by Saara El-Arifi ★★★★☆
Since bursting onto the scene with her novel The Final Strife in 2022 (which came out of nowhere to be my #3 book that year), Saara El-Arifi has been on my radar, and apparently has been cranking out hundreds of pages of finished fantasy each year since. Her followup last year, The Battle Drum, was another 5-star book for me, where El-Arifi managed to broaden the world she had created significantly and successfully, while still creating a path back to a conclusion where other more experienced authors (George R. R. Martin, anyone?) got themselves into trouble when trying the same thing. With the third book in the trilogy, The Ending Fire, due out later this year (and already a pre-order for me), I certainly didn't expect more from El-Arifi before that. But up popped Faebound, with a brand new world and set of characters (and, it seems, the potential for a sequel to follow); I was excited to give it a try.
The novel introduces us to a world in which, at one point, three races existed: humans, elves, and fae. As we open the novel, all that are left are the elves, who are embroiled in a never ending civil war among their tribes they call the "Forever War". We're introduced to a trio of main characters: Yeeran, recently made a colonel in the Waning tribe's army; her top captain Rayan, a longtime friend and fellow soldier; and Yeeran's sister Lettle, who is different from her sister in many ways but the person for whom she cares the most in the world. When Yeeran makes a tragic decision in battle, she is banished from all elven lands, and Rayan and Lettle go in search of their friend and sister. No one has seen fae or humans for more than a thousand years, but that is about to change. Without giving too much of the story away, I'll simply say that the trio find themselves in the land of fae, with both their lives and their freedom on the line.
Like with her previous novels, El-Arifi once again amps up the creativity she employs in crafting worlds, societies and a history to support them. Where The Final Strife books delve deeply into commentary on class and prejudice (with the ingenious device of using blood color to distinguish class), Faebound does so at a slightly reduced level. Whether that's fae vs. elf, or within the fae community, where those that lack a certain ability are derided for being "Lightless", El-Arifi explores those societal prejudices.
One area free from prejudice in these worlds is gender and sexual orientation. As she has done in the past, El-Arifi makes a point to include broad representation across genders and sexual orientations, and I'd say she reached a personal peak in this one. I appreciated her efforts at inclusion, but it was pretty heavy-handed, almost to the point of distraction. However, given the complete acceptance among characters of all genders/identities/sexual orientations (with more than a dozen different examples to prove that point), the lack of prejudice was commentary in and of itself.
While spending a little less time on societal prejudices, El-Arifi fills that extra room with a significant uptick in romance, to the point that I would easily classify Faebound into the emerging category of "romantasy", akin to books like Fourth Wing (which I happened to like a lot!) and, perhaps a more direct comparison, Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses. I haven't read "ACOTAR", as it's affectionately abbreviated by readers, but I'd wager that fans of that series might also enjoy Faebound given what I suspect are some similarities. There is romantic tension throughout, with burgeoning relationships and multiple will-they-or-won't-they potential couplings. And, once "will they" wins out, there's a decent amount of pretty descriptive sex. There's "lots of spice", as they say, and if that's your thing, there's a good chance Faebound is one you might like.
Unfortunately, hot fae/elf sex is not so much my thing. While I appreciated the level of creativity in the world-building and the layers of thoughtfulness incorporated into crafting the elven and fae societies, I thought the plotting of Faebound wasn't quite as intricate as with El-Arifi's other books. While the novel is complete and could be read as a stand-alone, it does lend itself to what I expect will be a sequel. If that happens, I'm not sure I'm up for more of this world; this was a high-3- / low-4-star book for me, and from my perspective, The Final Strife series is more my style. If you read The Final Strife and found yourself wishing for more sex and less violence, then Faebound might be for you; otherwise, I think The Final Strife and The Battle Drum are better books in multiple ways, and I'd focus first on that series.
