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chel_joule 's review for:
Faebound
by Saara El-Arifi
I have hidden this review just in case it causes spoilers for those who have not read it yet. It shouldn't be a spoiler because the author paints a big red X on her plot "twists" which is my big, but not only complaint of this novel.
I want to say I really liked the start of this book, for the most part. I liked that we have these three groups of beings in this universe. The war part is a bummer, but intriguing. The plot does move quickly, which I appreciate; sometimes with fantasy you can get too bogged down into the narrative/exposition but this author explains the universe in a way that does blend nicely and doesn't feel overwhelming as the reader. I like that we have a pair of sisters, who are a bit at odds; the development of this relationship is fairly developed in the book, from both Yeeran and Lettle's points of view. I would say Rayan and Lettle's relationship and characters are also, comparatively, well developed.
Yeeran and all connected to her [except Lettle] however are a different story. This book starts off with Yeeran's lover of like 15 years [and also her Cheiftan, Salawa] exiling her for a mistake she made on the battlefeild. Yeeran's like, "yeah that makes sense I messed up." And she maintains her loyalty to this woman. Which if fine, but I'd have liked more internal monologue or more back story here to sort of support Yeeran's feelings here [you do get some; Salawa has run on a promise of helping people suffering the way Yeeran did growing up, but I feel like more is needed here to explain her relatively nonchalant reaction to these events, as well as the crumbling of her life's ambition]. Then she meets Fae-goddess Furi. She meets her moments after she murders [unknowingly] her brother. The romance and feelings that developed between these two needed a LOT more development, in my opinion. Like if they'd gone from hate-fucking to real feelings, that would have made more sense to me than what happened in their development, in a matter of a few weeks. There was little development in their relationship or how they moved through the whole "I-murdered-your-brother-by-accident" and "then-you-imprisoned-me-for-life" thing. And also, once Yeeran bonded with an Obeah and became faybound, the "my-initiation-will-kill-me" thing. None of this was worked through with these characters; they spent a day or two training and then, bam, Furi's the love of her life.
But my main issue with this book is that the "big reveal" parts of this are pretty obvious to the reader. I don't know if they are supposed to be obvious to the reader or not, so if they are, my bad. Lettle makes a prophecy less that 100 pages into the book: "Under a waxing moon that no one can see, when the sun flares and twilight reigns. A burdened partnership will die when poison passes their lips. One gilded, one pearl." You as the reader LITERALLY know who this is as soon as you meet the queens and their crowns. Our characters are not always together, but I am pretty sure Lettle meets the queens long before they are poisoned. There is no good reason why she can't put this together--she puts together pretty quickly her prophecy about Rayan. But let's say Lettle's a bit too in her feelings to notice this one, fine...
...But then this issue is repeated in the book. As soon as they are captured by the faeguard and brought to Mosima, they are thrown into a cell with a man who says he's been there for 10 years and introduces himself as Komi. Prior to meeting him, you hear several times from both Yeeran [in her exposition of the central conflict between the Elves] and from Rayan [in his tragic back story] about the leader of the Crescent Elves [the enemies of the Waning elves that our protagonists are members of] who's name is Cheftain Akomido the Two Bladed Tyrant...who disappeared 10 years ago under mysterious circumstances. Now, I suppose if this character was mentioned once and not several times...or if he introduced himself with a more subtle nickname, we might not have not clued into this, but literally, as a reader, as soon as you meet Komi you know who he is and our characters do not figure it out until the climax at the end of the book. Which feels weird. Again, maybe our readers were supposed to know and the characters were not, but it seems kind of obvious that no one put this together. This sort of detracts from our characters "aha" or "surprise" moments in the novel, making the end somewhat anti-climatic.
That being said, I am interested in reading the sequel to sort of see where this goes and how all of our characters end up.
I want to say I really liked the start of this book, for the most part. I liked that we have these three groups of beings in this universe. The war part is a bummer, but intriguing. The plot does move quickly, which I appreciate; sometimes with fantasy you can get too bogged down into the narrative/exposition but this author explains the universe in a way that does blend nicely and doesn't feel overwhelming as the reader. I like that we have a pair of sisters, who are a bit at odds; the development of this relationship is fairly developed in the book, from both Yeeran and Lettle's points of view. I would say Rayan and Lettle's relationship and characters are also, comparatively, well developed.
Yeeran and all connected to her [except Lettle] however are a different story. This book starts off with Yeeran's lover of like 15 years [and also her Cheiftan, Salawa] exiling her for a mistake she made on the battlefeild. Yeeran's like, "yeah that makes sense I messed up." And she maintains her loyalty to this woman. Which if fine, but I'd have liked more internal monologue or more back story here to sort of support Yeeran's feelings here [you do get some; Salawa has run on a promise of helping people suffering the way Yeeran did growing up, but I feel like more is needed here to explain her relatively nonchalant reaction to these events, as well as the crumbling of her life's ambition]. Then she meets Fae-goddess Furi. She meets her moments after she murders [unknowingly] her brother. The romance and feelings that developed between these two needed a LOT more development, in my opinion. Like if they'd gone from hate-fucking to real feelings, that would have made more sense to me than what happened in their development, in a matter of a few weeks. There was little development in their relationship or how they moved through the whole "I-murdered-your-brother-by-accident" and "then-you-imprisoned-me-for-life" thing. And also, once Yeeran bonded with an Obeah and became faybound, the "my-initiation-will-kill-me" thing. None of this was worked through with these characters; they spent a day or two training and then, bam, Furi's the love of her life.
But my main issue with this book is that the "big reveal" parts of this are pretty obvious to the reader. I don't know if they are supposed to be obvious to the reader or not, so if they are, my bad. Lettle makes a prophecy less that 100 pages into the book: "Under a waxing moon that no one can see, when the sun flares and twilight reigns. A burdened partnership will die when poison passes their lips. One gilded, one pearl." You as the reader LITERALLY know who this is as soon as you meet the queens and their crowns. Our characters are not always together, but I am pretty sure Lettle meets the queens long before they are poisoned. There is no good reason why she can't put this together--she puts together pretty quickly her prophecy about Rayan. But let's say Lettle's a bit too in her feelings to notice this one, fine...
...But then this issue is repeated in the book. As soon as they are captured by the faeguard and brought to Mosima, they are thrown into a cell with a man who says he's been there for 10 years and introduces himself as Komi. Prior to meeting him, you hear several times from both Yeeran [in her exposition of the central conflict between the Elves] and from Rayan [in his tragic back story] about the leader of the Crescent Elves [the enemies of the Waning elves that our protagonists are members of] who's name is Cheftain Akomido the Two Bladed Tyrant...who disappeared 10 years ago under mysterious circumstances. Now, I suppose if this character was mentioned once and not several times...or if he introduced himself with a more subtle nickname, we might not have not clued into this, but literally, as a reader, as soon as you meet Komi you know who he is and our characters do not figure it out until the climax at the end of the book. Which feels weird. Again, maybe our readers were supposed to know and the characters were not, but it seems kind of obvious that no one put this together. This sort of detracts from our characters "aha" or "surprise" moments in the novel, making the end somewhat anti-climatic.
That being said, I am interested in reading the sequel to sort of see where this goes and how all of our characters end up.