Another entry into my favorite books - fantastic

Raybearer tells the story of Tarisai-from her lonely childhood, to her distant mother’s strange command of killing another child she does not know, to traveling to the capital city of Oluwan, to building friendships, and finally finding a family of her own. Then-tragedy strikes. Mystery. Who is Tarisai of Swana? Who will she become?

This book has it all-a beautiful constructed mythical realm, magic, royalty, love. But it also has suspense, murder, betrayal, heartache and mystery. Who is the Lady? Why does she command Tarisai? Why are only the Songland children born as redemptors? You grow to love the characters, want the best for them, fear for their safety, cry for their heartbreak and pain. Ugh I just loved it SO much and immediately downloaded and started listening to the sequel, Redemptor.

There are important, relevant, and painful parallels to the real word. Currents of civil unrest, the erasure of stories, beliefs, and customs by the dominant culture, forced assimilation, the silencing of girls&women, and our stories. Our importance. Our places in history. All these things beautifully woven through the trials of this young character, Tarisai. Not only is this a compelling fantasy, it’s a story of love, rebellion, feminism, and strength.

I also loved how Jordan incorporates her Nigerian heritage into this fantastical place. I’m a sucker for mythology and magic and stories, and Jordan delivers it all and more.

I **highly** recommend this book to any fantasy lovers out there. You will not be disappointed.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Absolutely brilliant!!

That was an interesting ride

Completed my 2021 reading challenge with this 5 star read

This book was really engaging and inspiring, without being overwhelmed with detail and being cheesy at all. I think all of the characters’ growth is the best feature of Raybearer
because it’s just so enjoyable to read. Tarisia feels so real and I truly cared for her wellbeing and all the hard decisions she needed to make about her friends and the empire of Arit (it’s young adult okay).

Tarisia genuinely changes her mind about things when she is given new information of some form. Ifueko shows us how hard it is for Tarisia to understand the impacts of politics and tradition. I found it interesting to see how Tarisia’s change in views differed from how Kirah and Sanjeet reacted when they learn of the truth behind tradition. Ahh this is super vague but I don’t want to spoil anything but also it’s not super surprising either,,,

Ifueko’s portrayal of The Lady is incredible! I love how much we get to know about The Lady. She’s such a nuanced character and quite hard to pin down, which makes every new thing we learn about her so fascinating. Villain or not, The Lady has a personality, motives apart from revenge and genuine relationships with friends and family. I don’t know if this is because I just spent an hour teaching [b:Macbeth|8852|Macbeth|William Shakespeare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459795224l/8852._SY75_.jpg|1896522], but The Lady kind of reminds me of Lady Macbeth. They are both strong, ambitious ‘villains’ who manipulate their family for personal gain. Still, The Lady is a much more interesting character because she doesn’t let her guilt stop her plans.

The world building wasn’t great, but I didn’t mind so much. Raybearer is a character focused and coming of age kind of fantasy, rather than a travel and adventure based one. Eleven regions were just too much for me to remember and I didn’t even try to keep track of where each character was from. Despite that, all the flashbacks made sense and were very atmospheric. The flashbacks were pretty cliche and maybe unnecessary, but at the same time I think not including them would’ve left too much unanswered.

In my opinion, the major flaw in is Sanjeet. He was too cliche to care about. We’ve all read so many books with this SAME character. You know the strong guy who’s exploited to kill people for others, except inside he’s just a softboi. There’s nothing original about Sanjeet. His abusive father forced him to use his Hallow to kill people instead of healing people, he feels guilty for leaving his mother behind and not standing up for his younger brother. I would’ve been fine with all this, but he just takes up so much booktime especially since Sanjeet is the love interest (not a spoiler, you can see it coming if you read YA). To be fair, romance doesn’t take over the plot or
Tarisia’s thoughts at any time, so I managed to ignore Sanjeet’s boringness.

My opinion of Sanjeet is kind of similar to my reaction towards Matthias when I first read [b: Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1628438817l/23437156._SX50_.jpg|42077459]. Essentially a boring dude who has no originality or talents other than his physical strength.

I haven’t talked much about the magic system or the empire of Arit, but I think it’s good to go into the book with a fresh mind. That way you can appreciate how original it is compared to a lot of American fantasy novels. It’s clearly a West African inspired fantasy world and (I might be wrong) but a lot of the spirits and mythology is based on Nigerian culture.

Also, one of the important characters is asexual. It’s not a focus at all since it only comes up
once and everyone who knows (just the kids, but we can hope) is accepting!

I found the feminist theme quite weak because Ifueko didn’t really set up the patriarchy well. Actually at first, I thought the society was quite equal in terms of gender, since the Emperor’s council had an equalish number of male and female members. It’s only halfway through the book where we see how patriarchal the ruling system is and obviously Tarisia challenges this (with a lot
of help from different people).

Another character that I really liked was Thaddace. He doesn’t have a very important role, but without him I would’ve had quite a different view of the empire. I’m glad Ifueko decided to work on Thaddace and his relationship with Tarisia.

Loved this! Super creative and inventive, immersive worldbuilding, rich cultures, plenty of twists, excellent characters- Tarisai my queen!! (Though not all of the Eleven are as fleshed out as Kirah, Dayo, and Sanjeet). Romance, deep friendships, excellent mythology. If you love fantasy, you must read Raybearer. I couldn't put this book down and can't wait for the next!

I enjoyed this book - I liked the concept of the story, and the world that was built. I subtracted a star though because I had some issues with continuity, and a few little plot holes. I also wish that there had been a deeper dive into the other council siblings. Still was a fun story though!

6 stars