An Ember in the Ashes

With a deft hand, Sabaa Tahir plunges the reader into a strange, harsh, and unforgiving world, where the mighty Martial Empire swept over the Scholar’s country and took them captive. Now, 500 years later, the Scholars live in poverty, as menial labors, or slaves, to the dominate Martial. But the Scholars haven’t forgotten their roots and seek to rise against their oppressors and free themselves.
Laia, born in a Scholar family, knows all too well the might of Martial law. Her family has suffered much under them. But her family was strong, courageous – and she is not. But she will need to be if she is to save the last member.
Elias is a Golden Son of the Martial Empire, seemingly the brightest and best – but he has a dark secret. show more One that will get him killed if he isn’t careful.
Through twisted circumstances, Laia and Elias cross paths, each changing the other irrevocably.
World-Building: Tahir’s world reminds the reader of Roman, if Rome had guns and magical creatures like Djinn. Without being heavy-handed, the author pulls the reader in and gives clear picture of the culture and customs.
Characters: Each character goes through realistic growth, albeit with the normal angst and if-you-just-talked-the-problem-would-be-solved issues normally found in your YA novels. The PoV shifts between Laia and Elias and Tahir did an excellent job of making them sound different.
Plot: Fast-paced, never a dull-moment. Several times things happened that were mildly unrealistic, obviously used to move the plot forward, but nothing egregious. It certainly didn’t hinder my read-it-all-in-one sitting drive.
Overall, this is a better example of the YA novels available and worth reading. show less

5 / 5

it’s so rare and refreshing to encounter a fantasy series that doesn’t overwhelm, but still sucks you in. i remembered devouring this the first time i read it, and so i figured it was gonna be good. lemme tell you: good is an understatement.

laia and elias man. i love how they come from polar opposite worlds, and thus give us so much context for the world we’re in - laia is a scholar, lowborn, second class. elias is the heir to a powerful family in an empire that oppresses scholars. their paths cross so naturally; it just feels good when it happens, it makes sense, it’s SATISFYING!!!

tHIS is how you write consumable fantasy. i loved that i wasn’t being thrown a thousand different names - locations, deities, historical show more events, characters, oh my god it’s too much sometimes. but this book did a great job of keeping me focused. it wasn’t too dense! and the plot just flows like a river baby, every chapter giving you a little something something. a treat, a reward. i love it when i’m reading a book and reeeeeaaaally want something to happen and THEN IT HAPPENS. that was the case throughout this book (which may indicate that it’s predictable, but that didn’t bother me one bit).

i loved the main characters - i felt connected, i admired them, they felt distinct, they earned my trust, i looked up fanart.. like, it’s serious. laia is sensitive and strong, elias is honorable and gentle, they both fight for what they believe in… chefs kiss. i feel like they complement each other beautifully. i absolutely froth at the mouth when the male main character is enchanted by the female main character from the very start. but it was still believable! their connection grew steadily (and i’m sure will grow even more steadily in the second one) and happened so naturally. it just worked!

you know what else i loved? this book is bruuuuuutal. slavery, r*pe, dismemberment, whipping, torture, death… this is some sick and twisted shit!! the stakes felt very high, the twists had me huffing and puffing. and hey. who doesn’t love a rebellion. a little revolution for you. just a cheeky little resistance movement. it’s a favorite of mine!

i straight up have nothing negative to say about this book. i’m in a space of “this book rocks and no one can change my mind.” i enjoyed it thoroughly. the writing? impressively good. engaging, thought-provoking, powerful. the plot? fabulously planned. the characters? i love them. are there flaws? yeah i’m sure there are but honestly i didn’t give a fuck about the flaws. a five star review is a rare bird - i recommend this book to literally anyone who likes fantasy. even if you don’t usually like fantasy, i feel like this will still work for you.

well done. well done indeed. 5/5! show less

When her brother Darin gets captured by a Mask for his sketches of Martial weapons and her grandparents are murdered in front of her eyes, Laia's life changes forever. She knows she isn't strong and courageous like her parents, Scholar Resistance leaders, were but she's determined to free her brother. Training to be a Mask, one of the feared warriors of his class who subjugated the Scholars generations ago, Elias chafes against what he knows to be an evil system and dreams of escape.

It's the teen librarian's fault. She keeps buying really good fantasy books, and I see them in the purchase order and immediately have to put them on hold. This one was so worth getting my hands on immediately. I started out thinking I knew what I was show more getting into, standard teenage dystopian fare, and then one by one my expectations were turned on their heads. It's a fantasy, in a well-realized world that had a great balance of familiar and different. Laia and Elias trading narration ratcheted up tension and kept me reading speedily. I really liked both characters and liked seeing how they develop: Laia in her quiet courage and Elias as he tries to do the right thing in a place where that could be punishable by death. One of the dangers of first-person narration is that other characters seem flat in comparison, but others like Izzi and Cook and Helene and Marcus were fleshed out well and believably. The ending was satisfying and leaves room for more without a Major Cliffhanger spoiling the rest of my afternoon, too. Highly recommended for fans of teen fantasy like Graceling or Red Queen. show less

Ooookay, this book. I actually give it a 3.5.

First... the good. The world. Holy crap, this world. Amazing. Sabaa Tahir did an absolutely phenomenal job world-building. The Empire is fascinating and horrifying and creepy and powerful, and I'm absolutely dying to know more. For the love of God, tell me more about Kauf! Tell me about the desert wastelands! Tell me about the Borderlands! What's beyond them?? Tell me about how the Masks are chosen, and why any parent would do that to their child!!

As for the story itself, the concept is wonderful. A slave is sent to spy on the sadistic Commandant, who is in charge of the school that trains the Masks, the deadliest assassins in the Empire. Meanwhile, a disillusioned Mask is desperate to run show more away, but is instead caught up in Hunger Games-like tests that will determine his future and freedom.

Brilliant concept.









Lackluster execution. I found my excitement deflating the more I read, once the initial setup was done. Once Laia was stationed as the spy, and once Elias began his tests. I just... didn't feel like the payoff was good enough. Maybe it's because I don't read YA very often, but I was annoyed, and then REALLY annoyed, by the attraction felt between the characters. They're are all in these drastic life-or-death situations, and spent too much time talking about his eyes, or her figure. Every male seems to be attracted to Laia, who doesn't realize how stunning she is. And she's attracted to every male she encounters, because of course a love triangle is needed in a YA novel. I just did not buy it at all, and it made me frustrated and took me out of the story, so my investment in the characters waned a little. There was no build-up to attraction. These characters barely have any time together, but they're all attracted to each other. And maybe it's because they're constantly on the verge of death that physical attraction is something they indulge in, but again, I just did not buy it. It seemed unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and didn't contribute to anything. Laia's attraction to Keenan did nothing to further the plot. Neither did her attraction to Elias, or his to her. It would mean more if Elias protected Laia not because he was attracted to her, but simply because she was a slave and killing her would be wrong.

Ugh, I needed to rant about that. The potential love triangle really killed this story for me. It was not needed.

Also, I didn't really like Laia. I know she's probably going to grow as a character, and she has to start off scared and meek, but I can't really name any other character traits other than that. She starts to be brave, but to me, every character in this story is brave because they have to be. I don't know how else to describe her. I don't know her personality, which isn't a good thing, because she's a POV character. Same goes for Elias. He's tormented and troubled, but that's about all the adjectives I could come up with for him.

There were other problems. The Commandant needed to be fleshed out more. She was a bit two-demensional, with a weak attempt at humanization at the end. She needed to loom more heavily in Laia's mind, since her last slave killed herself. Also, there were so many names thrown around when Elias was first introduced, I had a hard time keeping track and suspected they were just there to die later.

Okay, I needed to vent, because this book had such potential, but the characters themselves and their actions killed it. I'm holding out hope for the next 2 books, because I want to know much more about this world. I hope I start to like Laia more. I hope there is less time focusing on Elias's muscles, and Laia's figure. show less

- The dual pov. It just works. The way it was used was much better than [b:Allegiant|18710190|Allegiant (Divergent, #3)|Veronica Roth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1395582745l/18710190._SY75_.jpg|15524549], fot example.
- I love Elias' relationship with Hel
- The idea about a world in which Scholars are enslaved. Scholars. See what's going on here? It's an awareness of intelligent people being underrated/resent/bullied. The unfairness of real life. How accurate it is!
- The story about the trials. It was very fun reading about Elias and Helene and Marcus and Zak. The trials are challenging enough (though the last one is so unfair for Elias)
- How Elias and Laia seem like they're having their own show more story. That means they have things to care about, other than just sitting there and mooning over each other.
- The character development. Laia used to be a self-doubting, fearful seventeen-years-old but at the end she breakthroughs to be a brave, unstoppable girl. Elias's change of mind is important too.
Speaking of which, Elias's realization at the end of the book. That was powerful
- Elias and Laia. This couple wasn't the kind that met and fell in love right on chapter 5 or 10 or even 20. I don't remember but it probably took longer than that. Love that lack of insta-love. show less

Holy cow, where to begin......this book is FANTASTIC. The world building, character development, plot, political intrigue was all done so well. One of the reviews said this book is Game of Thrones meets Hunger Games meets Romeo and Juliet which is spot on.

I have personally been on an escapist, Romantasy kick but picked this book up because the reviews were so good. Yesterday, I sat down to get started thinking that I would just read a couple chapters- seven hours later I was still reading and could not put it down. The characters are easy to relate to, the dual perspectives of both Elias and Laia is extremely interesting. Usually when books do dual POV’s I like one more than the other and just tolerate the others, but in this case I show more equally enjoyed both POV’s. The supporting characters are not afterthoughts, they are well thought out and add to the story. I found myself caring just as much for the supporting characters as I did for the main characters.

I also appreciate the danger characters find themselves in is ACTUALLY real. Most of the time when characters find themselves in peril, you aren’t really scared for them because you know they will come out of it pretty well unscathed- the only question is HOW they manage to come out of it. In this regard, the book is very “Game of Thrones” and Sabaa Tahir doesn’t shy away from situations that most authors would…..I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t say more. I just appreciate that the author isn’t afraid to create real drama and peril. Sometimes I had a love/hate relationship with turning the page, torn between needing to know what happens next and scared to know what happens next. This really added to the likability of this story for me.

This book has no trigger warnings, but it should be noted that there are some things readers should be aware of before picking up this book. The following subjects are talked about and/or depicted on the page- rape, slavery, genocide, fascism, racism, sexism, child abuse, child labor, manipulation, emotional abuse, torture, disfigurement, branding, whippings, animal cruelty, murder, loss of family, mass murder and violence. This book is extremely emotional and tense, it is not a light hearted read.

With all that being said, I absolutely loved this book- it is going on my favorites shelf to be read again. I could not put it down and I can’t stop thinking about how well written it was. I am just glad the whole series is available, so I can keep reading without having to wait! show less

Well gee, this book is the definition of tension. I actually took a few months' break from reading it because it got so intense (and also, the 2016 U.S. election was happening and the world was bleak enough as it was). I was very sure everyone was going to die at any given moment. It is spine-tinglingly uncomfortable, but also passionate and full of emotion and that delicious sympathy you crave for terrible characters but can't fully embrace... of course, because they're terrible. The world is brutal, characters are complex, choices are not easy, but the ending is very satisfying.

In any case, I've finished and I can finally stop holding my breath. Until I start the sequel of course...