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

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.