Update: This book is a forever favorite. There. I said it

Świetny kawał fantastyki!

Rozbudowany świat, nowe kultury, świetny finał! Książka ma naprawdę genialny potencjał i to jak na ten moment zapowiada się druga część jest bardzo dobrym pomysłem. Fabuła łamie schematy i przedstawia bohaterów, którzy są w stanie zaskoczyć mnie na każdej stronie. O dziwo bardzo podobał mi się delikatny wątek romantyczny, który został zręcznie wpleciony w fabułę.

Miałam problem z wgryzieniem się z historię i trochę mieszały mi się informacje/miejsca/ludzie, ale to już raczej kwestia tego, że musiałam bardzo odkładać czytanie i rozciągnęło się ono w czasie. Dlatego polecam raczej wciągnąć tę książkę na przysłowiowy "raz".

Moim zastrzeżeniem jest to, że książce brakuje kilkudziesięciu stron. Historia jest bardzo rozciągnięta w czasie i czasami mam wrażenie, że zostaliśmy obrabowani z fajnych scen, które dały by mi szansę zżycia się z bohaterami. Książka już wchodzi w świat bardziej rozbudowanej fantastyki i nikt nie narzekałbym gdyby była trochę grubsza.

Np większość rodzeństwa namaszczonych pozostaje dla mnie zagadką, a Tarisai cały czas wspomina o tym jak to bardzo ich kocha itp. Czuję że ja nie miałam nawet szansy ich wystarczająco poznać, a co dopiero w jakikolwiek sobie się do nich przywiązać

This is a wonderful book, but I don’t feel like I need to read the second. I rather like the open ending.

I like the battle within Taresi and how she spends the whole novel questioning her worth. It makes her seem genuine, and very relatable. Her relationship with all her council is moving and the writing made me have a lot of feels throughout. I could visualize everything, because the writing was so powerfully painted.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, coming of age tales, magic, and the concept of choosing ones own family.

I do think that I might be a bit burned out on this book type. Just like I’m over the plot lines of “a queen who didn’t know she had magic and is now magic and will say her kingdom from corruption!” - I’m kind of feeling that way about the “African inspired cultures with magic and a young woman coming into her own” style as well. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think they are good/important books - it means I am feeling the market is a bit saturated right now. For example I read “A song of Wraiths and Ruin” not that long ago, and my brain started combining the two books. All that being said, I wish that wasn’t the case because this book was better and deserves its own spotlight.

4.5*

Loved the beautiful imagery and character development of this book steeped in west African folklore. The compassion I have for Tarisai was so intense throughout this book. Tarisai has to carefully balance her own well-being, the threat of losing loved ones, the weight of guilt and shame, as well as the desperate need to cure an empire that doesn't protect its people. I loved learning the world of Aritsar and Songland and getting to know the different regions of this world through the characters that originated there as well as from Tarisai's travels. There were some twists in this book that I didn't expect, but were executed exquisitely. I can't wait to read Redemptor and follow along this journey to see what else Tarisai is capable of!

Part 1
- tarisai, seems to be daughter of royalty?
- she went searching for her mother one night when she was 7 and ran into a fairy, alagbatos, who asks if she wants to see her mom
- her mom is called the lady, she disappeared one day
- when she was young she had so many tutors making her learn so much to impress the lady and when she'd show her, she wouldn't be too impressed
- no one is allowed to touch tarisai's skin bc she accesses ppls memories when she does...everyone except her mom
- melu, the alagbato, says he'll show tarisai some memories of her mom if she comes with him
- omg hes showing her the memory where her mom, the lady, summons him basically and he becomes her djinn so shes got 3 wishes. 1st is a safe palace, 2nd she wishes for a daughter but melu says he can't do that. So then she says what if my daughter was an ehru...what if she was yours (now hold on so the daughter isn't fully human? And this fairy is acc her dad??)
- the 3rd unsaid wish makes sure that melu is trapped and the daughter too
- tarisai says that makes her mom a devil and her the puppet demon
- tarisai discovered she couldn't die bc her mom protects and loves her (that wish about the safe house)
- for her 11th bday, the lady comes back with who she says are 2 permanent guardians bc usually her tutors disappear and keep coming and going
- one of them is a guy called woo in whos a redemptor aka hes got tattoos on his body meant to guide him through the underworld bc he was sacrificed for the greater good so that the abiku doesn't destroy everything
- other girl is Kathleen who doesn't seem too keen on babysitting tarisai
- the mom says tarisai will be leaving soon to another city in hopes of getting picked to be part of the prince's council
- lady shows her a portrait of a boy whos father stole wealth and fame from tarisai to give to him. Lady commands her to kill him once she falls in love with him (that's the 3rd and final wish)
- theyre on their way to oluwan
- Kathleen can shape-shift into people and woo in can fly..these r their powers called hallows
- tarisai gets dropped off at the palace where theres so many other children aka candidates for the prince, theres a screening process and interview before u even get to the prince
- she meets a girl, of the wing people, who's hallow is her voice. She says every Canadian here has a hallow...wonder what tarisai is
- if the prince picks u then u sever all ties with ur family
- her turn to step into the room to meet the king (kuleo) and his counsel
- they all gasp bc she looks the same as her mother
- king tells her to try and kill him but it doesn't work bc he says hes got the power to rule the throne just as his father does and his son does (the one shes meant to kill), the only ppl who can kill him are the 11 ppl
- he calls out her mom, knows that tarisai was sent to kill him
- tarisiai confused about what they mean by 11 and they see how brilliant the ladys plan is bc a child whos so innocent immediately goes to meet the prince ekundayo (the son ig)
- they tell her to test her memorie power things and it checks out
- they also check out her soul to see if its pure and if she plans on killing the prince (she does lmfao but denies it bc ig she doesn't remember it)
- the council aren't sure what to do with her but they think they should keep her for the prince so they can keep an eye on here
- the moment tarisai sees the prince her vision goes red and she thinks kill
- so she then remembers what she has to do but her mother spcieified it should happen when she's anointed so shes good for now, she doesn't wanna kill him
- shes now bonding with the prince, ekundayo or dayo
- ppl usually touch and hug and kiss him but she doesn't...its usually the opposite for her.
- lmao theyre really cute
- dayo bonds his mind to his counsil but they need to love him, its called the ray
- she really doesn't wanna kill him, shes glad she finally has some sort of friend
- once ur bound to the counsil u can't leave them or else u become sick, theyre all lovey dovey together too it seems
- theres a bear boy who refused to be anointed despite passing all the tests so they keep him there, hes really big and the kids stay away from him. He's called sanjeet. The other kids chained him up thats so mean :(
- tarisai seems to be bonding with him lol I like her lots so far
- sanjeets hallow is that he can see weaknesses in peoples bodies which is why his mom sent him here, to become a doctor or priest but he doesnt wanna go thru with it bc he doesnt want to be apart from his mother whos gonna be stuck with his horrible dad ig
- tarisai is now 15 and has seen a few people become part of the counsil, theres only 3 cities left. Swana, the one shes from, dhyrma, the one sanjeet is from and djbanti.
- Kirah became part of counsil
- tarisai figured out a way to make memories disappear for a bit so she does that to sanjeet at night whos father forced him to fight people
- theres 13 ways for the emperor to die until he has 12 people anointed. But old age can kill him
- during a lesson tarisai asks if the raybearer can be a girl and they say no but girls can be part of counsil or can birth a future guy raybearer (guess shes gonna be the first loool)
- sanjeet had disappeared after getting mail, seems like bad news..maybe death of his mom?
- tarisai gets these intense chest pains ig to remind her of her mission?
- love how theres a hijabi character like this book really snapped and said no white people <3
- sanjeet came back and said his mom his dead and his dad got sent to prison..harammmm. maybe now he'll get anointed tho
- sanjeet has a little brother called sendhil who sees weaknesses in souls and their father found him useless and sent him away where he became harsh
- Kathleen and woo in make an appearance to remind tarisai of what she has to do
- woo in said he needs to speed things along so he burns the palace bc he overheard the prince say he's still not immune to burning, contagion and poison
- tarisai saves him from the fire, erases her memories of her mom telling her to kill him and of melu and then accepts to be anointed

Part 2
- a year later, with the last 3 positions filled, theyre traveling to yorua keep to be alone and to train until king kuleo dies and dayo takes over
- shes been getting headaches for a year since she did that memory forgetting thing
- Kathleen and woo in visit tarisai and she doesnt remember them. They give her a drum to get her memories back but that flops
- theyre assigning whos gonna be what position and tarisai got judge which she disnt expect
- to complete this ceremony dayo drops water and its supposes to turn brown but instead it turned white meaning death and 2 figures rose walking hand in hand
- these figures are abiku which ig are demons? They're saying they need 300 redemptor sacrifices but one is missing. Thats the girl tarisai said she'd help, ye eun, and won't let her get taken away...quite a pickle
- a whole war erupts at this ceremony, ye eun then blames tarisai bc she disnt save redemptors from this destiny then she sacrifices herself to the abiku...everything calms down after
- 6 months later theyre on that private island place where they train and solve things
- dayo has night terrors and sleep walks a lot
- tarisai has ptsd from fire bc of what happened at the children's palace
- awwwww sanjeet likes her and she seems to like him back? But sanjeet says everyone is waiting for her and dayo to get together and get preggers bc they need to birth the next raybearer. Tarisai says she doesn't feel that way about him
- lmfao feel like this book touched on how bad capitalism is...the counsil is rich as hell so why can't they distribute the wealth says tarisai and thaddace from olugbado's counsil says bestie thats not too great of an idea bc it won't work blah blah
- tarisai sees thaddace and mbali doing it
- aw this scene made me tear up so theres this festival where u obtain some sort of item and that says something about ur future or ur luck or wtv. And u can exchange the item if only someone crosses a pit on ur behalf. Sanjeet got a skull meaning death and he became sad bc hes like oh my hands were always meant to kill and not to heal (which is what he wants to do). Tarisai sees that and crosses the pit immediately despite her fear (which he knows about). Sanjeet is so shook and so he picks another item but doesnt like it but instead of settling for it he keeps picking (which isnt allowed lmfao) until he gets a crowrie shell which apparently someone owes u a favor (this applies to lovers too apparently idk the context exactly). The scene was so sweet like she did that for him awww :( im rooting for them
- dayo keeps trying to separate mbali and tarisai for some reason
- sanjeet and tarisai kiss its so cute they also promise to meet at some tree where it's secret and no one can hear u
- the council seems to know they kissed and root for them, even dayo too
- mbali and thaddace tell her to keep what she saw secret
- her mom with a mask on enchants her into drinking water from melu's pool which makes her remember everything. Guess shes gotta kill him now yikes
- she takes dayo to that tree instead and hes confused bc isnt she with sanjeet? He confesses hes essentially asexual but if he were to do it with anyone its her. She stabs him rip
- tarisai seems to awaken from the trance and is regretful, luckily even if she was enchanted she missed his heart
- sanjeet comes to the tree and sees them. He calls her a monster :( he seems very angry (as he should lmfao)
- kirah comes too and they manage to stabilize dayo
- sanjeet isnt willing to listen to tarisai trying to explain the situation but kirah is willing. Tarisai shares her memories with them to show that this was her mothers 3rd wish. She determines shes gotta go back to swana to see her dad, melu, in order to stop this last wish bc otherwise shes gonna keep attempting to finish off the prince. Kirah says she'll come along to keep council sickness at bay
- sanjeet offers to come along instead but is pissed about it
- they decide to keep things a secret between them 4

Part 3
- sanjeet and tarisai depart to swana, she surrenders all weapons and gives him her ring that identifies her as part of counsil
- theres lots of bad tension between them haram
- they gotta pass thru some weird hallucinations bush thingy, makes their journey tough
- sanjeet comes to his sense and seems not as angry anymore
- made it to swana but gotta make it to melu's pool which is dangerous
- they find melu and he reveals that killing dayo is the simple plan, the harder way to be freed from this curse is for tarisai to find a higher purpose
- melu explains the lady and her history
- I think olugbade (king atm) is her uncle? Bc it says the lady is his sister...meaning she's cousins with dayo lmfaooo ew imagine a romance between them
- olugbade grew up super jealous of the lady bc she was good at everything and also bc she can apparently talk to ppl with her mind
- she suggests they should share a council aka be 2 raybearers and that thought is insane
- he kicks her outta the realm and she withers out alone and becomes heartless
- damn so tarisai is for sure gonna end up being the first female raybearer shes gonna take what her mom did and do it even better than her
- makes sense for the lady to wanna kill dayo tho to stop the raybearer lineage? To harm olugbade?
- turns out the lady was also a raybearer even tho there shouldn't be female ones. Tarisai got that in her too, she was immune to fire just like how dayo is immune to poison
- melu says that there should be four masks then 2 for dayo and oligbade and 2 for the lady and tarisai but apparently the 2 for the women got thrown around somewhere to stop ppl from knowing about this reality
- the lady got captured by olgubade spies on the day of that festival when she returned tarisai's memories
- kirah shows up with woo in, she had council withdrawal so she had a fever but it got resolved when she saw her
- bruh it seems kirah and woo in traveling together to make it to tarisai made them fall in love ir sum
- kirah give sanjeet and tarisai an invitation to the capital bc theyve been summoned for their first ruling ceremony by thaddace (i think this is a more tarisai oriented event right?? No one else needs to do this except her)
- Kathleen also made her way to them
- the lady also anointed her own council, shes been using her ray so woo in and Kathleen are part of it it seems
- they make it their mission to find those lost masks in bhekina house with woo in and Kathleen offering to help search in it bc it can be hard to see for others
- woo in reveals that the lady wasn't always gone like how tarisai remembers, she would just spy on her daughter and keep track of everything she did rip
- shes reading the ladys old scrolls and its all about tarisai. She kept her distance bc she was scared to accidentally command her and ruin her entire plan of killing dayo
- yikess woo in discovered that the lady can stop redemptors being taken from songland to the underworld (ngl this is still confusing to me) but she won't bc thats the price she has to pay. Woo in is hurt and furious. She used woo in bc if his prince status to get his family's approval of her
- they go to the children's palace now and tarisai stays far away to avoid running into dayo and seeing what her other sibs think about what she's done
- the emperor, olugbade, summons her tho so she has to go see him
- he says she's gonna have to give her mom the death penalty at the first court ruling, yikesss
- tarisai understands that he didnt kill her off bc he would use her to further erase proof that her mom is also a raybearer. She agrees to it but obvs now needs to get things into motion quicker bc she won't kill her

Part 4
- tarisai visits her mom in prison called heaven (where ur put on display for everyone to see)
- miskeeewn this lil meeting doesn't go as well, the lady keeps gaslighting her and she even says "you've never worried me daughter you've only disappointed me" like what thats insane to hear haram
- sanjeet and tarisai are so cuteeeeeee like they got me feeling things wth I never expected this
- thaddace summoned tarisai
- kirah acc ended up kissing woo in on their little journey together and he told her all about trying to escape the underworld
- the drum her mom gave her or wtv, tarisai tried playing it and it was saying something (yo highkey I think the masks are inside it??? Maybe...)
- theres rumors as to why sanjeet and tarisai are sleeping in the same room, the sibs are scared of scandal
- tarisai sends a letter to Keeya who is a merchant idk id they were mentioned before bc I don't remember rip
- dayo comes to tarisai's room the night before the court ruling + her mothers banishment and reveals he knew she had to kill him all along. Also says he wants them to rule together
- olugbade says do u wanna punish the lady with death and shes like nah lemme see the next case lool ig shes delaying things??
- merchant keeya steps forward (the one the letter got sent to), its some dumb case about a baby's name. She overruled the thaddace thing he wanted to put in place and instead replaces it with the olympics basically where every nation brings forth someone from their country to participate
- the crowd cheers and chants her name
- I was righttttt the 2 masks were in the drums!!
- before tarisai has time to call the mask to test if she really is a raybearer, kirah comes to tell her the lady got sentenced to death in an hour
- as arrows are heading towards the lady to kill her, tarisai screams and the ladys power gets seen by everyone, theres no more hiding the proof now
- the lady takes mbali and dangles her over the ledge then she looks at thaddace bc theyre together
- tarisai realized she had exposed their relationship to her and now she's using it against them
- thaddace pushes olugbade instead and we hear a crack omgggg the tension
- the lady dropped mbali too but woo in flew in and saved her
- omgggg woo in, in an attempt to mark the lady like how hes marked, had grabbed the knife olugbade had put poison on and since he's anointed shes not immune and he can kill her
- so ig both siblings died together harammm but then good for tarisai? She and dayo get to rule??
- woo in is taking her to songland
- woo in wants to show her the redemptor and songland curse that he can't read but raybearers apparently can. The lady had read it but didn't tell woo in what it meant. He wants her to see it before the treaty renewal tmr
- turns out the kunleo cursed the redemptors
- woo in cant fly her outta songland so she has to pass throu 26 lodestones which are so rough on the body
- she wakes up determined and feels an agility she didn't have before, the Storyteller seems to be on her side
- tarisai used the princess's mask to awaken it but it flopped bc her moms dead so instead she used the empress's mask and it worked, she really is a raybearer officially
- by the time she made it she was so knocked out the guards thought she was an evil spirit
- she wakes and sees melu, he has been freed bc she found a new purpose (well and her mom got killed so..)
- she makes it to the treaty on time and reveals the kunleo cursed songland
- she offers herself (a raybearer) to go to the underworld in exchange for no children getting sent there (she says this knowing she's safe from burning)
- instead the abiku say shes a weak raybearer and that she needs a council. she said she'll get it done in 2 years, they say okay and dip. she now has marks too like woo in
- aww dayo raised her hand and made it official, olugbade take note bestie yall couldve been this
- her and sanjeet sleep together i think lmaoo good for yall ig
- thaddace has a trial, she wants to reduce his punishment to banishment
- tarisai does some ritual to see her mother one last time, u get to do it when someone dies
- awwww it ends with her mom finally saying her name instead of all the other versions of "daughter" that she usually uses :(

Remarkable for the scale of threads of ideas it brings together, slightly illogical in execution