One of my favourite books I read last year, Saara just gets it. A beautiful world, great characters and addictive writing style. Cannot wait to read on.

🗣💬:
"𝙏𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙣, 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚"

👩🏾‍🏫 𝔾𝔼ℕℝ𝔼:
SFF / Queer

📄 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 ℂ𝕆𝕌ℕ𝕋:
502

✍️ ℙ𝕃𝕆𝕋:
The empire is ruled by blood: red-blooded Embers, blue-blooded Dusters and clear-blooded Ghostings. All will be shed in the coming battle for power.
The Aktibar – a set of trials held every ten years to find the next Ember rulers of the Empire – is about to begin.
All Embers can join but it requires great skill to win.
Sylah was destined to become Warden of Strength, forged as a weapon to change the Empire from within. Those dreams of a better future turned to dust when her family were brutally murdered.
But Sylah wasn’t made to sparkle, she was born to burn. And as the trials draw near it’s time for her to decide…will she rule the Empire or destroy it?

💭:
A stunning fantasy debut...one I have not read the likes of for a while (especially with modern fantasy which I'm typically not a fan of).
The character development, the subtle magic systems, the rules of social hierarchy and injustice, the relationships, the visuals and world building, the action...all chef's kiss!
Such a rich and detailed piece of storytelling!

Great African and Arab cultural representation but also very gory at times so be warned, some of it will literally turn your stomach!


Overall great great fun and I will definitely continue with the series!

I was super excited to delve into this African and Arabian inspired fantasy that explores a world divided by the colour of ones blood.

There are three blood types in the Empire. Red of the Embers, the ruling class. They have access to magic and complete control. Blue of the Dusters, the working class. They work on plantations and in factories and are treated as though less than human by the Embers. Clear of the Ghostings. They have their tongues cut out and their forearms cut off in penance for an uprising over 400 years ago.

First of all, the representation within this book is fantastic. Unless I'm mistaken every single character in this book is Black. There is also great LGBTQ+ representation, both in romantic and sexual relationships (enemies to lovers anyone?) and also in having transgender and non-binary/multi gendered people. And just to top it all off there is disability rep from the Ghosting characters who have been mutilated. However, they have developed their own language and have adapted their tools to work for them. Now I know that representation doesn't make a good book, but in a good book? Well it just makes it even better!

We follow a drug addicted woman who has red blood but was raised as though she was a Duster. She was supposed to be the chosen one, but things don't go her way and she misses her chance. She struggles with her addiction and also with her place in this society. She was raised to hate those with red blood, but that includes herself. We also follow a young woman living a life of plenty, the daughter of one of the most powerful women in the Empire. But she is hated by her mother, and lacks skills in the BloodWerk magic that other Embers can do. Finally, we follow another woman, this time one with transparent blood. She is a slave, as are all of her kin, but with how little the Embers notice her she is able to slip in and out of places she should never be. There is a lot more to her than meets the eye.

So not only is there the conflict present between the different classes of people, but there is the tidewind. It blows each night and is strong enough to rip the skin off of a person. If you get caught in it? You're dead. It used to follow a pattern, you could make sure you were inside on time. But lately? The tidewind has been getting more powerful, more unpredictable, and more dangerous.

I adored the character development within this book, it's pretty strong from two of our main characters and seeing their change and growth throughout the book is incredibly satisfying (as well as allowing us to learn more about this world along with them). I also need to know more about this world. I don't want to spoil anything but there are so many secrets partially revealed and mysteries to unravel and I just need the second book already!

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 10, Atmosphere: 8, Writing: 9, Plot: 9, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 9, and Enjoyment: 10 giving an average of 9 and a 5* rating!

Content warnings: addiction, violence, slavery, blood, classism, death, racism, torture, murder, child abuse, confinement, grief, ableism, alcoholism, emotional and physical abuse, genocide, police brutality, suicide attempt, colonisation.

If it wasn't already obvious, I adored this book. We have politics, characters, a slow burn romance, and fights for human rights along with a mystery about the rest of the world. I LOVE IT. Please let me know if you have read this or if you're thinking about it. Because I need to chat with people about this book!!!

The Final Strife has an interesting premise, a wonderful world and is backed by decent writing but falls short in all other aspects that made this a chore to read.

We enter a world whose people are segregated by the colour of their blood: Red (Embers), Blue (Dusters), Translucent (Ghostings). Embers are the ruling class, Dusters are the poor drudgery and Ghostings are essentially slaves who are dismembered in order to keep them subservient.
The Dusters concoct a plan to swap out Ember babies with their own Duster babies, in order to raise the Ember child with the mindset of a Duster and take the system down from within.

While this sounds like a great plan, its not executed nearly as well as it could have been, namely because of the glaring plot holes and the weak characterisation.
Why not find sympathetic adult Embers to aid your rebellion? As a consequence, those Embers could just raise sympathetic Ember children and have them takeover. Better yet, they could just make the change themselves! Theres another issue but that would include spoilers so i'll have to omit.

The biggest issue with this whole book is the characters. I (and the others in my readalong) had no emotional attachment to any of the characters who were a mixture of immature, annoying, childish and just plain stupid. Theyre meant to be 20 years old but act like children so it made nothing read true about why they acted they way they did.
Sylah is struggling with addiction which i didnt have much empathy for until the last few chapters and this was mainly because her initial motives werent set up correctly.

Anoor is a terrible caricature of an overprivileged white woman who discovers the error of her racist ways as soon as she gets a Black friend. It was all very cliches and shallow and i probably disliked her and her naivety the most.

The two main FMC as well as the secondary male characters were all a bit of a chore and if not for the ease of the writing - again which was good - i probably wouldnt have finished it.
The best of the bunch was a Ghosting named Hassa who was the only person with any real agency but even that was at a minimum.

There was some decent LGBTQIA+ rep but also some that felt a little forced. The sapphic element was fine but where others had been injected into the world seamlessly, the relationship between the two FMCs didnt feel as natural.

It sound contradictory to say someones writing is good while hating the story but while the author has a talent/skill for putting words together, the actual story she was weaving left a lot to be desired.

I enjoyed this, though not as much as I expected I would. There's a very fun subversion of the Chosen One trope, the worldbuilding is nicely done and with a couple very memorable elements, and the story incorporates and explores topics of oppression and class division well.

What I struggled with was the immaturity of the characters, which made it feel too much like reading a YA novel 😭 I found they got on my nerves a lot, but with time I did get a bit invested in both the slowburn romance and Anoor's success in the Aktibar, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. (Also: I adore a deadly magical competition, and with how much time was spent training for each trial it would've been nice to spend a little more time on the actual events themselves).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

A brand new fantasy series. I was excited to read this from the hype. I was pleasantly surprised, great world building.

Unfortunately my copy expired before getting the chance to read, but I’ve bought my copy and can’t wait to read and my review will be available on Goodreads upon completion. Thanks for the approval!

Thank you for an e-arc of this book. There is a lot of hype around this book even before I requested it on NetGalley and I was very curious. Unfortunately, this didn't impress me as much. The world building is unique and very brutal, I was surprised by some aspects of it. I believe it is wonderfully crafted.

Where it didn't work for me was the characters. I just felt that in such a brutal environment the characters will be more mature and some of their reactions were not what I would have expected.

I will try the second book for sure, but I don't have very high expectations, unfortunately.

amazing. show stopping. couldn't put it down. I read it on holiday and was consumed for days. Would recommend!

I DNFED(did not finish) this book. I couldn’t get into this book. It was not holding my interest. I didn’t care for the characters or what happened to them.

This was unfortunately a DNF for me: I was not in the place to read it at the time, I will try to give it another chance in the future.

An enjoyable read!
The Final Strife is set within a really interesting and believable world. The magic is interesting and I'd have loved further exploration of it. The characters are rich and many have quite a journey although I didn't find myself connecting to a degree that I'd be upset if something bad happened to them. The author sets this up nicely for the sequel and I'll definitely be giving it a read.

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is a fantasy novel, set in a world where the colour of your blood decides your rank in society.

The setting is well crafted, with characters that were believable. The society is well thought about.

I enjoyed the story and the way it was written.   

The second book in this sequence came out in May, so that's one for me to be on the lookout for!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins.

Well that was in interesting one, it took me a while to get into and I thought it would take me a while to finish it, but once you get into it you don't want to stop, I think it was building into the rest of the series and I'm intrigued to see where it goes now after the ending....

Luckily I won't have long to wait because I took so long to read this on netgalley, the second was out this year.... We shall see, I think I'll get into the next a lot quicker now. (Time to go buy it and see)

Gotta admit I love one of the MCs more than the other, I love Anoor, but I do have a weakness for watching chars terms grow into themselves, and she does this well. I'll be intrigued to see what happens to her now the most, but exploring with Sylah will probably be quite fun too in the next book!

Thank you for my eARC of this book. I loved the premise of this and so looked forward to it but, unfortunately, I couldn’t finish. It just felt so slow and dragged out at times that I didn’t want to pick it up so I gave up, I might try it on audio at another time!

This book was powerful, but not for the faint of heart. For one thing, the children of the lowest class are maimed at birth and are left disabled for the rest of their lives. This is not a light hearted book at all. If you're looking for a light, fun romp, look elsewhere.

I really enjoyed reading it though. It made the points about racism and classism in a really fascinating fantasy setting. The way the system was set up was both intriguing and well thought out. There were a few times I had questions about certain aspects of it, but all of them were answered by the end of the book.

I listened to the audio of this book and really liked the songs in it. They got stuck in my head a bit, but were really enjoyable. I don't know if they'd be so enjoyable in print form though because they were really long.

I would definitely advise the reader to be in the right headspace for this book, but I really did enjoy it and it made me think a lot.

I kept putting this one off, I think mostly due to the hype so I'm incredibly sorry for the late review.

I sadly ended up dnf-ing this one which I'm absolutely gutted about but I just struggled to get into the story and gel with these characters.

I really wanted to love this and I kept trying to give it a go but I just found myself not wanting to pick it up.

So sorry!

I didn't pick this up when it first came out and that was a ridiculous move on my part. This was a really good time! There was the right amount of comfortable tropes and story beats to keep the shape of the story in the back of your mind while you learn more about the world and magic.

We're introduced to Sylah, part of the would-be revolution (had her drive not been snuffed out years before with the killing of her family.) Years have passed but she's done anything other than process her feelings and is now worse for wear and aimless. Through her eyes, and those of her friends/enemies/frenimies, we get to understand their society and everyone's place in it and, as a result, why Sylah is now so lost.

I normally consider myself a character reader, but it's the society's history that had me most intrigued here, and the way that stories lose and gain their meaning. I don't fully know what to expect from the next book but I'm excited to see more of the history revealed and hope we can get a chance to feel the characters develop out further.

Very much looking forward to the next instalment!

I could not get into this book at all and I tried several times. It was just too much sci-fi, fantasy dystopia for me. It was nothing to do with the author or the writing it just wasn't something that grabbed my attention,

A really enjoyable read. Would have maybe liked a little bit more world building. However, enjoyed the characters and invested in what happens next