A review by volsairine
Faebound by Saara El-Arifi

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Ugh. I want to love this book so badly. It would be a five star for me if somethings had been different, because I love the world building so, so, so much and I really am invested in the plot. However, the dialogue was rough and it felt veeeeery YA (which is why I was shocked by the sex lol).

Personally I feel like the author was a little too heavy handed with the plot twist breadcrumbs, so I spotted basically everything really quickly and that was a little frustrating. MAJOR SPOILER about a plot twist:
the ink thing frustrated me badly. Golan's association with the ink was mentioned like twice before the poisoning and then twice after "I'm all out of squid ink, conveniently right after it was used to murder the queens". It just being mentioned for dying his beard one time would have been sufficient and a great breadcrumb without holding the readers hand too much.
There were so many chances for the author to lead the reader away with red herrings and instead I felt like I was directly led to the twist way before I wanted to be and way before it was revealed. I found myself thinking "No! I don't want to know this!". There was probably only one plot point that genuinely shocked me (which made me excited!). I hope that in the next books she learns to trust her readers a bit more, I promise that we love and appreciate the mystery!

I am very hopeful for the next two books though because I can't wait to see where this goes, I just need the editor to reign it in a little bit pls 😭 Also there was some plot stuff that lost me. MAJOR SPOILER:
Where was the brother/Rayan's dad whenever he was killed? Was he in the fae world? Why was his obeah just chillin out there in the wild??? Also learning a language is VERY hard, especially one that is hard to learn and it felt a little too convenient that Lettle was able to pick it up so quickly.
.

All that being said, I ADOREEEED the disability + gender fluid rep. And Pila. I love Pila. Pila best character. I want Pila to be my bestie.

Additionally, there is not a single mention of sexual violence in this book which is so refreshing for fantasy. Love that. 100% safe for a survivor to read, imo (if they're cool with sex).

I should probably give this book a 3.75 but I enjoyed the world too much so it's a 4. Probably one of my favorite fantasy worlds yet. 
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