Goodreads Synopsis –
In the first book of a visionary fantasy trilogy with its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia, three women band together against a cruel empire that divides people by blood.
Red is the blood of the elite, of magic, of control.
Blue is the blood of the poor, of workers, of the resistance.
Clear is the blood of the slaves, of the crushed, of the invisible.
Sylah dreams of days growing up in the resistance, being told she would spark a revolution that would free the empire from the red-blooded ruling classes’ tyranny. That spark was extinguished the day she watched her family murdered before her eyes.
Anoor has been told she’s nothing, no one, a disappointment, by the only person who matters: her mother, the most powerful ruler in the empire. But when Sylah and Anoor meet, a fire burns between them that could consume the kingdom—and their hearts.
Hassa moves through the world unseen by upper classes, so she knows what it means to be invisible. But invisibility has its uses: It can hide the most dangerous of secrets, secrets that can reignite a revolution. And when she joins forces with Sylah and Anoor, together these grains of sand will become a storm.
As the empire begins a set of trials of combat and skill designed to find its new leaders, the stage is set for blood to flow, power to shift, and cities to burn.
Book Cover –
My Review –
‘The Final Strife’ is Book One of The Ending Fire Trilogy. Now, I first heard about it from the Booktube, mostly only rave reviews about how much they enjoyed this book. I will be honest, I was not very intrigued upon reading the synopsis because it sounded like something we all have read before. But the Book Goddess must have blessed me because I had the sudden urge to give this book a try.
As you can already tell from the synopsis, this book is set in an extremely hierarchical society, people are divided based on the color of their blood. Embers(Red Blood) are on the top, they rule and oppress everyone. Dusters have blue blood and are low working class. Meanwhile Ghostings have translucent blood and have their hands and tongues removed as infants. But around 20 years ago, a group of individuals who wanted to bring a change kidnapped some of the highest caste children and replaced them with ones of a lower class of blood. They raised these children to be able to take over the government when they grew up. Now Sylah (our main character) is grieving the family she lost when the resistance was decimated, addicted to drugs and fighting to survive.
This book was spectacular despite the very slow start. Hate to accept it but I almost gave up at just about 80 pages. The first few chapters were pretty slow and pretty dark. I did not know what to expect and that made me *almost* give up. But thank god I didn’t !! Because it turned out to be so interesting. The tables mainly turned for me when our second main character Anoor was introduced. Don’t get me wrong, Sylah was not bad instead she was a pretty good main character to follow but I just loved Anoor more.
‘The Final Strife’ ended up being a perfect balance between fun, quirky and accessible read along with discussing themes like Opression, Class and Violence in deep. And these are the kind of books that I always fall in love with. I don’t need big moments and actions when the journey itself is enjoyable. And with that being said, I think this served as a great series opener. It has set up the world in a wonderful way and there are too many cards to turn and an empire to topple.
There are some flaws, it raises some questions and might be a tad bit longer than it needed to be. But those things were trivial to me when I was reading because I was having a good time. This is not a funny book by any means but there were things that I really loved. For example – A well structured contest, the world building, the storyline in general and most of all the sapphic romance !! There was not much of it, but I loved whatever we got. There is also a third love interest which made this a love triangle (which was not really needed?) but I was rooting for my Girls !!
Now apart from all the fun stuffs, this book is has a lot of great representations. We don’t see any discrimination based on gender identity. There are sapphic, bisexual, non-binary, transgender characters with great representation. Its also a little dark as we are literally following a character whose hands and tongue were maimed when she was just a kid. I think Saara El-Arifi did a great job showing all of these.
Now, the second book – ‘The Battle Drum’ is already out and I am giddy with excitement to get my hands on it.
Conclusion –
‘The Final Strife’ is an explosive debut set in contrast to a dark and gritty backdrop. It is very true to its cultural roots and has some wonderful representations. A new potential favorite !
Rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
Thanks for Reading !
Book a Fiction 