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you should absolutely give 1000 stars a watch, it’s another non-school based thai drama & it’s so good!!!
i see it on my dash all the time and my sister watches it and i’ve been tempted to! i actually also started lovely writer which i need to finish catching up with as well
A Reaper at the Gates • The Prophecy
Elias: Do you think horses get songs stuck in their heads?
Helene: Oh, my God. I don’t know. Go to fucking sleep Elias.
elias: The field of battle is my temple. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release.
Me:
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
Synopsis: (This is the second book to the series, An Ember in the Ashes)
Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire. Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom. But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike. Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
REVIEW TIME!!! With spoilers, of course!
The book starts exactly where Ember ended and we’re immediately plunged into the story again. I really want to know what Laia is, because when she touched the efrit in the tunnels and the Nightbringer, they repulsed at the touch of her. I wonder if she’s like a half jinn??? WAIT. What if Laia’s dad did something like offer Laia’s soul to a jinn and that’s why she has magical abilities and that would explain why Laia’s parents were always arguing? Hmm...
I recant my statements about the Commandant. All through out this book, she was just horrible. She was always belittling Helene, making her feel stupid, basically committing a mass genocide of the Scholars, and so much more evil shit. But I do wonder, did the Commandant sell her soul to the Nightbringer? Or did something traumatic happen to her that caused her to commit all these horrible crimes? I don’t know why I’m so hooked on this idea of these people selling their souls to mythical creatures but it would kind of make sense, right?
Speaking of mythical creatures, I hate Keenan/The Nightbringer with every fiber of my being. The way he betrayed Laia was so cruel. He made her feel safe and loved and cared for, only to steal her armlet and leave her (I’m honestly not mad that he left her because HE NEEDED TO GO). What a fucking asshole. He slowly made her feel stupid and weak which I hated so much. I was glad that Laia started realizing he was making her feel this way because she does not deserve to be treated like she’s weak. May I just add that Keenan killed a dog? Oh yes, he did. PAGE 305. I understand it was to keep them safe but HE’S A FUCKING JINN WITH MAGICAL POWERS. He could’ve used his magic to silence the dog. I’M JUST SAYING. Once you kill an animal, you are dead to me.
Every time Keenan showed up or was mentioned, I kept rolling my eyes. I swear I thought my irises were going to disappear into the back of head because of him. THE FACT THAT HE WAS THE NIGHTBRINGER JUST MAKES ME SO ANGRY. I had a feeling that Keenan was the Nightbringer the first time I read it so I wasn’t really surprised but I don’t know why this time, I was so shocked. I think it had to do with all the subtle hints dropped, like what he said and what he did that correlated to what Laia loved and said and remembered.
Okay, about the silver pieces for the star. I have a hunch that one of the pieces is the mirror that Helene puts on Livvy’s wall. Helene also describes it as being silver. I think one of the other pieces is Elias’s mask because Helene still has it and (duh) it’s silver. HOLY SHIT. Do not tell me that the Nightbringer is going to go for Livvy or Helene, but he just might do that. Also, how many pieces of the star are there? And how many does he already have?
I know I already read this but I was still shocked when Harper told Helene about his and Elias’s father. I want to know who it is. I want to know who he was to make the Commandant have a child with him. Harper describes their father as someone good, someone who didn’t like what the empire stood for and that does not sound like the Commandant’s type.
I don’t know how I feel about Harper. He seems like a good person with good intentions but we barely know anything about him. I want to ship him and Helene because he does seem protective of Helene but I don’t know. I’m itching to know more about him so I can make my assumptions on him.
I also don’t know how I feel about Marcus. The entire book with the exception of the very ending, he was just disgusting, rude, and horrible. In the very last chapters, we (again) see the humanity in Marcus. As much as this kind of pains me to say because what Marcus has done is gross, I still kind of sympathize with him. He still grieves his brother’s death and is physically and emotionally being torn down BUT I think this is the doing of the Nightbringer. I remember something about the Nightbringer wanting to take over the new Emperor’s body/mind.
Oh! There is something I’d just like to point out. So when Helene heals people with her voice, I think she inherits the injuries those people have, because when she healed Cook of her wound on her side, Helene’s body mimicked the wound. Maybe that’s why Sabaa Tahir didn’t have Elias tell Helene that he was poisoned because that meant she would have been poisoned too. This is a big maybe but it makes sense.
I don’t know about any one of you guys but I want so badly for Laia and Helene to have a friendship together. I think their dynamic would be so good and that they would understand each other so well. We can kind of sense some sort of friendship between them when Helene helps Laia break Elias out of Kauf and I just want that friendship to continue to grow and blossom.
I don’t want Helene to become so cruel and cold like the Commandant. She’s had her “unmaking” which broke her but I want her to rise from all this and freaking kill the Commandant. I hope it’s Helene who kills the Commandant. Or Laia. Or anyone. I just want the Commandant dead and gone. When Elias and Laia knocked out the Commandant, they could’ve just killed her then and there but NOPE. They spared her life! WHY.
I honestly have no clue how A Reaper At The Gates will go. I’m not prepared but I am excited. I just hope that our precious babies Elias, Laia, and Helene aren’t so damaged but we know that their story isn’t a safe one so... *sighs* I’m growing so attached to these characters and it’s hurting my soul a little bit. I love them and the story so much! I do like Ember a bit more but Torch is such a good sequel. 5/5 stars!
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.
Rogue - Bond enthusiast
Barbarian - AEW enthusiast
Monk - Fitness enthusiast
Fighter - Feat fetish
