Cross-media recommendations across film, TV, games, books & music — picked by taste.
Children of Blood and Bone follows Zélie Adebola, a young maji whose people — once gifted with power over fire, water, and souls — were massacred when a ruthless king outlawed magic across Orïsha. Stripped of their identity and left to live as second-class citizens, the maji now survive under brutal suppression. What the book signals as a taste: young protagonists fighting systems of erasure, worlds where supernatural power is a political act, and stories where reclaiming identity is inseparable from resistance.
Children of Blood and Bone is a 2018 young adult romantic fantasy novel by Nigerian-American novelist Tomi Adeyemi. The book, Adeyemi's debut novel and the first in her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, follows heroine Zélie Adebola as she attempts to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha, following the ruling class kosidáns' brutal suppression of the class of magic practitioners Zélie belongs to, the maji.
From the Wikipedia article Children_of_Blood_and_Bone, available under CC BY-SA.
Film
Children of Blood and Bone
Zelie and allies — including the king's own children — fight back against his brutal rule.
Film
The Book of Sijjin & Illiyyin
A child who watched her parents die to a mysterious force grows up branded an outcast carrying a dark legacy.
Film
Oracle
A young woman takes a job at a property with a traumatic history and finds her childhood nightmares are connected to the evil there.
Film
The Dark
A daughter vanishes into mysterious forces, echoing the sudden, inexplicable loss at the heart of Orïsha's story.
Film
Sea Prince and the Fire Child
Children of rival elemental kingdoms defy the inherited enmity between fire and water to find each other.
Film
Bridge of Dragons
A princess escapes an oppressive ruler's arranged grip with the help of an unlikely protector.
Series
Shadow and Bone
A young soldier discovers a rare power in a world where that power makes her a target for dangerous forces.
Series
See
Twins born with the mythic ability to see are hunted by a queen who sees them as a threat to her rule.
Series
Blood and Bones of the Disowned Daughter
A disowned daughter struggles with betrayal, family secrets, and her fight for redemption.
Series
DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR
Students hiding extraordinary, dangerous natures navigate a world that would turn on them if the truth emerged.
Series
Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World
Two young combatants from warring factions — one rooted in power, one in magic — meet across enemy lines.
Series
Genma Wars: Eve of Mythology
An evil ruler's obsession with fathering a magically gifted heir drives conflict as monsters threaten all of humanity.
Game
Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars
Gifted young people wielding divine powers stand as the only defense against monsters threatening their world.
Game
Black Book
A young sorceress who gave herself to dark forces navigates a haunting world layered with hidden secrets.
Game
Dark Elf
A teenager who survived catastrophe journeys onward alongside a dark elf in a world shaped by loss.
Game
Child of Light
A girl wakes in a mythical world far from home and must find her footing amid forces beyond her understanding.
Game
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows
Magic is political power in a city where only those with the right masks — and the right deeds — hold authority.
Game
Blacktail
A teenage girl accused of forbidden power is cast out and must reclaim her identity through that very power.
Book
Daughter of the Blood
An ancient prophecy foretells a new queen of immense power arriving into a world already shaped by dark rulers.
Book
Amber and Blood
A figure of immense, dangerous power must be guarded and escorted through a world unprepared for what she carries.
Book
The Midnight Star
A young queen who turned suffering into power now rules — but victory and darkness are difficult to separate.
Book
The Serpent & the Wings of Night
An outsider in a world built to destroy her enters a deadly tournament as her only path to real standing.
Book
Millie Maven and the white sword
An orphaned girl discovers she has extraordinary gifts after crossing into a mysterious world beyond her own.
If you want more young women navigating worlds where power is suppressed and reclaimed, try The Midnight Star (a queen who weaponised her suffering) or The Serpent & the Wings of Night (an outsider fighting a death goddess's tournament for the right to exist).
Shadow and Bone is the closest match — a young soldier with a rare, dangerous power in a world where that power makes her a political target. Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World also pairs magic and warring factions around two young protagonists from opposite sides.
Blacktail and Masquerada: Songs and Shadows both centre young outcasts whose forbidden power is both a weapon and a burden — Blacktail with a girl expelled for witchcraft, Masquerada in a city where magic is the only true currency of authority.