The Aktibar – a set of trials held every ten years to find the next Ember rulers of the Empire – is about to begin. And, despite the fact that her relationship with Anoor had a rocky start given that she broke into her rooms and was presumed an assassin, the two young women with the sunshine/grumpy dynamic start to develop a friendship—one that seems like it could turn into more as they grow closer, although there is a love triangle since Sylah was reunited with a man she had a relationship with in the past.

First off, let me just say that The Final Strife has had so much hype surrounding it and, sometimes, when a book is this hyped, it fails to meet expectations. Most disturbing are the Ghostings, the original inhabitants of the land now colonised by the ruling red bloods, and who at birth have hands and tongues removed before being enslaved. The Final Strife is a highly intriguing, fast-paced fantasy novel with entertaining twists and turns.It is an intensely felt, beautifully characterised story where you feel for both Anoor and Sylah - two girls who are quite different in many ways and who are the making of each other as they work together to overturn the rigid ruling class who determines those with blue or transparent blood are social inferiors and are dispossessed. The words, starting in the throats of the officers, had crawled across the river into the mouths of countless children. There were a few places where I was unconvinced by the logic, or didn't understand why someone did something, but that takes away nothing from this stunning debut.

Although targets and combat were part of the test, competitors also had to prove their skills in other areas: tactics, stealth, blood magic, and strength of mind. What can I say, these are characters who love, bleed, love and try, live and dance and just won’t leave me. They also have attitudes towards sexuality and gender that reflect the history of our world before colonization.Hassa was such an interesting character, and I longed to hear from her perspective more, as a Ghostling who had so many secrets of her own. This setting does not have obstacles for women or LGBTQ+ people—as shown through the lives of the three main characters, a trans woman and two women who are attracted to each other—but instead, has divisions based on blood color. K. and NetGalley for the arc of The Final Strife by Sara El Arifi in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. I’ll also mention that among the deaths are queer and Black people, but nearly everyone in this book is Black and/or queer, so it didn’t bother me personally. Stolen from her noble crib as a child, Sylah was one of ‘the Sandstorm’: 12 Ember children raised by rebels to one day bring down the empire — until a massacre left her the lone survivor.

The story itself, an adventure filled with riddles to be solved and problems to be overcome, is fun and interesting but overshadowed by the need to push every boundary. The rebels also trained the children, preparing each of them for one of the tournaments to determine the next Warden of one of the four guilds—strength, truth, duty, or knowledge. Hassa uses this to her advantage, gaining work in the heart of the Ember’s home, gathering information to help other Ghostings. Forced to confront everything she has run from, and the truth of her past, can Sylah achieve the destiny she was trained for?

She’s especially wistful when the tournament she was supposed to enter draws near, but she has an opportunity to influence it after all—even if it’s not how she’d always imagined—when she breaks into the rooms of the Warden of Strength’s daughter and meets Anoor. The world of The Final Strife is brutal and unforgiving, but it is also rich, vivid, and beautifully imagined––not to mention expertly woven into the narrative. It had been some time since I’d been this immersed in a book from beginning to end, and I haven’t read anything I’ve enjoyed as much or thought worked as well since, making The Final Strife my current favorite of this year. It is not just a great fantasy adventure story, it makes you think long and hard about discrimination of all kinds in the real world. Its unexpected, gritty heroine is one you cannot help but root for, and the story will stay with you long after the last page.

It mainly follows three young women—one from each social class based on blood color—striving to impact their world in their own way: by helping another prepare for a tournament to choose a guild’s leader, competing to become a Warden of one of the four guilds, or using the fact that she’s overlooked and underestimated to hide clandestine activities.During the Night of the Stolen, this group sneaked into the homes of several noble families, swapping Sylah and the other highborn children with their own blue-blooded babies.