A review by roadsoftrial
Ariah by B.R. Sanders

5.0

I'm not even sure what to say about this book. I loved it, I devoured it in a few days, I couldn't stop thinking about it whenever I wasn't reading it. It's a story about magic and powers and learning to use it without getting lost in it, but in a very passive, contemplative, introspective way that I had never really encountered in a fantasy setting until now. The books is a long, in depth character study about empathy, the good and the bad that it can do to an empath, about building boundaries, about growing into the person we need to be while trying to unlearn the unfair expectations we're born into. It's about the different types of love, about sexuality and gender and bonds, and the way the lines often get blurred, the ways some lines are or aren't crossed, about coming of age in an oppressive society, about how liberating it is once we decide to make the leap. I want to recommend this book because it moved me in a deep and personal way, but I realize it's not your average fantasy book, that it's not your average coming of age story, that it's a story that might not interest everyone. The writing is beautiful and poetic and flows so wonderfully (I'll admit I got choked up a few times simply from how gorgeous the words were), and never have I identified with a character more, strengths and especially flaws and all, than I have with Ariah. I was curious about this book and its premise, and I had every reason to be.