Book Review | Raybearer [CC]

Hello and welcome or welcome back to 
Bookmark Chronicles today I am doing  
a review of Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko I love 
this book it was so good oh my god I knew this  
was going to be a good book it was one of my most 
anticipated I expected that it’d be five stars but  
damn it was so good in this we follow Tarisai who 
is a young girl who’s been raised in isolation she  
only sees her mother who she calls The Lady every 
few years and she wants nothing more than to have  
parental affection be a constant part of her life 
but she doesn’t know why The Lady keeps leaving  
finally one day The Lady returned and tells 
Tarisai that she will be sent to Aritsar to become  
a council member of the crown prince however once 
she’s anointed to the council The Lady demands  
that Tarisai kill the crown prince unfortunately 
for Tarisai there is some magic involved and no  
matter what happens she will be compelled to 
obey that demand everything about this book is  
absolutely amazing there was one tiny thing that I 
did not like but I won’t talk about it yet because  
it is a spoiler so I’m not going to get into that 
as far as things that I liked the world building  
was amazing I love the found family aspect I love 
the magic system just the way that everything  
works in this world is absolutely beautiful and 
stunning and

I feel like the writing is very
lyrical and descriptive that you can very easily
picture what Aritsar is supposed to look like
I don’t know I just everything about it was good
everything literally everything I did also listen
to the audiobook of this which I highly recommend
so one thing that I do really really love about
this is that there is a list of characters and
pronunciations of their names in the back of the
book as well as a glossary which is very helpful
for all of the different spirits and fairies and
creatures and realms and all of that but that’s
also another reason that I decided to listen to
the audiobook to make sure that I was getting the
correct pronunciation of everything the narrator
of the audiobook did a fantastic job so I highly
recommend listening to it if you can I’m sure
none of you are surprised but I did rate this five
stars and it will absolutely be on my best of 2021
list if you have not yet read Raybearer but would
like to this is your official spoiler warning as
I get into the plot and the details and all of
the things that I can’t say without spoiling
to start off I did really enjoy the parts where
Tarisai was still at Bekina House and just like
learning more about her and the time when she
tried to run away to find her mother and when she
accidentally bumped into her father or when she
fell into a fire pit and walked away without a
single scar all of that was really awesome for
shadowing for what was later to come I feel like
the fact that Tarisai is a Raybearer is kind
of obvious since it’s called Raybearer she’s on
the cover but the way that all of the details are
unraveled I absolutely loved I feel like this book
had a few plot twists I don’t know if that’s just
me and if I just wasn’t really taking the time to
predict what’s going to happen but I was shocked a
few times I also have to admit that I did not mind
the romance in this book I actually quite
enjoyed interactions between Tarisai and Sanjeet
at one point I was a little worried that they
were going to try to make a little love triangle
and throw Dayo in there but I’m really glad
that they didn’t especially since you know we
do find out later about their cousins so that
is actually the one thing that did bother me
as they start to get older they start referring
to Tarisai as Dayo’s favorite and whatever
and people keep saying” oh well
maybe you’ll bear a future Raybearer”
so the whole council was just gonna let that
happen knowing that they were cousins????
that is like the one detail that I was like
wait a minute what no because that’s weird but
I’m glad they didn’t try to do any you know mortal
instruments Clary-Jace [ __ ] and that they just
let her and Sanjeet be really happy about that
I don’t even know how to correctly organize my
thoughts and talk about how much I love this book
and why the world is awesome I mean it is a lot
to keep track of because there are 12 realms and
four different religious sects and then you gotta
keep in mind like the folklore with warlord fire
and the pelican and everything like that but it
just all comes together so beautifully that like
even if you are a little confused at some points
everything starts to make sense in the end so
of course one of the major twists in this is
surprise The Lady is the emperor’s sister I
knew that The Lady and the emperor knew each
other somehow I did not think that she was
related to him my immediate assumption was
maybe she was on his council at one point or
was supposed to be but I did not expect that
they were related and he banished her because he
didn’t want to share the throne basically what we
learned about the emperor is that he has a fragile
ego and he’s incredibly insecure but whatever I
think the second thing that really shocked me
was when the emperor decided that Tarisai should
sentence her mother’s death I feel like that’s
a little harsh but we already know the emperor
is fragile as [ __ ] so are we surprised no no we
are not the fact that she like completely threw an
audible and just revoked the unity edict I think
was great I love that part and think it’s one of
the many things that was also foreshadowing
obviously Tarisai would be a wonderful ruler
even when I think they were still pretty young but
Dayo made a decision and Tarisai didn’t agree with
it but she’s like running through every reason
why that’s not going to work in her head but
she didn’t say anything out loud that was a really
good scene also foreshadowing like you you clearly
know that something is up right the next thing
I was not expecting Thaddace to be the one to
kill the emperor I was shook I did not see that
coming at all I wish that we had seen his trial
and I don’t know if we’ll get to
see that in the next book but I
I would love to see that oh Woo
In accidentally killed The Lady
I love a good plot twist and that
that was definitely a good one
I think the last thing that like really
surprised me was Tarisai giving herself
up to the underworld I didn’t expect it but it
makes sense I did see the cover of book 2 before
I read this so that kind of spoiled it because
I was like wait why is that called Redemptor
naturally she offers her soul to the abiku so cool
so I don’t know if there’s a publication date yet
for Redemptor this is just duology which I really
like I’m glad we’re not going to be like waiting
years and years to get the finale to this so I am
interested to see how that works out we now know
that she needs to anoint her own council I don’t
know how she’s going to do it and she only has two
years she has two years to anoint her own council
and then give herself up to the underworld and
then she has to survive the underworld so I think
it’s going to be really great I don’t even know
if this was like a comprehensive review and not
just me gushing over this book I – I don’t know
I don’t know but I loved it and I’m super excited
for the next one I need it like yesterday I cannot
wait to see how it ends and I mean like I can
guess how it ends because it’s the YA fantasy but
still you know so yeah I don’t know if that was
an actual decent review and if this video is
going to be worth putting up but uh if you’ve
read Raybearer please let me know because I
need to talk about it to somebody because I
just I’m-I’m just blown away I think besides
Monday’s Not Coming this is definitely the best
book that I read in February so if you’ve read
Raybearer let me know let me know your thoughts
in the comments uh tell me what predictions you
have for Redemptor otherwise that’s all I have
for you today and I’ll see you in the next video