I generally am often disappointed with YA fantasy, because a lot of it limited worldbuilding, a good dose of instalove and a fairly generic plot. This wasn’t always the case, but as I’ve read more and YA fantasy, the more I have often been dissatisfied with many books in the genre. So, Raybearer was an absolute delight and considering it is a debut, I cannot wait to see what the Ifueko will be writing in the future. This was simply such a lush and magical fantasy book and I ended up really enjoying it.
It is based off, or at least inspired by Western and Eastern African cultures, which I don’t know much about at all, so for me, the worldbuilding was incredibly interesting, rich and lush. It’s just really great seeing new authors telling stories about their cultures and it also means that I have so much more to learn about the world and all the fascinating cultures that I have yet to learn much about. All I can really say about the worldbuilding was that I really liked it and liked the concepts, and for, it was totally original, but for others it may not be that are educated on West African history, myths and lore.
The plot was really good, and it takes place over a span of several years, which isn’t normally done in YA fantasy and starts off more as a middle grade as we follow the characters childhood, which gave much more depth to the character and it was meaningful to the main storyline. The main character was also really well written and all the side characters, like Sanjeet, Dayo and Kirah was also really interesting to follow.
It is told from the first-person perspective, which isn’t always my favourite, partly because it presents a skewed view and also because everything is centred on the main character and we don’t really get to see or feel what everyone else is going through. That being said, just due to the nature of the story being told, I do think that this story being told in first-person was the right thing to do, as despite it taking place on a massive world, it is also sort of a contained story in some regards in that almost everything that happens is directly related to the protagonist Tarisai.
It is based off, or at least inspired by Western and Eastern African cultures, which I don’t know much about at all, so for me, the worldbuilding was incredibly interesting, rich and lush. It’s just really great seeing new authors telling stories about their cultures and it also means that I have so much more to learn about the world and all the fascinating cultures that I have yet to learn much about. All I can really say about the worldbuilding was that I really liked it and liked the concepts, and for, it was totally original, but for others it may not be that are educated on West African history, myths and lore.
The plot was really good, and it takes place over a span of several years, which isn’t normally done in YA fantasy and starts off more as a middle grade as we follow the characters childhood, which gave much more depth to the character and it was meaningful to the main storyline. The main character was also really well written and all the side characters, like Sanjeet, Dayo and Kirah was also really interesting to follow.
It is told from the first-person perspective, which isn’t always my favourite, partly because it presents a skewed view and also because everything is centred on the main character and we don’t really get to see or feel what everyone else is going through. That being said, just due to the nature of the story being told, I do think that this story being told in first-person was the right thing to do, as despite it taking place on a massive world, it is also sort of a contained story in some regards in that almost everything that happens is directly related to the protagonist Tarisai.