The Final Strife

by Saara El-Arifi

First of all, a BIG thank you to HarperCollins UK for providing me with an eARC of this book. I’ve had my eye on this for what feels like forever, but I didn’t think I had a shot at getting an ARC. I’m so lucky!

[This eARC reminded me of why I prefer physical ARCS, though. It wasn’t formatted for my Kindle Paperwhite, and the wonky formatting not only took me out of the story a little, which detracted from my overall enjoyment, but occasionally caused confusion because the formatting often jumbled conversations, causing me to occasionally not know who said what and/or I didn’t know who was speaking at any given moment. All that said, I’d rather have an eARC than no ARC. They just make reviewing the story difficult. Not all eARCs, in my experience, have these problems, but it’s been a few since I’ve had a not-wonky eARC. It’s making me crave a physical book, so that’s what I’ll end up picking next, rather than my latest eARC. Which makes me sad, but it is what it is.]

Second, just LOOK at this gorgeous UK cover! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – the UK usually does better, more stunning covers. Sorry, US, but it tends to be true.

ANYWAY!

Per usual, I knew very little about this book before going into it. For example, I didn’t even know about the different colors of blood. But if you like to know more than that going into a book, see Goodreads for the synopsis, which you can read here!

Recommendation: If you’re all about rebellions, complicated warriors, and enemies-to-lovers romances [and you don’t mind LGBTQ+ romance], then this book may be for you! Sylah is an incredible complex badass itching to rebel, and unafraid of tangling with people – in both ways, if you know what I mean. The world feels real and deep, well-thought out and executed. Personally, I’m looking forward to Book Two. That said, it didn’t hit the way I expected, so keep that in mind. The writing style did take me a second to adjust to, but that may be more due to the short break I was recently forced to take and the fact that my last book was a YA Contemporary rather than on Adult Fantasy.

In my opinion, if you’re worried about insta-love here, I really don’t think it’s present. It does feel a little rushed when it does come, maybe a little sudden, but not INSTANT by any means.

That said, let’s talk about the characters a bit. The only character you can go into this book knowing about is Sylah, our leading lady born to burn. Talk about a flawed character! She more or less begins as only having one thing going for her: that she’s everything her movement wanted her to be, at the core . . . buried, as it were . All of her behavior and thought processes are all 100% her movement’s desire for her to behave and think. The Sylah at the end of this book is very much NOT the Sylah at the beginning of the book. It’s hard to even describe her character arc WITH spoilers, let alone without. I really feel like she developed quite a bit as a character/person throughout the book, which is awesome. Your MC doesn’t always change so notably in Book Ones of series, sometimes with the second or later book really bringing about change.

When ending this book, I was still left with questions. But isn’t that a bad thing? In my opinion, not at all! In this case, it’s largely because the book left me curious on why certain aspects of this society have worked the way its worked for all these years. I will admit that there’s one question that might poke a decent sized hole in the society-building, but that 100% could be that my memory is failing me or because I ended up reading too much of this book tired. HOWEVER – even with that possibility, I’m invested enough that I want Book Two sooner than I’ll get it – even if I get the eARC. The book is still good enough for me, even if that hole really is there.

I’m dying to talk about the other characters [and events and details], so, on to the spoiler section we go!

**SPOILERS AHEAD, BEWARE! DON’T CONTINUE UNLESS YOU DON’T MIND SPOILERS OR YOU’VE READ THE BOOK! FEEL FREE TO COME BACK AND CONTINUING WHEN YOU FINISH READING!*

ANOOR STARTS OUT SO SPOILED AND ANNOYING! [Don’t be mad, you know you were thinking it, I was just willing to say it straight out.] In all seriousness, though, Anoor needs to start out that “bad” [and, honestly, it’s a complement to the author that I feel that strongly about her thoughts and behaviors] in order for you to appreciate her character arc. Because Sylah isn’t the only character/person to end as a completely different . . . character/person. I might even like Anoor more at the end than Sylah.

SPEAKING OFF WHICH – can we take a second to talk about my torn feelings on Sylah? She’s this complicated badass – that also annoys me every now and then? She’s somehow something like a selfishly selfless person? Like, she takes too much pride in her “selflessness” but is really selfish about that “sacrifice? But that’s not even quite right – she hits like she thinks she’s the savior the world needs, she’s the perfect gift to this society – but also this never-going-to-recover-completely addict who’s useless? That she’s everything – but only with the joba seeds. But, again, it isn’t even that – that’s part of her character arc, her personal progression. It’s how she obsesses over it, how she goes about thinking on it – or something. I’m struggling to put it to words, and perhaps I’ll update this later if the words finally come to me, but I’m hoping I’m making my point. There’s something about Sylah that rubs me the wrong way, and makes Anoor come out higher in my book. But maybe that’s intentional about her? Maybe she’s supposed to feel this way about her? I guess I’ll find out as the series unfolds!

The “side characters” don’t feel shallow, empty, or like filler. In fact, I enjoy most of them. Except Lio. I don’t know if Lio feels forced/shallow or if her personality rubs me the wrong way, but I don’t care, at the moment, if I never “see” her again.

The class separation by blood color. I feel like I’ve read a book that did that before, but I didn’t hate the idea then, and I don’t hate it now. And beyond the blood color, this world feels like I could go visit it, it feels so real. I don’t know that it’s the best world building I’ve ever seen, but still impressive and well done! I’m looking forward to seeing more of it with Anoor as disciple, and the rest of the world with Sylah – and Jond? I understand why she struggled to kill him, and why that means he had to come along, but what will his presence change/bring about? What role will he play in the story going forward?

And what about Hassa? I loved her before Anoor’s turnaround “knocked her down”, but, honestly, I think they’re tied in my book [sorry, not sorry, Sylah]. I love Anoor for her improvement and progress, but Hassa started off a winner for me. That’s not to say Hassa doesn’t have any room for improvement or is perfect, by any means, but I love her. I don’t know if I feel like I relate more to Hassa or Anoor, but I’m SO excited to see what role she plays in this going forward. Her backstory just made her even more amazing in my eyes.

Jond. Serious mixed feelings about this guy. He has a serious shot at a redemption arc, but he’s, in his own way, just as spoiled as Anoor – just without really any improvement. At all. Jond at the beginning is almost identical to the Jond at the end. The only difference is the pain Sylah puts him through – both directly from her and indirectly by what her choices “force” him to do to her. He hits more entitled than Anoor at times. And the torn part comes here: that makes him extremely annoying in this book, but leaves him WIDE open in the coming story to improve – or regress. Which is, in its own way, exciting to see unfold.

All in all, a really good book, and I’m glad I have the Goldsboro SFF edition coming. [Eventually.] And the Waterstones, because I love the UK cover more than the US, and I wanted a copy to celebrate getting the e-ARC. It feels like such a victory for me and my small following. I wish I could have gotten around to finishing the book and writing this review sooner, but I underestimated how much of an impact moving and returning to the workforce [and this job especially!] would have on my spare time. [Aka what is spare time right now?] Buuuuuuut I have too many books to read, so make time I must, and I’m hoping to write more reviews soon! Stay tuned!