This book is in many ways my favorite in the series, though I think the first one is still the strongest. The plot of this book is constructed really well. I love the cats. I love Morwen as a point of view character. I think Killer is hilarious (though he’s definitely also super annoying and I can see him bothering certain readers a lot). This book also feels the least dated out of the whole series, for what that’s worth.

The ending would have been the perfect setup to a slightly different/better final book. I actually like when the penultimate installment of a series ends at a lower point before the final installment comes in and fixes things. I just don’t like the last book in this series, and unfortunately, because it was written first, that’s how it was always going to be.

I recommend reading the first three books and then making up the fourth book in your head.

Does this book have literary merit? Yes absolutely. Would I recommend it to anyone? No I would not. 

Holly is definitely a compelling character and I understand why she’s had such a lasting cultural impact (though that’s mostly just people’s images of Audrey Hepburn). I felt like this book was getting at something interesting in its depiction of a glamorous but tragic woman who’s been LITERALLY GROOMED to think that all of this should be normal for her. And her friendship with the narrator (no, that are not any romantic undertones, thank goodness) has a lot of compelling moments.

But, in addition to the grooming, this book contains so much lesbophobia and SO MUCH racism that it was really hard to get through. You expect me to care about characters who are just constantly using slurs to describe everyone they know? No thanks.

My roommate is stage-managing a production of this show. I read the script and thought it had a lot of potential. Great balance of humor and serious topics. Will probably update this review after I’ve seen the production.

This is how you do found family! This is how you do intentional diversity! This is how you reckon with the chosen one trope!

Raybearer WAS the best fantasy novel I’d read this year. Then I read Redemptor and liked it even more. The world is just as rich and beautiful as before. The magic and mythology are just as skillfully crafted. The characters are just as engaging. But the way this book explored and solved the issues of that world is even better.

In the author’s note and acknowledgements, Jordan Ifueko notes that she wrote this book in 2020, during the pandemic, while in the deepest depression of her life. I believe it. Redemptor is full of trauma. It’s full of the weight of the world’s problems and Tarisai’s sense that she has to solve all of them because no one else will. And yet it still felt hopeful and joyous despite the sense of loss and the feeling of immense responsibility that runs through the entire book.

Redemptor is a shorter book than Raybearer, but it took me longer to read because of that greater emotional weight and intensity. I had to take a lot of breaks from it, but I think that was a good thing. This book benefitted from being read slowly.

I don’t want to spoil anything in this review, but I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved this take on the chosen one trope. I just Jordan Ifueko and no one else to write chosen ones in future. No, seriously, please write more in this universe. 

If you were happy about the bi ace rep in Raybearer but you wanted more, I have good news! Redemptor has a sapphic couple and also some Achillean side characters. Also, while we see less of Kirah in this book, her relationship with Woo In, which was one of my only issues with Raybearer, is handled perfectly.

Also, while the supporting cast is mostly different in this one, there’s still a lot of great moments with Dayo and Sanjeet and Ye Eun. And we get to know Ai Ling a lot better, which was nice. And Zuri was a great new character. Also, we gracefully sidestep a love triangle for the second book in a row, which is VERY impressive.

READ THESE BOOKS!

I didn’t like this book as much as the first one cause it felt less focused and more chaotic, but it was still really fun and expanded the world in a good way. It also opens things up for the rest of the series, which is definitely a good thing. 

Aiden and Brynne are great additions to the main cast, and I’m excited to presumably meet the last two Pandavas in book three. Brynne especially is a super intriguing character, and I can’t wait to get to know her better. Also, she’s bi! And she can shapeshift!

My biggest complaint is all the pop culture references. I know they’re sort of inevitable in this sort of book, but they were definitely more present in this one than the first one. And maybe it’s because I was listening to the audiobook, but I was not a fan of Aru just quoting large chunks of Taylor Swift lyrics. Also, general warning for Harry Potter references and an extended discussion of the characters’ Hogwarts houses.

This book is fantastic. The worldbuilding is intricate. The characters are compelling. The prose is poetic. 

Zafira and Nasir are both so multi-layered and I love how their stories converge and intertwine. Actually, one of my favorite things about this book was the way the narration supported that. We go from alternating point of view chapters at the beginning of the book to flowing seamlessly between the two POVs later on when the characters grow closer (and of course that’s only possible once they’re literally in the same place).

The supporting cast was wonderful, too, and I’m excited to see where Faizal takes them in the sequel!

I took off .25 stars from my rating because the plot feels unnecessarily convoluted for a large chunk of the book. I also think the middle section would have been hard to get through if I’d been reading a physical book.

Also, there is far too much queer energy here for a book with no canonically queer characters.

Huntress by Malinda Lo was the first gay book I ever read. This was in middle school, years before I came out to anyone, but it—and Ash, which I read a few months later—very much threatened to awaken something in me. The problem was, they were just sort of fine as books. Nothing special or memorable, and in fact, while I remember liking Huntress better, I could not tell you what the plot was.

So I was excited when I learned that Malinda Lo’s new book was getting critical acclaim. I hoped that she had grown as a writer and that I would be able to love this new book the way I couldn’t quite love her earlier stuff.

And I do! This book absolutely delivered. The writing is clear and compelling. Lily is a strong, interesting protagonist who feels exactly like someone I would meet now while also having these problems that are so specific to her own place and time. 

I loved the focus on queer community. I loved seeing Lily’s growth into her lesbian identity. I loved the way that this book filled in a piece of queer history that is missing from the usual story we get told.

But it was also too historically accurate for its own good. We don’t know what’s going to age poorly in the future, but we DO know what HAS ALREADY aged poorly, especially when that language wasn’t great to begin with. I don’t fault Lo for including derogatory language against Asian characters, especially since it’s mostly just in dialogue (Asian readers, feel free to disagree with me on this one), but I DO fault her for choosing to use outdated and derogatory language to refer to black people in this book, especially since there are no named black characters (a single mention of Gladys Bentley doesn’t count). 

I still highly recommend this book, but I think that’s something to be aware of, and I think that Lo made a bad call to stick to historical language as closely as she did. 

That being said, I loved that she didn’t Anglicize the Chinese dialogue (it’s translated in footnotes instead).

This book has completed what Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café started and Taylor Jenkins Reid has been continuing: I like historical fiction now. I just hated the type of historical fiction that’s about white cishet teenage boys living through world-changing events. Those are the books I was forced to read in middle school, and they were all awful.

Be aware that racism and homophobia are main parts of the story and that romance is present but not the main focus. Nothing too awful happens, but don’t read this book expecting a fluffy romance or anything cause it’s very much not one.

This book really, REALLY knew its audience. It’s written for a specific group of people, and I think it’s going to appeal to that specific group very well.

I hadn’t read the first two books in the series before reading this one, so that might color my responses to it somewhat. I do plan to read them, but after interacting with the characters from the first two, I’m guessing that this will end up being my favorite of the three. 

Things I love that this book had:
Second-chance romance
Friends to lovers
A very chaotic cat
Lots of bi characters 

It was fun and definitely sexy and it would probably be a good end to the trilogy if I’d read the other two first.

There were also a couple scenes that genuinely made me laugh out loud, one involving the cat and one involving mayonnaise. You’ll know it when you read it.

Like I said, this book REALLY knows its audience. Unfortunately, that audience is white millennials and not really anyone else. The references to Friends and The Office, the leggings, and the all-white friend group composed mainly of feminine women really did make me wonder whether this book was REALLY written this year because it sort of felt like a sitcom from 2006 but made sapphic. And that’s fine! Just not quite my cup of tea.

(I have obviously read books that are whiter than this one, but most of them were set in rural England in the 1800s, not major US cities in the 21st century.)

Anyway, if you like sapphic romcoms and cats and you’re okay with a lot of astrology and millennial references, you will absolutely enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an eARC of this book!

This book was so fun! I loved how the mythical elements were incorporated. The characters were really engaging. I felt like I learned a lot about Hindu mythology while also just reading a fun little adventure book. I will definitely be reading the sequels and in fact I think I will now read everything Roshani Chokshi has ever written because this and The Gilded Wolves are both great.