Books like Children of Blood and Bone

Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes takes place in a military empire inspired by ancient Rome, alternating between Laia, a slave girl who agrees to spy for the resistance in exchange for her brother's rescue, and Elias, the empire's top soldier who wants to escape the brutal system he serves. Like Children of Blood and Bone, the novel features a society built on the systematic oppression of one group by another, and both books use fantasy to examine how violence becomes normalized and how individuals find the courage to resist it.

Tahir writes action sequences with visceral clarity, and the dual narrative structure gives readers access to both sides of the conflict in ways that complicate simple hero-villain dynamics. Adeyemi has cited Tahir as a major influence, and the resonance between the two books is clear: both feature young women forced into dangerous missions by circumstances beyond their control, and both refuse to pretend that resistance comes without cost.

An Ember in the Ashes is the first of four books, and each installment raises the stakes and deepens the world.

Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows assembles a crew of six teenage outcasts for an impossible heist in a fantasy world inspired by the Dutch Golden Age. Kaz Brekker, a criminal mastermind from the slums, leads a sharpshooter, a spy, a runaway, a demolitions expert, and a Grisha soldier into a fortress that has never been breached.

Like Children of Blood and Bone, the novel features young characters from marginalized backgrounds using their skills and solidarity to take on systems far more powerful than themselves. Bardugo writes ensemble dynamics with precision, giving each character a distinct voice, backstory, and set of abilities, and the heist structure keeps the pacing relentless.

Both books treat magic as a source of both power and vulnerability, and both show how governments weaponize fear of magical people to maintain control. Six of Crows is more focused on strategy and less on mythology than Children of Blood and Bone, but readers who love Zelie's fierceness will find kindred spirits in Bardugo's crew of thieves and fighters.

S.A. Chakraborty's The City of Brass follows Nahri, a con artist in eighteenth-century Cairo who accidentally summons a djinn warrior and is drawn into the hidden city of Daevabad, where djinn politics threaten to ignite centuries-old conflicts.

Like Children of Blood and Bone, the novel builds its fantasy on non-Western mythology, drawing from Middle Eastern and Islamic traditions to create a world that feels both fresh and deeply rooted in cultural specificity. Chakraborty's Daevabad is populated by djinn tribes with distinct identities, histories, and grudges, mirroring the clans of maji in Adeyemi's Orisha. Both books feature heroines who discover they have more power than they realized and must navigate political landscapes where every alliance carries risk.

Chakraborty writes political intrigue with the same complexity that Adeyemi brings to the tensions between diviners, nobles, and the monarchy, and both novels refuse to reduce their conflicts to simple good-versus-evil binaries. The City of Brass is the first of a trilogy that grows richer with each book.

Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone introduces Alina Starkov, an orphaned mapmaker in a Russia-inspired fantasy nation who discovers she possesses a rare power that could save her country from a swath of darkness called the Shadow Fold. Like Zelie in Children of Blood and Bone, Alina is thrust into a world of magical politics she did not know existed and must decide who to trust among powerful figures with their own agendas.

Bardugo's Grisha, soldiers who wield elemental magic, face prejudice and exploitation from the non-magical population, echoing the persecution of diviners in Adeyemi's world. The Darkling, Alina's enigmatic mentor, provides the kind of morally complex antagonist that gives young adult fantasy its depth, and his relationship with Alina mirrors the complicated power dynamics between Zelie and Inan.

Shadow and Bone builds its Russian-inspired setting with cultural specificity that readers of Children of Blood and Bone will appreciate, and the trilogy expands its world and its stakes with each volume.

Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games drops Katniss Everdeen into an annual televised death match where twenty-four teenagers from the impoverished districts of Panem must fight to the death for the entertainment of the ruling Capitol. Like Children of Blood and Bone, the novel features a young heroine from an oppressed community who becomes a symbol of resistance against a regime that has systematically stripped her people of their power and dignity.

Collins writes action with tight precision, and Katniss's strategic thinking under pressure mirrors Zelie's combination of raw power and tactical intelligence. Both books use their fantastical settings to address real-world issues of inequality, state violence, and the responsibilities that come with becoming a figurehead for a cause larger than yourself.

The Hunger Games trilogy tracks Katniss from reluctant survivor to reluctant revolutionary, a character arc that resonates with Zelie's own transformation from a girl trying to survive to a young woman fighting for her people's future. Collins's spare prose and relentless pacing make the trilogy essential reading for fans of action-driven YA.

Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass introduces Celaena Sardothien, an imprisoned assassin who is offered freedom if she can win a competition to become the king's personal champion. Like Zelie, Celaena is a fierce young woman forced to fight within a system that has taken everything from her, and both characters channel their anger and grief into action rather than submission.

Maas builds a world where magic has been banned by a tyrannical king, echoing the suppression of magic in Orisha, and both novels track the slow return of forbidden powers that threaten to overthrow the established order. The competition structure of the first book gives way to broader political conflict in the sequels, and Celaena's evolving understanding of her own identity and heritage mirrors Zelie's growing connection to her maji ancestry. Maas writes fight scenes with energy and weight, and the series expands dramatically in scope, eventually spanning multiple continents and connecting to a larger mythology.

Readers who love Zelie's combination of vulnerability and ferocity will find a natural companion in Celaena's story.

Pierce Brown's Red Rising is set on a future Mars where society is divided into color-coded castes, and Darrow, a miner from the lowest caste, infiltrates the ruling Gold class to bring down the system from within. Like Children of Blood and Bone, the novel is built on the premise that one group has seized power by systematically dehumanizing another, and both books follow protagonists who must learn to fight within the enemy's own institutions to have any chance of victory.

Brown writes action with fierce intensity, and Darrow's strategic mind and capacity for violence make him a complex hero whose methods sometimes conflict with his ideals. Both novels refuse to simplify the dynamics of oppression, showing that the oppressed are not uniformly virtuous and the oppressors are not uniformly evil.

Red Rising is aimed at an older audience than Children of Blood and Bone, with more graphic violence and political complexity, but its core themes of resistance, sacrifice, and the personal cost of revolution connect directly to Adeyemi's work. The series runs six books and builds into one of the most ambitious science fiction sagas currently being published.