At this point, I just don't engage with media by men that heavily or disproportionately features the suffering of women because I can't even count the number of times I've been left with a sick pit in my stomach by voyeuristic, almost gleeful depictions of women being traumatized. Am I missing out on some potential gems? Maybe. In the same way that I'm missing out on the new big cheez it crunch wrap from Taco Bell because eating there has given me violent diarrhea so many times. I'm done betting my peace on a long shot. Edit: I do not intend to imply that men are not capable of handling the subject matter in a sensitive and informed way. They are, and that's the problem. Very often, they're simply choosing not to.

I’ve seen a lot of Black content creators say this was super cringe because of the way AAVE is written so I immediately decided I didn’t want to read it, but now knowing THIS? Sheeeesh

Please do not apologize for your opinions or belittle yourself for having them. I haven't read this book but based on the description you gave and pieces of the work you cited, you have very valid points. Never be ashamed to share how a book made you feel. If someone doesn't understand that a book review involves your opinion and that they are free to have their own, that's a them problem. Women have been socialized to apologize for ourselves all over the place - don't do it! Share your feelings loud and proud. (Life lessons from a woman who's been alive a lot longer than you - I wish I'd stopped apologizing for myself a lot earlier in life.)

Yeah… I had some issues with this book from jump. As a black man, I was ecstatic to hear about a black fantasy novel with a black male lead seeing how we don’t have alot of those. I’ve been loving this new era of black fantasy with works such as LegendBorn by Tracy Deonn and the NightmareVerse by LL McKinney. But they’re all black women, which is great! But where’s the black men fantasy? So Blood At The Root intrigued me. Literally marketed as “What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU” and “Inspired by Percy Jackson” But it’s like… no lol. I had so many issues with this book I was unable to read it. 1. This book has no magic system lol. There is no system to this magic or how it works, despite taking place in a school. How on Earth does being able to generate fire from your palms correlate to being able to unlock doors without a key and also get them revved up? I know stuff like Harry Potter didn’t really have a magic system either, but viewing that series in a modern day lenses? Those books kinda sucked, too! Or maybe I’m just older and seek actual work to be put into the magic, like Tracy Deonn did with her Legendborn series. 2. The AAVE is atrocious. I’m sorry but I can’t read this book aloud without cringing every 20 seconds. It’s absolutely horrible. As a young black man, I have never spoken like this nor have I ever heard other black people in my area speak like this. It almost feels like a parody of black people, and I can just imagine how much fun white people are having laughing at this. What you’re saying is new to me since I wasn’t able to finish the book, but man this just didn’t turn out well at all. I really wanted to like this book, a lot. And maybe the second book will be better, but now? I’m just disappointed. Maybe I should write my own YA fantasy novel with a black male lead. I do have some ideas…

As a Nigerian, when you talked about tribes and them not being distinguishable, makes me think that the author has never researched any tribes from Africa. While black🤦

With the deaf person component…when people are using sign, they generally use their full bodies for communication. Facial expressions, body position, they’re all used during signing. Sometimes children of deaf adults speak and sign at the same time, or if the person went to school for sign language interpretation, they’ll speak and sign at the same time

Romanticising abuse/death of women and using it as a main plot point has been an issue in media and stories for a long time and it´s so exhausting. It´s funny to me that you mention Legendborn bc I think that happens in that book as well - it was why I couldn´t finish the book. 😅

Also yeah the homophobia… I feel like this is not intended as a “reason to dislike him and see his growth on a journey throughout the narrative” but rather it’s just… 🥲 the dude we get

This is why I write down a milion questions about a text when I beta read for my friends, even though I know the author probably already has the answer to half of them. Having conversations about your worldbuilding is so important and it can only make the story better

comment while listening: regarding the 'magic worldbuilding': borrowing the terms from Brandon Sanderson, there is a sort of sliding scale in writing between Hard Magic Systems (clearly defined rules to the magic, think Brandon Sanderson stories) and Soft Magic Systems (the magic is mysterious and unpredictable, think Tolkien's Gandalf), with problematic cultural touchstone Harry Potter sitting somewhere in the middle of the scale. Neither Hard nor Soft magic systems are better or worse - but they are each suited to different kinds of stories. And as you explained pretty well, magic school stories work better with a magic system towards the Hard end of the scale. Harry Potter got away with it's sort-of-unpredictable magic system by embracing the childish whimsy of 'discovering a world of magic'. But generally, if your protagonist is a student of magic, and have narrative stakes tied to the magic, a Hard Magic System will serve you much better. Anyway, switching the author brain off again, time to continue the video 😉

Twerked with supernatural speed is unfortunately a bar

As a domestic abuse survivor myself and someone who works with victims & survivors of domestic abuse the examples you listed of him being controlling is a major red flag. If you're in a relationship and your partner is possesive (keeping tabs on you, accusing you of cheating etc) and/or extremely jealous of who you spend time with (especially the opposite sex) leave now before it gets worse. Jealousy and controlling behavior (they go together) are usually how the abuse starts and before you know it you're thinking in terms of 'what am I allowed or not allowed to do'. I find it disturbing how much romanticised abuse there is in YA.

Geez did Tyler Perry write this under a different name?? My god.

I lost it and had to subscribe at "he essentially Lady Wifi's himself" 😂

I also read this book and give it like a 3. It was ok. I agree about Malik and Alexis, the way he treated her. It was weird since he hasn’t seen her for 10 years. I would say she probably left a huge impact on him because she was the only other magical person he knew (I think besides his mom) and after she left, he was pretty much on his own magic-wise. So I can see why she would still be on his mind in that way, but being that over-protective of her when they meet up again, no. It was cringy. Katia Washington’s story: I can see why you say that but I THINK the author was trying to bring light to how black kids are kidnapped (same for black women who are taken, trafficked SA, etc.) and you don’t really hear about it on the news especially years ago. I think Alexis was similar to Kilmonger by how she is upset that the magical world is doing nothing while these kids are being kidnapped and the regular world is doing nothing. In Black Panther, they had the means to help Black people but didn’t do anything. I think if we kept focusing on more than one kid, it will really take away from the story and focus too much on Alexis. I see where you are coming from but I don’t think she was the only one assaulted, just the only one mentioned. And for the sake of an already too long book, that was enough at least for me lol. Edited: BUT the author could've maybe had Alexis bring up more kids in that one scene who were also kidnapped and not just Katia. But overall, I am disappointed with this book. Even as a black woman, I would’ve rather focused on the world building. All of the culture references and stuff just took me out of the book and I hate that for fantasy. I was looking forward to this since we had a black male main character with magical powers. And I couldn’t stand him! Everything was just obvious. I hated that this was compared to Harry Potter. And I graduated from an HBCU. My classes were not like that but there were certain organizations that would host events like this around campus. It was like he copied from Hilman College on a Different World. I still recommend that people read and get their own opinion on it. They can have my copy cause I don't plan to read it again lol Enjoyed watching your video and your views on this book. 😁

"they can heal diabetes?!?!" GIRL WHATTTT

The perfect magic system is right there in the name😭 Rootwork (or at least a factionalized but respectful representation of it) would’ve been perfect to build upon in that kind of story

I had to rewind the video to make sure I heard correctly. They can magically cure diabetes? As someone with an older brother who has Type 2 diabetes, nothing infuriates me more in a book or movie as a magical cure for incurable illnesses or handicaps just for the sake of the plot. That's why I refuse to watch 'Thor: Love and Thunder.' As a two-time cancer survivor, and for the other reasons mentioned here, I definitely won't be reading this.😡

My issue with characters like Malik, where you're meant to root for them, but they're so obviously bad and terrible, is that it's not just the character that's a bad person. The author wanting you to root for the character that does and thinks terrible things, shows you exactly that the author also does and thinks that that kind of behavior is acceptable. Malik is just the author.

If all of these people are getting their books published then I know I can. From movies and books the writing is bad and it’s annoying.

Wow, this book was on my TBR... still is cause while I do hold your criticisims as valid I would like to form an opinion for myself, but I'm grateful to have some warning in advance. It's disappointing to hear that the worldbuilding is rather shoddy in this book because that is incredibly important to me when it comes to fantasy books. I has have a particular pet peeve when authors entice readers with a magical school but don't put any work into building the actual school, as shitty a person as Joann is she at least put in the effort to develop a cirriculum, professors, rules, etc. for her magical academy.

i'm SO curious to know what you think of Five Broken Blades. there's such a weird blend of misogyny and shitty girlboss feminism all crammed into a genuinely terrible story

I watched some black reviewers review this book, and some of them actually thought at first the guy who wrote it was a white guy and not really a black guy. That’s how badly written this is. It’s like he was trying to make a caricature of what a black man would be. It’s wild.

Uh… as someone who was really excited when I saw the book announcement, this is the last thing I expected. The author made the ‘romance’ sound like a cute friends to lovers. The misogyny getting through editors is odd. I think it sounds like it was acquired because of what they could market it to be. Legendborn where? Something I read was that the book had realistic dialogue by a lot of people. Not them bringing my Bonnie Bennett into this nonsense 😢 I want to read now 😂

Hi, I'm new here. Happened to see this video on my home page, and I was interested because I recently saved this book for as a future purchase (or to look further into before purchasing) on Amazon. The cover and blurb really looked engaging. My thoughts before watching your video and only reading the description: Damn, that's really disappointing. Kinda already wanting to remove it from my list on Amazon. But I'll watch in full before deciding anything. Edit after watching: Yea Imma go ahead and delete this book from my list. If all the slut shaming and accusing the love interest of hooking up with other guys is as frequent and intense as you make it out to be, this is both an MC and an author that I'll never be able to support. Plus the "I could've said something so much worse. Aren't you proud of me that I didn't?" Plus world building being probably the most important thing to me in fiction. Plus me being gay and simply not wanting to listen to some horny straight boy talk about tits all day. Yea.... It's gonna be a "Hell to the F no" from me. And it has such great reviews too. What a shame.

This was a book I was following and rooting for. Thanks for this honest review. I might check this book out in the future but it's far lower on my tbr now.

The main issue isn't that a character has suffered, or gone through trauma, we connect better with characters whose pain we see, but it's when it feels exploitative that it makes my skin crawl. There's nothing inherently wrong with a character, male or female, going through hell, as long as it serves the story and makes sense. But if it's done because you feel the writer just enjoyed it, then I find it slimy. A good example would be a game of thrones (book), Daenerys goes through a lot at the start, but it fits the harsh world, and ultimately becomes part of her journey into becoming a queen.

The point you're talking about, of being locked into the adventure, is usually called "accepting the call", following up the "call to adventure"

I haven't read this book and it wasn't on my radar but as far as the magic system goes (and even some other elements) it sounds like it was maybe trying to emulate Akata Witch or The Scholomance series - but forgot to include the very needed important limitations. And based on your description of the book I probably won't pick it up, the "homophobia" bit sounded like it could actually be a good diving board for character growth (you know - maybe he could introspect on WHY the first thought in his head was so judgmental of something that doesn't affect him; instead of patting himself on the back for having the foresight to just filter himself from saying it out loud) buuuut my time on this Earth is limited and books are many so this one is a pass for me.

I got an ARC of this book and though I tend to leave negative reviews off of Goodreads for books that haven't debuted yet, I couldn't help but rate this book 1 star when I finished it. Excited to get into this video and see if we had overlapping opinions on points such as homophobia and sexism.

“I Cheerfully Refuse” was a recent release that I was looking forward to (not fantasy) but when I read it, I was disappointed by the deployment of the “murdering a woman as the inciting incident of the plot” device. I’m reluctant to pick up new books from men generally but I was drawn enough to the genre that I thought I could deal with it but… sigh.

Well I'm not reading this, thank you, I literally only read woman lead books, and have only recently thought of going out of my comfort zone to read books with male leads, (that aren't queer) and homophobia and misogyny, are literal triggers for me, so I probably would have felt terrible after reading this book, so thank you for this.

😂😂😂 the miraculous mention lmao I'm subscribing

I've literally never heard anyone else say regular degular. I say it all the time and people think I'm crazy for it. I was smiling so big when you said it. 😁

Just a light comment: I enjoyed the book even as a Black gay man. I didn’t find it heavily homophobic or anything because realistically that’s how a lot of ppl especially in AL interact and talk. I personally think it’d been better if he changed the date and time to be a few years ago to make the dialogue less cringe, but I enjoyed the realism because I know a lot of Malik’s and have taught a lot of Malik’s and I think that they should be able to see themselves in fiction. Not saying that you are, but my fear after reading this book would be that Black boy characters depicted this way wouldn’t be understood or praised. I taught so many boys who want to see themselves in fantasy who act, speak and navigate like Malik; so this type of representation is great in my opinion and I’m just happy to see young Black boys excited to read again. Again before anyone tries to attack me, this aint an attack on her or anyone’s opinions, im just giving my insight.

The book cover is so beautiful, love the art. Too bad the story aint it, if not this could look so pretty on my shelf

This is off topic but have you read We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal? If so, would you make a review on it please. I’m obsessed with these books but no one I know has read them 🥲.

37:05 sorry but for clarification did Malik call his roommate’s lover a homophobic slur????????????? in 2024????????????????????

i actually dnf this book, i did not even get far 🤷‍♀literally he was on the way to grandmas house when i stopped. I could not get into it and was too fast paced for me. Could not even connect to the characters, i felt like i was supposed to be feeling stuff but did not. I felt bad about dnf-ing too 😢

A lot of magick systems (a great ex of this is The Ravens) feel like kids playing pretend and arguing abt their abilities and contradicting each other lol

15:50 sorry they can WHAT???? i know i should wait until the end of the video to comment but that pisses me off so much if your fantasy world can just ~*~heal~*~ disabilities i am NOT a fan

Love your makeup!

you’re so funny and i love your commentary!

Great review. Thank you.

Some people hype down the importance of a power system but i truly feel like after the plot and themes . A power system is the most important part of a fantasy . The power system decides the rest of the world building. This and harry potter are perfect examples of why it's so important. If you don't fully know what can happen in the world . You can't build the world

Never read this book, but it has been recommended to me through Goodreads. So this was interesting to watch regardless, thanks for putting your thoughts out there.

This is why I'm so careful about books written by men ESPECIALLY fantasy. I had a bad feeling on the book just by looking at it. I wanted to add it to my tbr to give more male fantasy authors a chance (the ones ive seen before were absolutely horrendous and sexualized women grossly and portrayed sleeping with infantilized women🤮) BUTTT again...I just had a bad feeling about this one. Everytime I see it on my recommended page I would feel bad for not adding it to my tbr, especially since it was a fellow black author (who often have a harder time being treated right in the industry). Wow am I glad you made this video. Thank goodness my gut feeling was right. I knew SOMETHING about this would be putting women down in some way, I just knew it. UGH. Wow am I glad you made this video cus I might've eventually caved in and read this. The only male authors I even trust rn are RIck Riordan and Brandon Sanderson. Wow. My "bias" is not for no reason. I'm so sick of this nonsense.

I held off for the longest but bit the bullet because I am riding the legendborn/amari high and had hoped I found another black focused magical book -- should have listened to my gut. returning this asap. appreciate your in depth review, you helped me avoid some triggering content. subscribing :)

As a black woman, I respect your opinion on this book from a non black perspective. From what I’m hearing about, this book as some problematic elements that are actually present in the black community (misogynoir, homophobia, queerphobia. etc) Im all for more fantasy characters that look like me and share similar cultures but this ain’t it. Hold up, did Malik actually call his roommate the f slur? 😬 If so, ouch, especially it being it blatant in this time.

There is a conversation to be had about people holding Black male authors to standards that they don’t hold white male authors to. This was on my tbr, so I’m disappointed to hear this. Someone else said it best, misogyny can exist in books, but how it’s addressed is important. Was the author being misogynistic or was the book about misogyny? That’s my biggest question for anyone who has read it. Same thing was said for “The Rage of Dragons”. Which is why I’m hesitant towards reading it. I also find it distasteful to give new poc authors bad reviews-when the industry refuses to even publish our books.

This is a very genuine question that i have that relates to being a male writer. At the end of my story i wanted one of the main characters to die tragically, it becomes a main story motivator for the rest of the series, and shows the cycle she was born into with the family she has. Question being, who would i represent that in a way that would come off appropiate and not taken out of context from the original intentions due to me being a male writer and screwing it up. I cant lie i get really scared to write women characters even though i probably could and i really wanna do this story justice and make her a great character with a tragic end

If you want a GOOD YA fantasy book with a Black hero/heroine read Legendborn, Blood Scion, and Children of Blood and Bone

13:59 I can’t stop laughing send help bc no this caught me SO OFF GUARD And how would Nord VPN factor into this please I NEED to know. I actually want a book about this

I think I found a new book tuber I like! FINALLY!

All I've seen are positive reviews of this book. Thank you for making this and making me not feel crazy! The portrayal of women and black women in particular made me sick

You deserve more subs!

The first book that was a major disappointment for me was Ender's Game because I thought the premise sounded interesting but right of the bat, every single character including Ender are annoying as Hell. It doesn't help that there's sexism as well that is never meaningfully addressed: his sister being too "gentle" and having to mother him later and the comment about women being behind in "evolution" for why there's only one girl in space (and she's a pos too)-and those are the only girls besides his mother who is not important. Ender was such an annoying character all the way through and I doubt the author has ever met children because none of them act like a child and there's a lot of nudity involving 4 year olds for some reason.

I have the Satisfiction version of this book it’s very pretty… but I still haven’t actually read pass the first chapter of the book because I get distracted by other things and I kinda have a feeling how ill feel about it so I’ve just been putting it off I’ll get there eventually though

I am so glad I did not pick up this book. If I did so I would have cried.Thank you for your review. 😭

Oooh you mentioned legendborn i love legendborn!!!

The feeling you're describing in the intro is exactly how I felt with Babel!!! Truly the worst feeling :(

What is your advice for writer to create a believable and inspire female characters?

Hey! I LOVE your critical and objective review of a fantasy genre story. *Do you accept PAID offers to be a beta reader?* I’m part of a writing group, but as a writer who primarily only writes Black queer fantasy/romantasy it would be awesome to have someone take a critical eye on the plot holes of world building, character development, and other continuity errors. I pride myself as an ADEQUATE editor of my work, but the problem is when you are so close to your own work-no matter how much time away or distance you think you’ve taken-you will miss some things. Look forward to your next videos! I’m watching earlier videos. Also-I’m going to listen to this audiobook to form my own opinion; your review has helped me temper my expectations ☺️

This is actually a huge reason I don’t immediately jump for joy when a book is marketed for “representation” first despite it being a top priority for me. Many (not all!) writers who gun for seeing their own representation as heroes don’t do a lot of legwork to foster healthy character growth and inclusivity across the board, and often neglect strong storytelling themes that lends itself to belonging and fairness, especially men.

Would you say the MC is written as a Mary Sue?

I agree with all these points. Both my hopes and my excitement were high for this story, but the execution simply fell flat for me.

Oh wow. I regret pre-ordering this

Interesting…

I bought this from a used bookstore and immediately turned it when I finished. I gave it a two. As you said the magic system made no damn sense and we kept hearing about Malik needing to learn how to use his powers properly but we were never told how any of this shit was supposed to work. Which is why the climactic fight at the end meant nothing because I could barely picture what the hell was going on . I also hated the romance between Malik and Alexis. We’re told constantly about their connection when they were seven but in present day, they have no chemistry and no connection aside from their past. And him being possessive was annoying (but he’s 17 so I’ll give him some slack). I also couldn’t connect to any of the characters. So all the “twists” at the end of the book about who was betraying who meant nothing because these characters were barely developed to begin with so who cares if they suddenly “switch sides.” With all that being said, I didn’t really find this book especially misogynistic or homophobic especially compared to other popular YA books.

Aw this was in my TBR list. See, this is the reason why i dont read books written by men that much anymore

You should checkout my books. Great video and interesting insights. ❤

What’s “dickmatized” mean? Is it really what I think?!

I agree with everything you said about the world building and the magic system but you lost me at the misogyny 😅. I think you are exaggerating. Someone below explained his fixation on her already and I agree. She was the only magic user he knew and she made an impact so of course he would be fixating on her. Also, Malik is 17 and didn’t grow up in a loving house where he saw examples of non toxic and healthy relationships. Teens get jealous and say hurtful things like, “Are you smashing…” I don’t know if I would call that slut shaming. They are 17 and teens comment on girl’s bodies. He also commented on their beautiful skin and hair. I see men commenting on women’s bodies in romance books and fantasy books all the time and we don’t see that as misogyny. I’m Black and missing and exploited black girls is a HUGE issue in the Black community and I’m glad he put it in his book. I think the issue was poor writing; it was simply underdeveloped. The same thing with Alexis getting revenge on the killers. I think Williams was using the theme of Magic can corrupt and consume some with power. Once again, I think it was poor writing and he dropped this storyline. As far as the homophobia, once again, homophobia is an issue among Black men and boys. The fact that he became genuine friends with the queer characters showed some growth. Could there have been an inner monologue about not being creeped out? Sure but I wouldn’t call this book homophobic. The magic was passed down through ancestry. And no one wanted to adopt Malik because they knew he killed people.

the sign language bit was def nitpicky

I’m confused Why didn’t you just say Stop mistreating characters for plot

Dear authors, mistreat whoever you want in your plot❤ Freedom of Speech & Press. Be as creative as you’d like. Art has the right to make people uncomfortable

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Just make the guy a 10000 year old vampire chasing after yooung teens who he will out-live and a-bus-e and man ipulate all trouhhout the book. Just mKe sure he is very hot.

I'm enjoying your review but I'm 20 minutes into your video and still no mention of "mistreating women for the plot", as your title promises.

Can we just stop abusing ALL characters for plots? Especially women, yeah, but abuse and torture fucking sucks and is lame, especially if its only done for the sake of the plot needing to progress. If a character has a reason to torture someone, of which there are VERY few, then i. . . Guess? But overall, find better ways to traumatize characters that don’t involve needless torture and assault.

You should talk about books that are misandrist, biased and over generalize men. There is many books, shows and media that are sexist towards men, but it's barely called out. I'm keeping it fair, equally represent mistreatment of both genders. And if someone thinks men can't go through it, their most likely a misandrist. Just like men who are horrible towards women, they are a misogynist.

did not finish the video yet, but jk rowling's bigotry wont ever stop me from enjoying the franchise. The story and the world building is good, doesnt matter who wrote it.

The description of the world building and magic reminds me of my experience with Infinity Alchemist. It’s been a couple months since I read it so some details are fuzzy now, but it was kinda of like that where it’s like nothing makes sense. The main characters are all non-white and LGBT and there’s this weird piece of lore where it’s like the MC Ash is a trans man because in most of his past lives, he was a man, and I guess that’s kind of interesting, but that whole detail wasn’t really important and nothing else about past lives was explained or relevant to anything. It was so infuriating but the worst part was how all the MCs were awful people. Being flawed is one thing but Ramsay literally blackmailed Ash and was like “well if you wanna call it that” like what do you mean, you just described blackmail. Probably the most scathing review I’ve ever written and based on the first 18 minutes of this video, definitely a hard pass, but I thank you for your service (saving at least one person from the experience of this book) 🫡