Salon.com⁠84%

The painful cost of bringing “Children of Blood and Bone” to screen ⁠36%

By Melanie McFarland⁠73%

7/31/2026, 10:04:30 AM

BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Biased Writer Voice, Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, and Red Herring, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 27.8% saturation with 101 hits. Analysis detected 694 faulty-reasoning hits from 363 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 37.3% and a BS Rank of ⁠36% (17,145 of 26,654 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 64.30% of the article peer group.

My first reaction to the trailer for “Children of Blood and Bone,” Paramount’s lush adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling 2018 young adult novel , was that I buzzed with excitement. 
My second reaction? 
Why must good things come at a cost? 
Adeyemi’s novels, inspired by West African mythology, follow the adventures of Zélie, played by Thuso Mbedu , on her quest to restore magic to the kingdom of Orïsha. 
“Children of Blood and Bone” reteams Mbedu with “ The Woman King ” co-stars Lashana Lynch and Viola Davis , and also features Cynthia Erivo , Regina King , Amandla Stenberg and Idris Elba . 
Adeyemi co-wrote the script with director Gina Prince-Bythewood and shared in an Instagram reel posted on Wednesday that she worked on the film “to make it a little better for us to be alive.” 
She also described the experience as “the worst thing I have ever had to live through.” 
Want more from culture than just the latest trend? 
The Swell highlights art made to last. 
“Even though it feels awful to share this, it’s better to share it and have it known and understood before I see a bunch of you for this new book,” Adeyemi said, referring to her upcoming tour for “The Siren,” which releases in September. 
“I never want to hear about this project again.” 
When authors divorce themselves from film versions of their work, it’s usually a matter of creative disagreement. 
But Adeyemi describes suffering somatic pain and panic attacks, alleging she is still being antagonized behind the scenes. 
To echo what former Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said in a Substack post , an “Odyssey”-obsessed moment rife with cultural erasure demands to be countered by popular culture built on the civilizational myths, heroes and heroines of the Black diaspora. 
“Children of Blood and Bone” is one way of doing that. 
How unnerving that its creation scarred its creator. 
“Children of Blood and Bone” debuts in theaters on Jan. 
15, 2027. 
Why Black fantasy castings anger racists 
The “Odyssey” casting furor obscures a deeper history 
Idris Elba hijacks the typical hero role 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 9.9%Melanie McFarland: 2.7%Salon: 4.8%Confirmation Bias9.9%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.1%Salon: 0.3%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 5.0%Melanie McFarland: 2.9%Salon: 3.1%Availability Heuristic5.0%This article: 4.7%Melanie McFarland: 1.8%Salon: 1.0%Representativeness Heuristic4.7%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 1.5%Salon: 0.8%Hindsight Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.5%Salon: 1.6%Overconfidence Bias0.0%This article: 4.4%Melanie McFarland: 2.5%Salon: 6.5%Framing Effect4.4%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.3%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.3%Status Quo Bias0.0%This article: 3.3%Melanie McFarland: 0.3%Salon: 0.2%Sunk Cost Effect3.3%This article: 8.3%Melanie McFarland: 1.9%Salon: 1.3%Optimism Bias8.3%This article: 2.2%Melanie McFarland: 0.9%Salon: 1.9%Pessimism Bias2.2%This article: 27.8%Melanie McFarland: 8.2%Salon: 10.1%Negativity Bias27.8%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.4%Salon: 0.7%Self-Serving Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 1.5%Salon: 2.0%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.1%Salon: 0.2%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 11.3%Melanie McFarland: 1.6%Salon: 1.7%In-Group Bias11.3%This article: 1.7%Melanie McFarland: 1.7%Salon: 1.2%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias1.7%This article: 3.0%Melanie McFarland: 3.2%Salon: 2.0%Halo Effect3.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 1.3%Salon: 0.6%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.0%Salon: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 1.0%Salon: 1.1%Recency Bias0.0%This article: 8.3%Melanie McFarland: 0.7%Salon: 0.4%Primacy Effect8.3%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.1%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 2.2%Salon: 3.2%Ad Hominem0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.6%Salon: 1.1%Straw Man0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 2.1%Salon: 2.8%Appeal to Authority0.0%This article: 5.2%Melanie McFarland: 1.3%Salon: 2.0%False Dilemma5.2%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.4%Salon: 1.3%Slippery Slope0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 4.7%Melanie McFarland: 9.9%Salon: 9.4%Hasty Generalization4.7%This article: 13.5%Melanie McFarland: 0.5%Salon: 0.2%Red Herring13.5%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.4%Salon: 0.5%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 11.3%Melanie McFarland: 4.6%Salon: 5.3%Appeal to Emotion11.3%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.4%Salon: 1.2%Begging the Question0.0%This article: 2.2%Melanie McFarland: 1.8%Salon: 2.1%Post Hoc (False Cause)2.2%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.1%Salon: 0.2%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 12.1%Melanie McFarland: 0.4%Salon: 0.5%Burden of Proof12.1%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.2%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.9%Salon: 0.6%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 4.4%Melanie McFarland: 2.1%Salon: 2.6%Anecdotal4.4%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.1%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 1.9%Melanie McFarland: 0.9%Salon: 1.2%Ambiguity (Equivocation)1.9%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.0%Salon: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.1%Salon: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.1%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.0%Salon: 0.1%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.0%Salon: 0.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 4.4%Melanie McFarland: 1.8%Salon: 1.7%Unattributed Quote4.4%This article: 1.7%Melanie McFarland: 1.3%Salon: 1.3%Quote-first Misdirection1.7%This article: 14.6%Melanie McFarland: 14.0%Salon: 13.5%Biased Writer Voice14.6%This article: 11.3%Melanie McFarland: 1.6%Salon: 2.2%Indoctrination11.3%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 3.0%Salon: 6.1%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Melanie McFarland: 0.2%Salon: 0.2%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 14.0%Melanie McFarland: 1.3%Salon: 1.5%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…14.0%

363 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers32%attributed speech246writer words
Selected voice

Idris Elba

100%flagged-word coverage
7 attributed words6.0% of attributed speech65% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Biased Writer Voice+81.3 ptsWriter: 18.7%Idris Elba: 100.0%100.0%Indoctrination-16.7 ptsWriter: 16.7%Idris Elba: 0.0%0.0%Quote-first Misdirection-2.4 ptsWriter: 2.4%Idris Elba: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

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Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.