Book Review: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Raybearer

by Jordan Ifueko (YA Ifueko)

 

Raybearer was one of those books with an enormous amount of online hype and a pretty cover. I was hooked from the first chapter, which reads like a little fairy tale in itself. Tarisai is a girl who isn’t allowed to leave her mother’s mansion. She’s to study hard to pass an Imperial test and not ask questions about why or even who her mother is. She sneaks out and meets her father, who is a magic creature who grants wishes. He gives her a vision of how her mother trapped him and tried to wish for the death of someone. That wasn’t allowed, but she forced him to make a child with her whom she could give one command. So Tarisai learns she was conceived by rape to gain a prince’s trust, love him, and then kill him.

 

This is a fantasy book about an empire that’s based more in Yoruba and other West African cultures than European culture. There’s strong worldbuilding around the magic of the Raybearers: an imperial line of rulers who are nearly — but not quite perfectly — immune to all deaths but old age. A small group of people bound to a Raybearer by love and magic may kill him. Meanwhile, the whole empire is on the verge of renewing its pact with the underworld, where they must send children with a particular birthmark down as sacrifices or else monsters will attack them all. The odd thing is that these birthmarks appeared on children across the empire until a generation or so back when they all began to appear in a single nation.

 

This is a great read if you like villains who are ruthless, but for good reasons. While there are revelations and resolution at the end of this book, it is clearly the start of a longer adventure with a group of vibrant, relatable characters.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor.]

[ official Jordan Ifueko web site ]

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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