A review by distilledreads
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

adventurous mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love the world Saara El-Arifi has created in Faebound with the dynamic of fae, elves, and (once upon a time) humans. It is a queernormative fantasy, which I am absolutely adoring at the moment. There are F/F, F/M, and M/M relationships mentioned on page as well as nonbinary characters. Again, I just loved the world El-Arifi created and the mythology of creation with the three gods each representing a different race and bestowing a “power.” 

Strangely, despite falling in love with the world, I can’t pinpoint if there is a single character that I love as much. I enjoyed the characters, but I didn’t quite fall in love with any of them. Also, while I love the queer rep, none of the romantic partnerships had me in a chokehold, not even the enemies-to-lovers one. I will take a moment to appreciate El-Arifi’s depiction of siblings though. Even though our sibling protagonists are older (early-30s and late-20s), they still bicker like children. It is a dynamic I’ve seen with my own siblings at times, where we can revert back to the same arguments we had at 8 and 12, even though we are now much older. 

As well, at times the foreshadowing in Faebound felt quite heavy. For every twist and turn, the groundwork has been put in place already on the page, so there were no surprise twists for me, but that didn’t make me like the book any less. Overall, the premise and world-building sunk its teeth into me with Faebound and I am eagerly anticipating the next installment. 
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