Despite having gotten on the book side of TikTok—aka “booktok”—well over a year ago, I avoided taking any book recommendations from users on the app for a long time. I was always so worried I’d be misled or let down by a recommendation. Still, there was one book that both a) consistently received an intense amount of glowing praise and b) genuinely looked interesting to me, a book I kept seeing pop up on my For You Page: Raybearer, by Jordan Ifueko. A few months ago I caved—and man, was that one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while. I was devastated when I finished the book to realize that its sequel had not been released yet, but luckily the wait wasn’t long. I have now finished the duology of Raybearer and Redemptor, and I urge you to do the same.
The premise of Raybearer is that a young girl named Tarisai, who has the power to see the memories of any person or object she touches, is magically commanded by her mother, known only as The Lady, to make the crown prince love her—and then kill him. Tarisai is sent off to compete in a series of trials in order to be anointed into the crown prince’s council. There she meets the prince, Dayo, and a number of other children from the trials. The duology follows her as she struggles with her mother’s command, political intrigue, and otherworldly enemies.
There are so many things to love about this duology. My top two are the characters and their relationships, as well as the magic system/world building. Okay, maybe that’s four things, but they’re related!
Tarisai, for example, is such a well-rounded and fleshed out character. She isn’t perfect, and she has a lot of inner turmoil to deal with, but she is such a delightful main character and so easy to root for. Dayo, as well as two other characters named Kirah and Sanjeet, are amazing supporting characters. They all had distinct personalities, backgrounds, and relationships with one another that I really loved to see. Something I especially enjoyed was the twist on the enemies to lovers trope, something many YA readers might suspect is there based off of the book’s setup, and how the subversion of those expectations adds so much to the series.
As for the magic system, to put it simply the crown prince and king each have a council of 11 people who they are bound to by a power called the Ray, and each member of the council grants their Raybearer (the crown prince and king) immunity to a different death. They are immortal with a few exceptions like old age. Councilmembers can communicate within their minds, and if they are physically apart for too long, they suffer from “council sickness.” What this results in is a group of 12 people who are inextricably bound together, and whose love for one another is unparalleled. Found family trope, anyone?
On the subject of family, the duology shows complex familial relationships in such a compelling way. The Lady is an awful mother, but Tarisai’s conflicted feelings of both loving her and resenting her are so visceral and realistic that it kept me very invested in their mother-daughter relationship. Their dynamic alone was one of the strongest pieces of the series. Then there’s the families formed within councils, and how complicated those get, especially as Redemptor expands on their powerful but imperfect nature. To be joined into a council by the Ray, both parties must love one another, but what does that really mean? Across the whole series I was so impressed by how multifaceted the issues and characters were. Nothing and no one were as good or as bad as they initially seemed, and it was a breath of fresh air to read a YA book that didn’t try to make definitive, black and white statements on good versus evil.
Book one will pull you in with the mystery of Tarisai’s situation and the truth behind the history of the empire, and book two will keep you hooked as Tarisai grapples with the ethics of monarchy and imperialism in a way I’ve never seen before in a YA fantasy about royalty. This duology, in addition to its compelling plot and writing, nuanced characters, and intriguing world building, also has diversity of all kinds in its characters, handles difficult real world issues skillfully, and is feminist to its core. The Raybearer duology is a tale about empowering the marginalized, and along the way you’ll get platonic soulmates, a little romance, and a lot of magic.
Don’t make my mistake of putting off reading this series; if any of what I said appealed to you, you are sure to love it.