Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The Final Strife

This book is a fantasy novel in which colour of your blood dictates the class you are in within society. Those with red blood are the embers “the elites” of society, then are those with blue bloods who are the dusters and below them are those who have translucent blood who are called ghostings. The story follows our main protagonist Sylah as she enters a competition called the Aktibar a competition that takes place every 10 years. Due to a series of unfortunate events she gets sidelined and it’s forced into training a Duster raised by an Ember called Anor.

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ewalkergrace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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malinhalia's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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cozyscones's review

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challenging dark emotional tense 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

5.0

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nettleviolet's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

I wanted to love this book. It had all the elements to make something truly amazing: themes of climate disruption, colonialism, racism, a queer love story, trials to compete in, written by an amazing Black woman. Unfortunately, the story-telling really fell short for me.

There were a lot of good things about this book: the magic system was really interesting, the depiction of addiction was very true to life and the ways that the main character turned to addiction to cope with the immense stress of the intensely oppressed life she is facing feels very real. I really liked the mythology and the mystery that was explored about it.

However, the main premise of the book, that the "chosen one" has missed her opportunity and now must train a princess in her place, feels very unbelievable and left the plot feeling very predictable. It also came with very strange pacing -- we spend chapters building up to trials, mostly in training sessions, and then the trials themselves, the "big thing", take one chapter alone, and are often over in a couple of pages. And I found the outcome of the trials completely unrealistic, within the world.

Lastly, there are three main characters: Sylah, Anoor and Hassa, and we learn very little about Hassa whose storyline and character definitely felt the most interesting. Her story, and the story of her people, is the thing that will keep me reading this series. I'm hoping that, with the trials over, the series will continue to build on the world mythos and politics more, which is definitely very enticing.

Overall, this is not a bad book. It just had SO much potential and I feel it didn't live up to much of it.

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