An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Synopsis:
Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. 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.
It is in this brutal world, inspired by Ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them within the Empire’s greatest military academy.
There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.
Review Time!!! W/ spoilers also from A Torch Against the Night
I am completely in LOVE with this book! The writing, the pacing, the characters, the storyline, and the world building is just PHENOMENAL! I’m always iffy about first books to a fantasy series because they usually aren’t as interesting due to the amount of world building that needs to take place BUT THIS ONE. It was perfect! Sabaa Tahir does a wonderful job keeping the storyline and characters interesting while building her world.
This is my second time reading Ember since 2016. I forgot so many things that happened and I’m so glad I read this again especially with A Reaper At The Gates coming out! I definitely need to reread A Torch Against the Night as well.
One part I really want to talk about is the scene when Elias is being held in the cell for his execution and the Commandant pays him a visit. I (so oddly) really liked this part. We spend the entirety of the novel, reading about how cruel and horrible the Commandant is and when we get to this part, we see a different, more human side of her. I also felt this weird sympathy for her, despite how evil she is. We find out that her father didn’t really care about her. No matter how good of a Mask she was or how many people she captured or the fact that she was the best soldier Blackcliff Academy ever had in generations, it didn’t matter to her father because she was a girl.
I do really want to know what happened to the Commandant that made her so bitter because I’m pretty sure not getting enough love from your father doesn’t make a cold heartless bitch.
Also, this is the first time the Commandant says Elias’s name and refers to him as her son. We find out that she actually cared for Elias when she gave birth to him and left him with a good family. This is why I really sympathized with her. But then she wanted to kill him after leaving so, yeah. Sympathy is out the door. Especially because I know how much of a bitch she is in A Torch Against the Night.
See, this is why I loved rereading this book. I know everything that happens after so I saw a lot of foreshadowing and know who’s an asshole and who’s isn’t.
The first time reading this, I was on the Elias/Laia ship all the way but I don’t know this time. I really love the dynamic Helene and Elias have. It also might have to do with the fact that I love the best friends to lovers trope so I DON’T KNOW. I think I equally love Elias with either Laia or Helene. But throughout this whole novel, I was kinda rooting for Helene and Elias.
I have to talk about Zak! Oh my gosh. I lowkey kind of liked Zak. He didn’t seem to be as much of an ass as Marcus was. Also, I think he liked Helene??? The part where Laia and Izzi open the Farrar’s secret passage and overhear Marcus and Zak talking, we can kind of infer that they’re talking about Helene. Zak tells Marcus that Marcus knows how he feels about “her”. This makes me so sad because what if Zak actually did like Helene? BUT HE DIED! Or did he? We didn’t see him die and the Augurs are known to be fucking sneaky as hell. I hope with some weird plot twist that he comes back but as a different person.
I am really interested as to how Marcus will end up. I don’t know if he’s entirely the asshole that he is (from the first book) or does he evolve into this really complex character we can understand? He doesn’t have to turn good but I mean, can he turn into a more understandable character? We can see his potential to be one. After the Third Trial, Elias has a conversation with Marcus and Marcus looks traumatized at the fact that he killed his own brother. Again, we see a different and more human side to a different character who we’ve only seen as a fucking terrible person.
I felt so much sympathy for Marcus when he talked about Zak and the fact that Zak’s first and last words were his name—I about fucking cried at that part. SO! Now, I don’t know how I feel about him. I don’t necessarily like him but I don’t hate him with a fiery passion.
Every time Laia was with Keenan, I kept screaming, “NO! DON’T TRUST HIM!!!!!” I consider this one of the perks of rereading because I know who is an evil little fuck. And when Laia told Keenan about the spy, I was so baffled. My thoughts in that moment were, “You just told the SPY that there’s a spy, and now you’re fucked.”
I was so proud of Laia at the end! From the beginning, she was always doubting herself for being so afraid and weak BUT AT THE END! She finally became the person she’s always wanted to be, and I felt like a proud parent. You know how Darin’s voice is always talking to Laia? Yeah, it killed me (in a good way) when she recognized that that voice as her own voice, guiding her and telling her not to be afraid. MY GOD. OUR GIRL LAIA HAS GROWN!!
This book weirdly makes me feel euphoric. I loved that the perspectives of this book was from a first person point of view. I think that made me feel closer to the characters and understand them better than I would with other characters who are written from a third person perspective. The first person point of view probably had a lot to do with making me feel that euphoria. Especially with Elias’s chapters.
One last thing! Can I bring more appreciation to Spiro Teluman? The man and his wise, wise words. He was such a great support system for Laia and made her realize what she is capable of if she lets herself. Let’s not forget this quote from him. “But there are two kinds of guilt, girl: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.” YES.
All in all, I really really loved reading this book! It was such a rollercoaster of emotions but I would gladly do it all over again. I know I didn’t talk a lot of the main characters and that’s because I feel like you can find different reviews talking about them. Not that I didn’t love them. I LOVE THEM WITH ALL MY HEART. It’s just that I wanted to talk about other characters and things I noticed or liked a bit more. Also, I kind of have a thing for villains because I feel like they are very relatable and understandable.
Definitely go check out this book if you haven’t! I don’t know why I’m saying this, you literally just read a spoilery review about it but still go check it out! It’s such a well written book and so worth the hype. 5/5 stars for me.