Best-selling author Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Virtue and Vengeance isn’t set to be released until December 3, but the author is giving ESSENCE an exclusive look at the stunning cover of her upcoming book.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the follow-up to 2018’s Children of Blood and Bone, one of last year’s biggest young adult fantasy novels.
The second novel in Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, Children of Virtue and Vengeance expands on the themes presented in the first book.
“What I’m really most excited about is groups. I love groups and [exploring] group dynamics,” Adeyemi told ESSENCE. “I just love being able to have more characters to play off with and explore different things with.”
“For me, as a human, Children of Blood and Bone was really painful. And it was…all my stories are going to be painful but Children of Blood and Bone was a lot of personal pain. With Children of Virtue and Vengeance, I got to step back.”
Finding the perfect cover for Children of Virtue and Vengeance was a long process for Adeyemi, whose love of art is clear through our lively conversation.
“The whole story of Children of Blood and Bone came from me seeing two pieces of Black art, eight months apart. They were basically the first pieces of black art I had ever seen in my life.”
Adeyemi said it was important that the cover of her book
Still, finding the right artist for the job wasn’t easy but Adeyemi eventually stumbled upon artist Sarah Jones, whose work the author calls “powerful.”
“I gave Macmillan a list of artists. And I said, ‘Sarah Jones is my top choice.’ And they contacted her,” Adeyemi said. “[Her work] was so black and it was so elegant, and it was so powerful, and it was so majestic, and that’s everything I wanted for Zélie.”