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Raybearer (Raybearer, #1)

Jordan Ifueko

Start date: January 24, 2022

Finish date: February 19, 2022

Why we're reading this: Raybearer is DMPL Virtual YA for Adults Book Club's February selection! This book club will be held via Z…more
[close] Raybearer is DMPL Virtual YA for Adults Book Club's February selection! This book club will be held via Zoom on Thursday, 2/17 at 6:00 PM. Visit our website or call 515-248-4152 to register or for more details.

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What Members Thought

Mar 21, 2021 Courtney rated it it was amazing

But what title would ever describe me?
Assassin? High Judge Apparent? Puppet demon? Vanquisher of Bush-spirits? I had betrayed Dayo. I had saved his life. No yarn, no matter how tight, could hold back the jumble of contradictions that was Tarisai of Swana.

I still can't get over how gorgeous this cover is.

I always say I'm not much of a fantasy reader but this year is turning out to be quite the year for me and fantasy novels. This book is gorgeous. I started this book slowly, reading just a chapt ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 11, 2021 Danielle rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, ya-lit, audiobooks-read, romance, project-lit-ya

"'Why does everyone hate change so much?' I demanded.
'Because things could get worse.'
'Maybe. But do you know what I think?' My chest throbbed. 'I think deep down, we're afraid that things could get better. Afraid to find out that all the evil - all the suffering we ignore - could have been prevented. If only we had cared enough to try.'"

I'll be the first one to tell you that fantasy is hard for me. It's not that I don't like fantasy, but my brain has a hard time wrapping around the new world co "'Why does everyone hate change so much?' I demanded.
'Because things could get worse.'
'Maybe. But do you know what I think?' My chest throbbed. 'I think deep down, we're afraid that things could get better. Afraid to find out that all the evil - all the suffering we ignore - could have been prevented. If only we had cared enough to try.'"

I'll be the first one to tell you that fantasy is hard for me. It's not that I don't like fantasy, but my brain has a hard time wrapping around the new world complete with new terms and places I'm not familiar with. If I can't root some of the story in my own reality, I'm going to struggle with it. Unfortunately, that's what happened with Raybearer. It's not that Raybearer was a bad story. In fact, I found myself interested in the story and I wanted to know what would happen next. However, keeping track of the characters and places in this story bogged down the storytelling for me and made this one challenging.

I'm not even going to tackle a summary review because... where would I even start? There is so much packed into the 350+ pages of this story. One thing I really liked about this story compared to other fantasy stories is we got to spend so much time with the children prior to them becoming teenagers. I feel like a lot of fantasy stories start off with children but breeze through that part of the story to get to the meat of the events. I appreciated that Jordan Ifueko spent a large chunk of this book giving us details about what Tarisai's childhood was like. I realize this is a major plot point for the rest of the story, but I did like that this part of the story wasn't rushed.

I definitely enjoyed this story enough that I'll (eventually) read the second half of the duology. This is a well crafted fantasy that high fantasy readers are sure to love. The low star rating on this one is merely due to my own struggles with fantasy stories rather than this story specifically.

TW: death (including parental & children), violence, murder, genocide, domestic abuse, mental illness, fire, rape (referenced), emotional parental abuse, suicide (referenced), confinement, drugging, manipulation, enslavement ...more

2 likes · Like · see review