The Final Strife is a dystopian fantasy set in The Empire . Which is ruled by blood. There are three different types of blood in the Empire. Red is the blood of all those who are elite, they are born of magic and they like to rule by being in control. Then you have blue which is the blood of all the poor people in the city. Those who work and are born of the resistance and finally you have clear. Clear is the blood of all of the servants in the empire, those who have been crushed by the elites a d the poor of the empire.

Every ten years there are a set of games called the Aktibar. The point of the Aktibar is to find out who will be the next ruler of the empire. Everyone from each blood type can play and can win the games. You just have to have strength, knowledge, skill and ingenuity.

This is a really good dystopian fantasy novel. The premise of the story is good. You really like the characters and hope for their survival and their chances of winning. It is written in a gripping way and I really enjoyed it.







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Wardens’ Empire and the thirteen cities are brutally ruled by blood. The rulers Embers have red blood, underlings Dusters blue and Ghostings clear.

As wardens, Embers claimed their power and assembled the guilds to maintain order, prosperity and peace. Truth, duty, strength, knowledge. Empire!


So six trials were decided for each guild. Six for strength, six for duty, six for knowledge, six for truth. All across six mooncycles. Every ten years the Embers compete to find the best, among the red in Aktibar.


But there exists underground society, Sandstorm. In the Night of the Stolen they stole twelve children and disappeared into the beyond. As babes they were taken from their Ember families and set on a path to tear down the foundations of the empire. The Sandstorm crafted them into leaders with one purpose: to destroy the empire from within. They are the Stolen, born to Ember parents but made by Dusters.

After many years it seems that Sylah is the only survivor to make it out of the Night of the Stolen alive. Until something happens.

This is a fantasy novel at its best. Characters are great. Sylah, fierce heroine, addicted to dangerous drug and lost in her own world. Jond, another Stolen, haughty and beautiful. Anoor, adventurous and dreamy Duster and Hassa, crippled, caring and honorable Ghosting.

Narrative is fast-paced and full of twist and turns. Soon becomes obvious that blood doesn't define people or their virtues. Change can start off small.


The Final Strife is the first book of a trilogy and I look forward to another. Maybe we will explore beyond the sea...

Highly recommended to all fantasy lovers.

I will update the review with a link to our blog closer to publication date.
I'd like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

"Alone you are just one grain. Together you are the desert."

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in return for my honest review.

Holy. Sh*t. This book is incredible?

First off, the world-building is so intricate, creative and original. Everything has been thought of, from the magical system to culture and class and societal norms. There's no huge info dump at the beginning and instead we discover more and more about the world as we read along.

A society divided by blood, those on the bottom rung mutilated and forced into servitude - Ghostings, with their clear blood. The elite Embers are the holders of the secrets to bloodwerk - the magic in their red blood. And in the middle are the blue-blooded Dusters, banned from bloodwerk, banned from the Keep.

"First we traded stories for money to sustain us in hard times. Now we trade money for stories to sustain us in harder times."

The characters in this book are so well-rounded and complicated and flawed and glorious. When we first meet MC Sylah she is addicted to the joba seeds so prevalent in the Duster's quarter. She's haunted by the demons and ghosts of her dangerous past, and has no idea of the series of events about to come hurtling towards her. Then there is the spoiled and naïve Anoor, daughter to the Warden of Strength and fan of frivolous dresses and sweet treats, who has no clue what fate awaits her. The Ghosting Hassa lives like a phantom, slipping from place to place - she may as well be invisible. A host of other characters compliments them perfectly, each one weaving a little something else into the story.

Something really gripped me about this book within the first few pages alone, and I seriously found myself almost unable to put it down. I'm going to be recommending it to everyone!

I'm a little disappointed by this one. I warmed to Sylah immediately but found myself losing interest as the book went on. Anoor grew on me, and I would have loved more time with Hassa. The world itself is well-built, and the magic interesting, but the moral ambiguity of certain characters didn't extend to the person revealed as the enemy towards the end; I found Loot very one-note.

The pieces are there, but they just didn't fit together for me.

This book complex, It’s a slow burn story about an empire built on secrets. The comparison between the two MCs is evident and I constantly switched between liking each at the time of writing. The world building is emmense. Slight reminders of Divergent with the factions but very much more adult in its storytelling.

“Remember, my friends: love gives you strength, but retribution gives you purpose”.

This book is up there in my all time favourite reads. The characters are immersed in a class divided society where resentment grows greater by the day. Uprisings swell and are put out before momentum can build but still the thrum of change remains primary goal for some groups.

Sylah’s character develops throughout the whole book with her life throwing set back after set back at her. When light is shone at her from the horizon she plots to fufil what she believes she was destined to become but things don’t always go so smoothly.

Twist and turns are fast coming in this book and it really keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I wish more had been discussed about Hassa and where they begin to grow into this world.

The Final strife is everything I could have asked for in an debut epic fantasy novel

The world building is so beautifully immersive and the politics, the intrigue, the history had me hooked from the very beginning

The characters:
Sylah has such a gritty, endearing personality that I loved from the very beginning
And Anoor, sweet, caring Anoor, with the kindest most tender persona who grows into such a strong, deep rooted character
This book is dark and complex, It’s a slow burn sapphic captivating story of an empire built on secrets during the dawn of revolution

Beautifully written, gripping and so unique!

The book starts slow, stays slow and finishes slow, that’s not necessarily a bad thing as there is a lot of world building and character introduction, an intriguing premise and one I look forward to reading more about in the rest of the trilogy, thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read the book early

The Final Strife is set in a harsh and savage world where the colour of your blood determines your status. Not only is there the threat of death, or worse, from the ruling empire but from the Tidewind that comes every night and claims more and more lives.

The world building is intense, full of depth and details and it draws you in instantly. The characters are well developed and this means that you'll definitely have a favourite or two.


*Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers @HarperCollinsUK @HarperFiction for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review*

There are some books that when you read them, you just know. You know that these characters and their stories are going to live in your head for years.

The only reason it may not be the first title that jumps to your lips when someone asks for a recommendation is that you don’t want to share - Share these characters that you care for SO deeply - Share this world where they struggle and dance, laugh and cry, love and bleed…

Because what if that don’t understand, what if they don’t understand and in doing that show that they don’t understand the piece of you that also lives there.

The Final Strife is one of those books for me.

It takes the norms of the ‘chosen one’ trope or the ‘brooding assassin with a past’ throws them straight out the window. To be honest Sylah would definitely throw you out the window… and swear at you afterwards.

Anoor. Beautiful, courageous Anoor, who I’m sure a lot of bookish people will see themselves in, would probably laugh in your face … and maybe offer you tea.

All the characters are all so beautiful flawed, and so flawlessly real.

The politics, the intrigue, the twist and turn of the plot, the world building all leave you so immersed, so breathless that all you can do is want more

Gritty, Sapphic, Inclusive, Friends/enemies to lovers, morally grey characters, badass side ones … just everything you could ever want, and it all takes place in the blood soaked land of The Final Strife

Vivid, and lush writing with well-crafted plot and characters. An exciting start to a very promising series. I'm very glad to have given this a shot.

Full review to come and rating may change.

I do not even know where to start with a review for this book. I mean, sometimes you come across a book that grabs you by the face and just demands to be read. This is one of those books.

You are introduced to the world quickly, smoothly and efficiently, without any kind of condescending tone from the author. Their style is smooth, and easy to read, holds your attention, even when it is three in the morning and you know you should be sleeping.

I loved the story, simply loved it, and I could not wait to finish it, to see if things would work out the way I thought they would. Some did, some didnt, and that was fine by me, as I loved the ending, and I can not wait for the next book.

It was an emotional bumper car experience, that leaves you begging for more!

Vivid worldbuilding, beautiful writting, well rounded characters AND it's sapphic. 100/10 totally recommend

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollinsUK for this eARC of 'The Final Strife' by debut author Saara El-Arifi. My review is purely my own opinion.

I loved this book. Did it take me ages to get to read this book? Of course. But it's such a good read, I'm glad I took my time with it. El-Arifi is such a good writer and the black main character is so strong, powerful and well developed. I just adored this book in total.

This book sits perfectly in the dystopian YA fantasy section. There's the misuse of seeds, loss and tragedy mixed in with the desire for a better life

The book starts slowly but soon gets going with secrets and lies being exposed

I'm usually more of a YA reader, but I'm so glad I broke out of my comfort zone for this book. The world of The Final Strife is brutal and unforgiving, but it is also rich, vivid, and beautifully imagined––not to mention expertly woven into the narrative.

Sylah and Anoor are two characters I would go to war for, and their dynamic is wonderfully crafted throughout the novel.

The book also does a great job of exploring difficult themes without ever becoming too dark or grim or a chore to read.

100/10 would recommend. I'm looking forward to the next instalment already.

The Final Strife is such an exciting start to a trilogy. The setup and setting have many classic elements of YA dystopia (not in a bad way) - categories of people, individuals selected to rise through the ranks - but explored and subverted through the lens of modern epic fantasy. The characters feel appropriately complex, and the relationships (including romantic) convinced me easily. This is a book where I enjoyed having seen twists coming, because it felt like pieces falling into place, with each revelation meaning something in the bigger picture. The world did require a lot of exposition at first, and it was not handled especially elegantly (a lot of blunt description or unnatural dialogue), but once that had passed the book went from strength to strength, and sets up a next book which I suspect will be even stronger.

Wow!! What a read! This book screamed at on its virtual shelf with such an amazing cover! I am glad to say, it did NOT disappoint. I was absolutely hooked & would most definitely recommend!

The Final Strife is a solid series opener, without ever being all that spectacular for me. It opens quite slowly, and doesn’t really pick up the pace until right at the end, but it has the potential for future books to be great, hence the slightly mixed feelings that I have about it.

The story is set in a world where people are classed based on their blood and its colour. Many years before, a group of individuals who wanted to change all of that kidnapped some of the highest caste children and replaced them with ones of a lower class of blood. They would raise these children to be able to take over the government when they grew up, but with the sympathies of the lower classes. That plan was wrecked, however, when their little enclave was found and destroyed, leaving only one of those children as a survivor.

So, my first point really, is that this book catches your interest right from the prologue. It’s a great opening, and guaranteed to get you hooked. So when it slows down, as it does since it’s over 600 pages, you can forgive that. That slowing down gives it time to build the world around the MCs, fleshing out everything that is happening, while also leaving you with a growing list of questions.

I think where this fell down for me, personally, was that I wasn’t so in love with the writing style that I could deal with this. I had to start skimming just a bit, so I could get to the action again. That, and the love triangle.

In theory here, I have nothing against the love triangle as a concept. It’s between two of our MCs, and a third character, and it’s this third character that I had the issue with, really. Because he (Jond) and Sylah (the bi mc) were brought up as siblings. As far as I read it, at least. They are not biological siblings (and were more… adopted, for want of a better word, by their parents), but they were effectively brought up with a single father and different mothers. Now. YMMV here, but that, to me, is treading a bit too close to incest and I had absolutely no interest in it. So this love triangle, which features heavily in the set up of the end, to say as vaguely as I can make it, did not land for me. Also the fact that this book has been marketed a lot as having an f/f relationship—which it does! I hasten to add—but for me, I would say this… not as prevalent as people may expect? For a good three quarters of this book, it’s the m/f relationship that takes centre stage, and then the f/f one. Which is obviously fine, but I feel this book would be better framed as having a bi mc, another sapphic mc and a love triangle.

Basically, what I’m trying to explain by all this is that the relationship between Jond and Sylah was supposed to be this big thing, and I just didn’t get it. So a lot of what relied on this relationship later on didn’t land. That said, neither did I really love Sylah and Anoor’s relationship (this is not enemies to lovers). I think this probably all ties back to how I found the writing style, so it’s definitely a personal thing.

Despite all this, and although I didn’t get the feeling from the ending, it was definitely one that had my pulse pounding as I read it. That ending is worth the entire set up and, really, would be enough to convince me to continue the series. While my whole review seems to have been complaining (oops), I would like to stress that actually I did enjoy this book. If this is one that intrigues you at all, you should definitely pick it up.