I remember seeing this absolutely everywhere and being super hyped which in turn put me off a little so I'm a tad behind for this one!

I buddy read this one so I'd get to it and I felt it was a little long winded, I think there were parts that could've been left out so I was bored at moments but I was interested in the story and the characters, I love Anoor, I'm intrigued enough by the world and the story to continue onto book two at some point!

This was a lark! I really enjoyed the humour, the world described and imagined and our main female leads. The pacing needed some improvement. This is a long book weighed down by the complexity of the world building- the first fifth of the book was very slow to me but then very rapidly picked up speed and hence enjoyment as the story properly got underway. I found myself getting a bit bored with all the trials and training details in the middle too. This was a good read with loads of potential but if those issues had been addressed, this would have been a really thumping good read.

Firstly, I loved the concept of this. I’ve been a fan of the “underdog in a competition” since I was a teenager and discovered The Hunger Games, so this was always going to be something I enjoyed.

I struggled to care about Sylah to begin with, but I think that’s what the author intended. As she meets Anoor and their relationship developed I really started to like her, and she was by far my favourite by the end.

I’m looking forward to book 2 massively. Luckily I already have it waiting on netgalley, so I’m immediately moving on to it.

The Final Strife is a book that hooked me with it's concept- and it was an interesting read.
Many Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review:
Lets start off with this- I gave up and DNF at about 50%. There were a lot of reasons but i honestly just did not want to pick the book up? It felt like a chore more than enjoyment.

Plot- overall the plot was fine. Was it magically redefining of the genre? no. But was it overall enjoyable? yes if not a little bit predictable. It's subjective on the reader but i liked it for the most part. There are a lot of other books that deal with the classism and revolution themes and it's so saturated in the fantasy market right now so it was a struggle to stay engaged with this sometimes (i felt like i was reading similar books recently as well which had me confusing the stories/plots etc).

World building-This is what gets the marks on this and dragged my review up a star! The Representation and worldbuilding of this story is one of the best examples I have seen in a long long time in fantasy. It was superb. The bit that let it down was the slow pacing at the beginning. Once the story got into it's groove about halfway through this picked up, but the first half felt a bit like a slog to get through.

Characters- Okay so other than the absolute pain of not liking the lead character (no clue why, just found her frustrating). The characters in this book were fantastic! The diversity, the just natural inclusivity of it all was fantastic and for the modern fantasy books coming out it's so refreshing to see it.

Final Thoughts,
The average plot didn't entrance me enough to want to continue reading, but great inclusivity and worldbuilding initially. I probably will not be picking up the sequel though.

The colour of your blood determines your place in society. The embers, who have red blood are the ruling class of the city and are afforded all of the privileges that their blood brings. The Dusters have blue blood running through their veins and are the working class of society. The dusters are educated until the age of 10 and then placed in a job role that is assigned by the embers. The last classification is Ghosting and are named such due to their clear blood and are the servants of the city taken as children their tongues and hands are cut off and they are set to physical labour.

Sylah born an ember, was Kidnapped from her family at the age of 2 and switched with duster child of the same age. Sylah and her 11 other adopted ember siblings were raised in combat and trained to enter and win the Aktibar by a resistance movement to ember rule. The Aktibar is a series of tests that an ember contestant must complete in order to prove and showcase their ability to rule. 6 years ago Sylah's life was turned upside down when all of her adopted father and siblings were killed by the city guards. Sylah thinking that she is the sole survivor, falls deeply into an addiction of Joba seeds and uses her training to fight in an illicit fighting ring for money in order to fuel her addiction. Sylah's addiction is close to killing her until she runs into Jond one of her adopted siblings who she thought had been killed 6 years ago. Jond explains that he is still part of the resistance and that he will enter the Aktibar, and encourages Sylah to join him. The plan goes wrong for Sylah when she gets kidnapped by anoor, the child that she was switched with and is forced into helping her.

I was actually quite disappointed by this book, I had high expectations for this book and it unfortuanately fell flat. I found parts of this book rather dull. This is discribed as queer, but I found that the chemistry between Anoor and Sylah was rather lacking and felt rather inorganic. I didnt really read this as a queer story, as I viewed the main relationship to be between Jond and Sylah. Anoor and Sylah I viewed as more of a one sided relationship/Friendship as It seemed that Sylah was more interested in Jond as a love interest than Anoor.

The whole book was mainly focused on the trials and preparation for the Aktibar, I would have liked to learn more about the world so would have made the book to contain POV's from other characters that appear in the book. This would have made the story and plot more interesting and less two dimensional.

I loved how this book included some pretty heavy topics and doesnt shy away from Abuse, manipulation and addiction amongst other topics. This added a darker layer which I rather liked. I loved the ending for this book and it seemed that it was just a to set up the second book. I am looking forward to where this will lead next as it has plently of promise.

A devastatingly brilliant fantasy book filled with folklore, traditions and more.

I went into this novel and was completely blown away by it. El-Arifi paints a very different fantasy world from one I've read before. Filled with themes of grief, love, hope and revenge, you'll be clinging to this book as you read. Inhaling chapter after chapter as you try to understand just where you're being taken as the reader.

I adored Sylah. My heart ached for her and everything she'd lost. Through the drug abuse and her fierceness, you can't help but root for her. I wanted her to win. In fact, I needed her to gain back everything she'd had snatched away from her. Her character was probably - to me - the most beautifully complicated. But one that bought so much life to the book.

I loved Hassa for various reasons but mostly for her unwavering determination and insistence of hope. I read somewhere that just to have the smallest bit of hope is a form of resistance. And so, to learn about Hassa's history for her own kind and what had happened. It's all so very reminiscent of colonialisation. It's a firm reminder of how often History can be rewritten and moulded to suit those in power.

It's quite frankly nauseating.

We see it now. With how the Western government try to control narratives to suit themselves, but yet, I think this book is a sharp reminder that we should never stop questioning things we are 'told' to believe. History is important but acknowledging the bias that comes with it is just as necessary. Hassa's life is a testament to that.

Now I had mixed feelings about Anoor. I liked her and her stubbornness. I have to hold my hands up and say I questioned her but yet I loved how she kept proving me wrong. I think perhaps I had visions of this book going one way and Anoor obliterated those thoughts very quickly.

All in all, this was a great start to a brand new fantasy world with some very beautiful characters. You'll be hooked throughout this book, although I must say, at times it did feel incredibly long. But don't give up on it! The ending itself will leaving you dying for book 2!

Saara El-Arifi’s fantastical first book in her news series The Final Strife. An enthralling High Fantasy with high stakes, The Final Strife is a tale of power, revenge and magic; a must-read for fans of Samantha Shannon and Tasha Suri.

I really enjoyed this so glad I finally got around to it. It was a slow start and took me a while to get into but now can't wait for next book !

The author creates a lush, complex world with a female lead who is multifaceted and worth rooting for. I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience and am looking forward to more books in the series.

4 stars - Great beginning to an African-Arabian-inspired Fantasy trilogy

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi hat gotten plenty of buzz online and I was very happy to receiven an e-ARC to have a look at it myself. The story takes place in a vividly imagined society in which the blood colour determines your position in society and also your ability to work blood magic, called "bloodwerk" here. We have basically three castes, those with red blood are the ruling class, the blue-blooded ones are the working class and the slaves have clear blood.
The society is one of great inequality, which of course creates unrest and a wish for change amont the suppressed ones.

The story is told from the perspectives of three young women, each of them having one of the blood colours and a very different outlook on life:
- Sylah has been born with red blood but stolen as a baby by blue-blooded revolutionists and brought up to become a fighter to serve as a weapon for the revolution. She is a chosen one, but one who has very much missed her calling and is now an addict who is barely scraping by.
- Anoor has been born with blue blood but placed into a red-blooded family as a baby (in exchange for stolen Sylah) and therefore has grown up in great privilege, but constantly facing her mother's great disdain who has been forced to raise this inferior child to keep up appearances but is making it very clear that Anoor is not being welcome or loved.
- And Hassa has clear blood and is one of the slaves, called Ghostings. All Ghostings get horribly mutilated as children to prevent any uprising and yet they try to build a silent and invisible resistance to a cruel and injust system.

The lives of these three young women get entangled in different ways that shall not be spoiled here. Suffice to say that the plot is very well paced and our understanding of the world and history of this society progresses very nicely along with what our protagonists learn about it. There are plenty of exciting developments and surprising revelations I did not all see coming. There is wonderful character growth in Anoor who was by far my favourite character. Underneath a spoiled and privileged surface there is a tough core with a reliable moral compass that Anoor slowly uncovers and that is just great fun to read about. She also provides a bit of comic relief from time to time in an otherwise rather bleak world.

There is also some sapphic romance that unofortunately did not really work for me as it did not feel terribly plausible. Hassa was the character we learned least about but who I found incredibly fascinating and would have loved to read more about.

There was one thing that bothered me and that was some seriously fat-shaming comments about Anoor, who once is basically called a blob of lard. What? Then again there are comments about her lovely curves, which are much more consistent within the world-building where having plenty to eat is very much a sign of privilege. However, I do have to wonder if the positive comments about being curvy have been added during the editing step while some of the negative ones have been overlooked?

Still, this is highly recommended and El-Arifi has created enough intrigue for me to want to know how things continue!

I have received an advance review copy via NetGalley from the publisher and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you very much!

'The Final Strife’ is Saara El-Arifi’s debut, a sweeping epic fantasy inspired by her Ghanaian and Sudanese heritage. The premise is excellent, but it takes a long time to grow into itself, and the initially unlikeable characters make the start especially slow. By the end this is an engaging and enjoyable read, with a solid ending that makes you want to read on – but the work it takes to get there prevents this from hitting its potential heights.

In this world, social status is determined by blood. Red blood equals the elite – Embers, the ruling class, with access to blood magic and control. Blue blood means the workers – Dustings – a poor faction with dreams of resistance. Clear is the blood of the invisible – Ghostings – slaves with no rights, constantly overlooked and oppressed. However, eighteen years ago, a group of Dustings exchanged twelve of their children with Ember children – and now one of those children has come of age. A pity, then, that rather than becoming the fated Chosen One, Sylah has been broken by the death of her family and drifts along, surviving only with the help of drugs, alcohol, and an illegal fighting ring. However, with the return of someone unexpected from her past, Sylah finds herself thrust back into the world of resistance. Can she overcome everything to be what she was intended to be – a saviour?

There are four characters granted a perspective in this book – Sylah, Anoor, Hassa, and Jond – but Sylah is clearly the protagonist. Bitter, worn-down, and deeply addicted to Joba seeds, she’s an extremely difficult character to like. She weilds anger not just as a weapon but as a survival mechanism, leaving her short-sighted and rash. She longs to be more than she is but the thought of putting in the work to get there is anathema. Sylah cares strongly about certain others, and about the rights of the oppressed – but it’s initially difficult to parse out how much of that is true empathy and how much is self-interest. It’s easy to feel sorry for Sylah, but much harder to connect with her. As the story develops, she starts to think more before she acts and allows herself to start to care for others, although she remains a caustic personality. El-Arifi makes a brave narrative choice choosing Sylah for her protagonist, and I’m not entirely convinced it was the best one.

Anoor gets the most page time after Sylah and is very different – although in another life the two characters could have taken each others place. One of the Dusting children left with an Ember family, Anoor has been raised in a life of luxury and privilege – but her family have never allowed her to forget that she is not truly one of them. Caring but self-indulgent, Anoor enjoys good food, fashion, and reading her zines – she’s a dreamer rather than a doer. However, when pushed, Anoor is determined, creative, and incredibly strong. Anoor has the strongest character arc, and despite the initial impression of the pampered princess she’s much easier to connect to than Sylah, providing a welcome addition to the narrative.

Hassa and Jond are given far less page time, although arguably Hassa has the most interesting perspective. A Ghosting, she has led a hard life – but also a fairly invisible one, allowing her to see things hidden from her contemporaries. The relationship between Hassa and Sylah is intriguing, and I hope more time is given to her in the sequel. Jond is never given the time to fully develop, so its difficult to have any opinion on him – I suspect he will play a larger part in later books.

The representation in this book is excellent. Sylah’s sexuality is never labelled but she has sexual relationships with multiple genders. The society has three accepted genders and individuals can identify however they please – Hassa is a trans woman taking hormones, which never impacts on her role in the story at all. Hassa, like all Ghostings, is also disabled and uses sign language. Everything is crafted to be part of the story but not key to it, and its nice seeing such effortless diversity in fantasy.

The plot is strong, using the trope of a training plotline and a competition to elect the new leaders. The first 100-150 pages are exposition, but once the training gets underway this becomes well paced and engaging, with a good balance between trilogy-furthering subplots and the main competition plot of the novel. There’s less fighting than might be expected in a novel about vengeance, but the fight scenes that do feature are well written. The writing in general is gritty and dark in places but suits the story well.

The worldbuilding leaves plenty of unanswered questions for future books, but works. The magic system, again, isn’t utilised as much as might be expected, but has plenty of potential for exploration going forward. There’s a great deal of incentive to read on to get some answers – a key element when writing a trilogy.

Personally, I would have liked a different distribution of character perspectives. The start is too slow and too much time is spent with Sylah, the most challenging character to connect to. This would be an easier and likely more enjoyable read if more early page time was given to Hassa and Anoor. For an epic fantasy, this is on the short side at under 500 pages, so using an extra 50-100 to get that greater reader connection wouldn’t make it too unwieldy. However, other readers will likely appreciate the shorter length and may find the plot engaging enough not to need a likeable protagonist. Those who enjoyed books like ‘The Rage of Dragons‘ should find plenty to love here.

Overall, this is a solid debut with an excellent premise just let down by a slow start. Future installments in the trilogy have plenty to build on to be excellent novels. Recommended for fans of epic fantasy who are happy to wait for the story to unfold.

This is a cracking debut, with a convincingly brutal class system, a subversion of the ‘chosen one’ trope, slow-burn romance and political intrigues.

The worldbuilding was exquisite. Once of my favourite things was the magic - it uses blood runes, but it’s not a dramatic slicing-the-palm blood sacrifice, it’s a well constructed system that includes education stratification (only the highest class learn how to use them) and a sort of functional jewellery that taps into the veins of the hand and allows steady access to blood for writing the runes.

The characters were engaging and complex. Sylah carries the trauma of a brutal childhood, her grief ineffectively managed by the drugs that her addiction to is slowly destroying her body. She is so brittle but so strong. Anoor’s sheltered and privileged but emotionally neglectful upbringing left her determined to do the right thing, although she often doesn’t know what that is. Half the time I just wanted to scoop her into a hug. Their romance was a sweet point in the generally dark atmosphere of this book.

I had previously gotten a few chapters into The Final Strife and then forgotten about it - I'm so glad that I returned to it, and that I stuck it out past what is a slightly uneven starting section. This book takes the first 25% or so to really hit its stride - everything picked up for me the moment Anoor entered the narrative. I'm not usually bothered by protagonists who are closed off and perhaps less likeable, but Anoor was a literal ray of sunshine in comparison. There is a sapphic storyline in this, but it doesn't emerge until much later in the book - I'm hoping it will be explored more as the trilogy unfolds, as I was very invested in it. I was very much less interested in the straight relationship in the earlier sections of the book.
Integral to a fantasy series such as this, the world building here is really interesting - I like the way that extra sections of history or lore are slowly revealed as the plot continues. The plot itself isn't always the most surprising, but the world itself is certainly interesting enough to keep up the intrigue.
I will definitely be picking up the next in this series, and would hope to see the political side of things examined more fully.

Thank you to Harper Collins for sending me an arc in exchange for a review!

The Final Strife is a story we’ve read in many other fantasy and dystopian books. The wealthy live in palaces enjoying a soft and comfortable life, feasting on the labours of those demonised by society. Yet, the world-building is African-Arabic inspired and the atmosphere invoked is uniquely immersive and rooted in culture.

At the top are the red-blooded Embers, then the Dusters, blue-blooded, still treated with contempt, but at least they have a better life than the clear-blooded Ghostings who’s hands and tongues are chopped off by the Embers to keep them subservient.

”Blood is everywhere. It pours from the trees and from the backs of the Dusters who mine them. Even the Ember overseers drip blood, but only from thair whips."

The three perspectives we follow are strong young women, hotheaded and stubborn in their own way in their different wakes of life, each having different colour blood.

This felt like a combination of many different fantasies I have read and I loved the effect! This never felt repetitive or a copy - there were nuances to each character that makes them stand out - addiction, disability, abuse. Not to mention, the story never follows the way you would expect it to.

I would recommend this to fans of Red Queen and Children of Blood and Bone.

I just want to say that I am still processing what this book did to me... Not because I found it particularly emotionally traumatizing, but so much of this read was just okay until we got to the last ten percent or so and suddenly the book was really something that I was interested in.

El-Arifi does a lot of interesting things here. I want to applaud them by using blood magic in a way that felt inventive. I'm sure that out there in the universe exists another book where people use their blood to make runes that do magic, but what I was more impressed with here was story with blood magic present that didn't come off as self harm-y every time the characters went use their magic for something. It was also nice to see queer normative society. As I said, the story that we get at the end is the story that I was interested in, but the bulk of the book had very little to do with that storyline.

In particular, the first part of this book was rough to get through. I wouldn't call anything that happens infodumpy... For the most part El-Arifi utilizes the "the protagonist and the reader learn things together" trope in a successful way. Some of the information does feel like it could have been massaged into the narrative a little better, and maybe in the final version of the book things are. Also the entire subplot of Sylah being a drug addict? I think it's nice to have another drug addict main character in a fantasy world to join the likes of Rin and Lan, but.... here... the self-medicating made them first couple of chapters particularly hard to get through

This is an epic, I have to keep page turning, I don’t want this to end, fantasy book. Isn’t it strange how after a few paragraphs you know a book is going to be good? For me the first words drew me in totally and told me this was book going to be an entertaining brilliant fantasy fiction. And I wasn’t disappointed, until I finished the book. But not to worry as this is a trilogy and the next instalment is sure to come soon! Thank you to Harper Collins publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

A fantastical story with incredible world building, revisiting the genre with a fresh stack of monsters and magicks, this world is like nothing I have read before.
Reminds me of « The throne of the crescent moon » by Saladin Ahmed, but goes beyond it by thoroughly revisiting all the tropes.

The Final Strife is a really good story, with lots of interesting characters. I also enjoy that the narrative skips over some of the boring bits, like waiting between tournaments!

A beautiful story of strength and courage against adversity.

In this world where women, musuwa (a third gender; non-binary) and men hold equal positions, and sexuality is not an issue, there is an a equally cruel inequality- of blood.

Syrah, Hassa and Anoor’s lives are entangled in the desperate fight against the brutal segregation of those of different coloured blood- red, blue or clear. Although they are each of a different colour blood they are ultimately fighting for the same cause.

The world in which this story is set is a rich amalgamation of dystopian post apocalyptic and traditional West Africa- I loved it. I also found the slowly developing relationships and revelations of the past kept me gripped and desperate to read the next book. I am so glad to know it is to be a trilogy!

Many thanks to Saara El-Arifi, Netgalley and Harper Collins for the Arc.

Loved this book ! It took me a while to be in but I can recommend it’s pretty cool.
Love the main character too