Alfajiri is a bright, inclusive, imaginative fantasy following a young woman who is torn between the destiny she was raised to pursue and her desperation to uncover dark secrets from her past. 

 

We follow royal heir Kiah, who is faced with a tremendously difficult choice. She was raised by Queen Vashti - but is not her daughter by blood - and has questions about her past and the reality of the throne’s actions. Kiah and her two friends set out to uncover the truth and determine to whom they should declare their loyalty.

 

Alongside her story, there are vignettes of various other curious characters in her world. It’s not immediately clear how these all connect (and there are still unanswered questions by the end), but they begin to intersect and reveal more about the greater world by the end of the book.

 

While Alfajiri involves high fantasy elements (elves, magic, and so on), they are quite lightly incorporated. It’s not hard to be dropped into the world - you don’t have to input complicated magical systems or vast maps - you’re shown exactly what you need to know to understand throughout each vignette. And the overarching themes of oppression and colonization are quite connected to our current reality. 

 

There are so many unresolved threads and little hints sprinkled through these chapters - I figure there are a lot of plans for this series and a lot left to be discovered.

 

You may have stumbled across some angry reaction videos on TikTok (“how DARE you, Michael LaBorn?!?”)  … they weren’t kidding. There’s a cliffhanger here that will leave you hungering for (or just straight up demanding) the second book in the series.

 

CW: murder, death (incl. death of parent), colonization, oppression, gaslighting, abandonment, grief, war, violence

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