Title: Raybearer
Author: Jordan Ifueko
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: August 18th 2020 by Amulet Books
Rating: ★★★★★
Pages: 343 not including glossary
Audiobook length: 13 hours 48 minutes
Format: Ebook from Hoopla and Audiobook from OverDrive
This YA Novel is about a young girl named Tarisai, raised in isolation yearning for the love of family due to her always absent mother called The Lady. Sent off as a child to become the Crown Prince’s Council of 11. In a world with beautiful fairies, incredible abilities, and legendary scenery, will Tarisai be able to join the Council even under a curse ordering her to kill her best friend, the crown prince? Or can one truly overcome their fate? Which love is more important the one your inherit or the one you choose?
This is a wonderful novel written with absolute pose and grace. I devoured it so quickly, I immediately picked it backup just to start the journey all over again.
Finally a Melanated Young Adult Fantasy that is not full of BS and overwhelming trauma. Don’t get me wrong this book will tug at your heart strings, but in a way that is so cleverly organic and rich to any reader. Now for the deets!
Trigger Warnings for this book: Emotional Abuse, death of children and sexual abuse.
What I loved:
- All the details the details did I mention the details!
“ Besides the figs, we’ve got fried chin chin dough. And palm wine”
“hundreds of braids interwoven with soft wool yarn and burned at the ends so the plaits wouldn’t unravel.”
This book was brimmed with beautiful Nigerian fashion, hairstyles and food. I am determined to make some of the food mentioned in this book. Stay tune for that.
- Realistic relationships. Not for one moment did I not buy these relationships. If anything they were a breathe of fresh air. The book leads you to believe that a certain couple are romantically involved then come to find out they have a different kind of love for each other that just did it for me.
- Social Commentary:
“…Justice is not about being fair. It is about keeping order.”
When you we look at all the things that have happen in the world in just 2020. Ponder deeply on these words. Should order out weigh justice? Can we live in a world where order and justice are one and the same? This books challenges us to answer this for ourselves as the characters explore this conundrum.
I absolutely adored this book and I high recommend you give it a read or even a listen.
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