. I really want this to be a Netflix series so that we see these images brought to life. While I loved the cover, I don't think it really aligned with the story. I think I assumed something more akin to a Mardi Gras ball or something because of it.

I’m not a fantasy or magic person. But everything about this book really worked for me and I’m so glad I read it.

Following twins Clem and Cris, Blood Debts tells the story of old family magic, old family feuds, and finding your place among all of it. Set in modern day New Orleans, our two main characters have to bury their distrust of each other in order to work together to not only solve the mystery of who has it out for their family, but who’s to responsible for the decades-old murder that started it all.

The dual POV in this book really makes it sing. You dive into the headspace of Cris and Clem, learning how they feel about each other and why. You understand them and the chips on each of their shoulders. Terry J. Benton-Walker takes you into this world and trusts that through the twins, you’ll feel both at home, and slightly on edge about who to trust. In other words, he puts you on the exact same footing as both Cris and Clem.

I’m excited to see what else Benton-Walker has up his sleeves, including the sequel to this.

4 stars

First, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me receive an arc and audiobook of this book for my honest review!
A witchy supernatural story in New Orleans following a family of black witches? Sign me up!
Honestly, this was such a fun read, and having the audiobook along with it made it even better!
Chris and Clem are pure magic...Generational or Gen magic that is. In a world where the African American community has access to their Gods and power via the moon, Chris has sworn off the use of magic after she fears a spell she conjured led to her father's death. Clem is wading through the waters of depression and anxiety while trying to help his mother, who fell ill after their father's death. When the twins discover a hex doll is the cause of their mother's ailments will they find who is gunning for their family before it's too late, or will they all find themselves at the wrong end of a blood debt?
I absolutely loved Chris and Clem's relationship and dynamic as siblings I felt like it was very accurate. The magic system in this book made total sense and you never felt like it was confusing. Terry J. Benton-Walker is a very talented writer and I'm very excited about the next book in this series, Blood Justice.

There were a lot of storylines in this one that were trying a lot of things, and though they didn't entirely come together for me, I was definitely entertained!

This story is fantastic, from the strong characters to the family dynamics and mystical intrigue. You won't be able to turn the pages fast enough!

There are a lot of things happening in this book. And a lot of viewpoints. Cris and Clem are the main POVs, but there are also 3 others. I enjoyed both Cris and Clem, but my favorite was definitely Valentina, Cris’s once bff now nemesis. Valentina’s family has held the crown of the Gen Magic Council since the Dupart family’s downfall and she’s the kind of villain you love to hate, with depth and nuance and flair.

By around the 40% mark, there are a lot of half-begun threads and new plotlines branching off. It can feel a bit meandering. We go from the search for who cursed their mom, to getting all up in their aunt’s personal business and harassing people from her past out of nothing but nosiness and curiosity, to Clem finding time to pursue a new relationship and get into necromancy, and Cris having a whole character arc going from shying away from even touching magic because she’s scared of hurting anyone to wanting to rain blood down on her enemies.

It’s a lot. But it’s not like the plotlines don’t grow and branch off organically, because they do, like an invasive species.

Stick it out and the payoff is worth it. Once the branches converge and everything starts to clear up, the book becomes unputdownable. Reading Blood Debts is like watching True Blood or The Vampire Diaries, shows with multiple plotlines introduced throughout the season that all tie together in an explosive finale.

I ended up really loving this book and can’t recommend it enough. The characters are interesting, there’s never a boring moment, and the way the author masterfully weaves together racial tensions with magical drama adds a lot of depth to the story and characters. It’s more than simply a magical fantasy, the author wanted Blood Debts to evoke complex feelings about justice, morality, generational trauma, and cycles of violence, and these themes are definitely felt throughout the book. This series is absolutely one to watch for.

+Trigger Warnings (may contain spoilers)+
-Non-consent: Cris finds out her “boyfriend” has been using love magic to make her want to be with him. This causes her to spiral pretty heavily, especially because while they hadn’t had full-on sex, they have come pretty close and done other very intimate sexual acts.
-Under-age sex: Clem and his boyfriend are both 16 and engage in a pretty explicit spicy scene.

3.5 rounded up. This had a bit of a slow start for me in ebook format, but I picked up the audiobook and restarted and the amazing narrators really brought the characters to life, I definitely recommend the audiobook. I ended up reading along with the ebook- this helps me a lot when there's a lot of characters in a book and there are A LOT of characters to follow in this book.

An urban fantasy and murder mystery centered around a magical family living in New Orleans. The plot is thick with a complex history, tense politics, and family secrets. I loved learning about the different magic systems and their history and connection to people and the world- generational, sun, and moon- and the racial dynamics this brings into the world, this was a really interesting take on magic systems layering in conversations about racism and cultural appropriation. The murder mystery kept me interested, while I had some things I guessed correctly, there were so many twists and turns that were unexpected.

This book is dense and rich and at times this works so well- when it weaves in politics of white supremacy, cultural appropriation, generational trauma, homophobia, trust, grief, community care, and a lot more. Sometimes there is also A LOT going on with A LOT of characters that made it a bit hard to follow- there are multiple POVs, multiple subplots, and a lot of people to keep track of. I think the author does a good job of trying to keep you following along by explaining or repeating information, but it can still be a lot to follow and I did lose my bearings here and there.

But overall it's a great story with great worldbuilding and complicated messy characters that you root for.

CW: Racism, Murder, Violence, Sexual assault/coercion, Sexual content (references to and on page scene), Death of parent, Gun violence, Car accident, Bullying

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book to review.

I went into this book completely blind and judging by the cover I was shocked the this wasn’t historical fantasy! However, it was a cool book with a unique magical system, bloodlines and politics. This was a fun one!
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Thank you #macmillan and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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DNF at 15%. Synopsis was interesting but story did not hold my attention. World building seemed good and magic seemed interesting, and YA fantasy readers will definitely enjoy it.

An extremely powerful story of black and queer pain, but also black and queer power, with an excellent magic system. The writing was powerfully character-driven, but I occasionally struggled with the pacing of it. An excellent debut! Looking forward to reading this one again.

I spoke about this book and the audiobook on a bookhaul instagram live. I absolutely loved this book and I'm in love with the cover. I can't wait for the next book and have raved about this on twitter and in person.

It's New Orleans witches and it's gay, so there's little I wouldn't love about this. I really loved the intricate magic in this and the history of the witches. I wish we could've gotten more of it, but I was overall pretty pleased with how this was set up. It was definitely giving The Originals at some points, which I liked. The characters were great too! The one issue I had was that the sex scenes in this did seem a bit spicy for a YA book? But that might just be a me thing. Overall though, this book was good and I will absolutely be reading more Terry J. Benton Walker in the future!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for honest review.
Blood Debts is a high drama, angsty YA leaning NA mystery, fantasy, paranormal story and it just works. This gives me The Vampire Diaries (the show) vibes where enemies become allies and everyone is making stupid decisions and when you solve one thing a new big bad is revealed all in the best way. Blood Debts was a lot of fun to read, but also contained excellent mental health and queer rep, I thought the family relationships were great, and the underlying mystery well executed. Looking forward to more in this series.

As far as a debut book goes - this was a fantastical ride!! I really like when books have realistic dialogue for what the characters are going through. Benton-Walker's writing is fun and relatable, it feels like you could feasibly meet these characters even though this has such intense fantasy vibes. I really enjoyed the magic system and thought it was really well thought out! I love books with a contemporary setting, but fantasy anecdotes and this one was so well done. I cannot wait for the sequel (although based on the author's tweets - i am incredibly nervous). Christina and Clem are such charming characters and i really like their dynamic together. Getting to see them learn who they were and figure theirselves out was quite a ride.

If you like politics, curses, and magic in a contemporary setting - you're going to eat this up!

Book Summary:

Thirty years ago, a massacre ripped apart the streets of New Orleans. In the modern day, the very same thing is likely to happen again. That is, assuming Clement and Cristina Trudeau can't find a way to prevent history from repeating itself.

It all comes back around to magic, family lines, and royal blood. Oh, and a curse. Can't forget the curse.

My Review:

Blood Debts is a magical and emotional debut novel for Terry J. Benton-Walker. I loved the setting and the magical complications this world brought to the forefront. It also hits pretty hard (see trigger warnings to understand why).

The twins (Clement and Cristina) are vastly different from one another. This helps build the world, adding layer upon layer while giving us different views of the plot. It also gives readers a chance to find a perspective they resonate with.

I'm not always wild about historical fantasy (I prefer my fantasy to have its setting – usually), but I did enjoy the setting of Blood Debts. A historical fantasy fanatic would fall head over heels for this tale.

Highlights:
Magical New Orleans
LGBTQ+

Trigger Warnings:
Murder
Racism/Lynching
Homophobia

This book sounded right up my alley and I was so excited to dive in when I received it. However, I was so disappointed to learn that it wasn’t a historical story but rather set in modern times. I loved the dual POVs and thought the actual story was very interesting. There was a lot to unpack and really think about which I enjoyed.

The book fell flat for me with the magic system and the pacing. It was reading like a stand alone book up until the very end when it seemed like there was a pivot to a much larger plot.

I’d read the next book in the series eventually but it’s not one that’s super high on my TBR.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

*4.5 stars* Blood Debts was a magical YA debut! While the first couple chapters made me wonder if I’d really enjoy this book, it ended up being an intriguing read.

The magic system within the book had a very good set up. It was easy to understand the intricacies of their magic. This story is both plot and character driven, which has the perfect blend of both. However, the pacing feels a bit off at some points within the book. Some pieces felt like they dragged, while others seemed to pass by without much elaboration.

Blood Debts features a lovable cast of characters and a dysfunctional (yet loving) family dynamic, which some will find they relate to. Blood Debts does not shy away from difficult topics like racism, police brutality, systemic racism, and many more. I do highly recommend reading the CW’s before reading!! This was quite an amazing read, I cannot wait to see what Benton-Walker has in store for the next one!

4.5 stars but rounding up for the review.

THIS BOOK GOT ME! I really enjoyed this story. In the midst of reading, I was like “why did he add all these characters” then I got to the end and was like “it made sense”. There’s still some loose ends - I didn’t know this was gonna be a series of some sort before reading but I am not at all disappointed. I actually cannot wait for the next book to be announced. I enjoyed the characters, even the ones who were annoying. I liked the writing style and the pacing of the story. There was a lot of drama but I didn’t find it overwhelming. I also liked the different perspectives - there were maybe like 4 or 5 but I didn’t find it challenging to keep up with. About 60% of the way through, I got the audiobook (just to finish the book faster) and it was very well done. The narrator(s) did a great job. This one will probably go down as a favorite from the year.

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker is a contemporary, urban fantasy set in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was an ambitious debut novel filled with hints of real world experiences and magical elements rooted in Voodoo. I liked what Benton-Walker was trying to do with this story. It felt like it represented different views appropriately, experiences of black and queer individuals, but this often got overshadowed by the confusing plot lines. There were too many. First, one of the characters was dying, then they weren’t. Then, there was a curse and bids for power and schemes and necromancy and sibling squabbles and guilt and loss and ghosts and gods and different magic systems. It was difficult to follow what was happening and all the different motivations. This also led to the characters feeling similar to one another because, while there were several different POVs, they all focused on so many different things it was difficult to grasp who they were.
The last 25% of the book ended a few of the plot lines, leading to a more central plot unfolding and an easier time making sense of the story. I didn’t fully comprehend the way in which the ending happened, but really enjoyed reading it. It was exciting and showed what Benton-Walker is capable of. I look forward to reading his future work. A lot of his heart clearly went into this book, which can be noted within the book itself as well as his acknowledgements.
As a parting note, I’ve seen several reviews noting this shouldn’t be classified as YA, to which I would ask- what is YA? Young adult still has the word “adult” in it. Young adults have sex, have terrible experiences, relationships, etc. I feel Benton-Walker properly represented many “young adults’” life experiences.

Favorite Quotes:

“I’ve wondered more than once if the gods cursed me with anxiety, which turned my subconscious into an internal frenemy who loves to remind me I deserve this pain.”

“Making more memories with her is only investing in my inevitable loss.”

“I hate when people say ‘don’t worry,’ like worry is some trinket I can leave at home.”

“‘Do not fret, my boy. Kings are not born overnight.’”

“I’ll be the reaper for us all if I have to.”