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A review by rubeusbeaky
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko
5.0
"Uniformity is not unity. Silence is not peace."
I was literally crying by the end of this book ;___;. It's magnificent, and SO important, and ought to be required middle/high school reading. There is so much to love and unpack and discuss! It's a tale about community, empathy, and the value of diversity. A tale about imperialism, assimilation and cultural erasure, and about immigration and the struggle to both honor one's roots and find one's self. It's about inherited prejudice, and balancing the love for a parent with the disillusionment with their flaws. It's a story about history erasing the accomplishments of women, denying the intelligence of women or the roles they can play in humanity's story besides Mother and Daughter. It's an LGBTQA positive story, with an Ace deuteragonist who isn't depicted as an emotionless robot, and many many examples of platonic physical affection - I am starting to cry just typing this ;_;. THERE IS SO MUCH LOVE IN THIS BOOK! It is a VERY emotionally intelligent book. Characters strive to sympathize with each other, to understand one another, to forgive one another, to effect changes in the world that help one another...
AND it's a fantasy! A beautiful, rich, full world with religions, and history, and rituals, and poems, and magical creatures, and magic spells, and magical transportation... All with nods to African and Asian cultures, celebrating what makes them beautiful. Even the smallest descriptions are the biggest accomplishments. Tarisai gets out of a bath, and her naturally frizzy hair has poofed into "a cloud", and her friend calls her beautiful. How many times have I read about a black girl's natural hair being called beautiful in a YA book? Literally never, this is the first! Why is that? HOW is it that employers /I/ have worked for STILL consider natural black hair to be sloppy and against company dress code?! This. Book. Is. EVERYTHING! Young people need to hear they're beautiful. Readers need to see their reflections in what they read. And the world needs this book. If one heart, and one mind, can be changed... imagine what might follow.
I don't want to pigeonhole this book with that last example. Books with a black protagonist, a focus on black history, black authors, black bookshop owners - they all face a bias in the industry and get shunted into a single category, as if they're only for a black audience. Ridiculous. Empathy is not skin-deep. I am a marshmallow-white girl, and I am crying like a baby right now, because I care about this book so d--- much. Literally EVERYONE who picks up this book is going to find something that resonates with them.
"I only know the world is big, and I am sick of pretending it's smaller." GO READ!
I was literally crying by the end of this book ;___;. It's magnificent, and SO important, and ought to be required middle/high school reading. There is so much to love and unpack and discuss! It's a tale about community, empathy, and the value of diversity. A tale about imperialism, assimilation and cultural erasure, and about immigration and the struggle to both honor one's roots and find one's self. It's about inherited prejudice, and balancing the love for a parent with the disillusionment with their flaws. It's a story about history erasing the accomplishments of women, denying the intelligence of women or the roles they can play in humanity's story besides Mother and Daughter. It's an LGBTQA positive story, with an Ace deuteragonist who isn't depicted as an emotionless robot, and many many examples of platonic physical affection - I am starting to cry just typing this ;_;. THERE IS SO MUCH LOVE IN THIS BOOK! It is a VERY emotionally intelligent book. Characters strive to sympathize with each other, to understand one another, to forgive one another, to effect changes in the world that help one another...
AND it's a fantasy! A beautiful, rich, full world with religions, and history, and rituals, and poems, and magical creatures, and magic spells, and magical transportation... All with nods to African and Asian cultures, celebrating what makes them beautiful. Even the smallest descriptions are the biggest accomplishments. Tarisai gets out of a bath, and her naturally frizzy hair has poofed into "a cloud", and her friend calls her beautiful. How many times have I read about a black girl's natural hair being called beautiful in a YA book? Literally never, this is the first! Why is that? HOW is it that employers /I/ have worked for STILL consider natural black hair to be sloppy and against company dress code?! This. Book. Is. EVERYTHING! Young people need to hear they're beautiful. Readers need to see their reflections in what they read. And the world needs this book. If one heart, and one mind, can be changed... imagine what might follow.
I don't want to pigeonhole this book with that last example. Books with a black protagonist, a focus on black history, black authors, black bookshop owners - they all face a bias in the industry and get shunted into a single category, as if they're only for a black audience. Ridiculous. Empathy is not skin-deep. I am a marshmallow-white girl, and I am crying like a baby right now, because I care about this book so d--- much. Literally EVERYONE who picks up this book is going to find something that resonates with them.
"I only know the world is big, and I am sick of pretending it's smaller." GO READ!