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Moderate: Sexual content
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Deportation
Faebound is the first book in a new fantasy trilogy set in a world where the elves — locked in a neverending war between factions over limited magical resources — are the only race left after the fae and humans vanished long ago. (Or did they?) At the heart of the story are two sisters: Yeeran, the eldest and a seasoned soldier; and Lettle, a dreamer and a skilled seer.
I had a very good time with this book. The world-building is well done, super creative and never info-dumpy. The sisterhood between Yeeran and Lettle is beautiful but also complicated. And I’m always going to be here for a sapphic rivals-to-lovers storyline!!
Also, the audiobook was very well done and easy to follow once the world was established (as with all fantasy audiobooks). I thought Bahni Turpin brought Lettle’s character to life particularly well.
This may be personal preference, but my only complaint was that the book was TOO fast-paced. There’s a lot of worldbuilding, backstory, and mystery here to fit into only 400 pages. I wanted El-Arifi to slow down, give us more time, let the mystery simmer before it boils, and maybe most of all, give the secondary characters more than one or two dimensions. I know a lot of people felt the pacing made it feel unputdownable, but to me it made the story feel somewhat surface-level.
Still, like I said, I had a good time here and will definitely be picking up the second book when it comes out!
Graphic: Violence, War
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Death of parent
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, War
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Violence
Moderate: Xenophobia
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Sexual content, Violence, War
Moderate: Death, Murder
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Sexual content, War
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Gore, Alcohol
All in all, the only "complaint" I have with the book is that it wasn't long enough. I feel like the first 75% was going at a smooth pace. We were learning about the world and these character and their love interests in the story. Some will they/won't they going on. And then we get to the last, maybe 25%, and everything goes 0 to 100. Not sure what the reasoning for the brisk paced ending was but I'd have gladly devoured another 50-100 pages.
While I am hoping for a longer book in the sequel (cause I just want to know more about this world), between Faebound and The Ending Fire Trilogy, Saara El-Arifi will be on my insta-buy list.
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Murder
Moderate: Xenophobia, War