Book Review: The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

• Title: The Battle Drum
• Author: Saara El-Arifi
• Year: 2023

Dammit Dammit Dammit. It ended! And it’s only the second book in the trilogy! And it’s new! So I have to wait even longer to learn how the whole thing ends! This is horrible!

And by “horrible” I of course mean “pretty good, actually.” Having to wait to see the end of a story you enjoy may be a problem, but it’s a good problem to have.

This sequel expanded upon the world El-Arifi introduced us to in The Final Strife. The main characters remain, but are largely separated as they follow their path toward the final war. The story builds well upon the foundation laid in the first book. I wasn’t thrilled with how some of the backstory chapters dealt with flashbacks, as it often wasn’t clear until much later that they were flashbacks. I’m sure that was intentional, for reasons that become obvious by the end, but it was confusing. Aside from that, though, I entirely enjoyed this one and am grateful to my local public library for acquiring it so quickly.

(Also, this one gets extra points for adding a kitten to the cast of characters.)