5/19/2023 0 Comments Ember in the ashes series![]() ![]() I really enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes ! Here’s why: He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined-and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier-and secretly, its most unwilling. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.īut when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. ![]() It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | My Goodreads review That's more than I can ask for in a book.Not sure what this means? Learn more about my rating system here. Overall, great stuff! I have my little gripes, but I had fun along the way, and Sabaa Tahir always leaves me reflecting on myself and my relationship to the world after finishing her books. I felt there was a great job of character development through the smaller actions described, and Sabaa Tahir did a great job of making me love, hate, and feel invested in her characters. I truly felt invested in the main characters by the end and felt conflicted with what was going through their minds. The book truly hit its stride in the second half, where all of the dominoes that were set up start to fall over, revelations are made, friendships are tested, and we're left with more questions than we started with. I feel like Sabaa Tahir was hinting at a reveal of an entire new dimension to this world, but hopefully that gets more fleshed out in the next books. ![]() Speaking of which, the supernatural aspect of this story is what truly has me interested. Also, the lore of the Scholars once being in power but now being the oppressed is interesting, while also having other, more supernatural forces at play. I thought the masks were an interesting aspect of one's loyalty being visible by all, based on if it's fused to the face or not. Also, maybe I'm dumb, but some of the smaller plot points got lost on me, mostly the smaller intricacies of Laia's dealings with the Resistance.īut for all of my complaints, there were a lot of parts I liked. But the Scholars being people who loved knowledge, and Marshals being people who rule with an iron fist, and don't forget the resistance fighters, known as the. Also, a small gripe, I felt like the names of the factions in An Ember in the Ashes were a little uninspired, although that's not the biggest deal. While I get why the bad situation and social hierarchy trope is a thing and is appealing to the primary audience-young adults-it feels a little overdone in the wake of Harry Potter (Dursleys/Hogwarts houses), Percy Jackson (single parent struggle/Camp Half Blood), and Hunger Games (District 12 squalor/the districts). Things start off in a standard way for your typical YA dystopian-esque novel, where adolescents are depicted in bad conditions, to say the least, and you learn about how the world is divided into factions/groups/districts. I came in expecting a story just as thought provoking, poignant, and eloquent as All My Rage, and while An Ember in the Ashes didn't quite reach the peaks of Sabaa Tahir's latest novel, its action-packed storyline and colorful cast of characters had me turning the metaphorical pages of my audiobook in the back half of the book. After reading All My Rage, I knew I had to give Sabaa Tahir's other books a read. ![]()
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