“Raybearer” by Jordan Ifueko • Book Review
Published: August 18, 2020 by Amulet Books
Format: Hardcover, English, 368 pages
“Your heart is not your friend unless you know who you truly are.”
★★★★★ (5 / 5 stars) Raybearer is a masterpiece of young adult fantasy. Based on the writing alone, you can feel from the opening pages that Jordan Ifueko is a powerful force. Every word has been chosen and placed with care, with fluid descriptions like, "Some faces were warm and dark, like mine and The Lady's. Others were pale as goat's milk with eyes like water, or russet and smelling of cardamom, or golden with hair that flowed like ink" (5), threaded along the cutting, fast-paced writing that's propelled forward with every plotted paragraph. Not an inch of story is wasted, as Ifueko weaves elegant foreshadowing and thematic symbolism in every beat of the griot's drums, every whisper of the ehru's commands, every memory gifted or stolen, shared or abandoned.
While Ifueko's craft and talent will captivate readers of any age, it is Tarisai's story—her fierce heart and loyal soul—that will capture your heart. In the words of the sardonic-but-not-quite-jaded Old Mongwe, "You are all the same, young people. Full of questions and deaf to ugly answers. Leaving your safe homes, your warm beds because—let me guess—you want to follow your heart...Your heart is not your friend unless you know who you truly are" (196). Her admonishment presses Tarisai to face a hard question: Who is she, really?
Though it's perhaps most relevant to our growing youth, can we not all relate to such a blatant question of identity, of purpose? After all, it is purpose—her "bellysong"—that Tarisai must discover in order to achieve the unachievable: lay claim to her own magical Ray and the throne of the Empress alongside her cousin (the one she is sworn to protect yet commanded to kill). With a delightfully disastrous Catch-22 premise and a richly developed magical world, RAYBEARER is a booming drum of a story that demands to be devoured.
In case you're still unconvinced of Ifueko's astounding work and Tarisai's profound adventure, here is another of my favorite quotes: "The Ray doesn't pick good people. The Ray picks leaders. And if I've learned anything from serving on the Imperial Guard, it's that leadership isn't good or evil. It's what you choose to do with it" (224). As with so many fantasy stories, RAYBEARER calls into question what it means to be "monster," what it means to be "leader," and what happens when the line between the two grow too blurry to discern. Needless to say, Tarisai subverts that line with her every action, even the flawed ones, and proves to readers young and old that no matter what anyone says, you can write your own story.