A Torch Against the Night

I love that this book carried so much momentum and urgency. Again, with the lightening pace that didn't feel TOO fast but made it hard to put down! I really enjoyed getting Helene's perspective and feeling completely torn about who to root for throughout the book. The story kept me engaged, and managed to build upon the character depth I so enjoyed from the first novel.

The best books are the ones where the line between good and evil is so blurred, and the characters so balanced with a bit of both, that you're left torn in trying to decide which side to root for!

Definitely read it.

"Perhaps grief is like battle: After experiencing enough of it, your body's instincts take over. When you see it closing in like a Martial death squad, you harden your insides. You prepare for the agony of a shredded heart. And when it hits, it hurts, but not as badly, because you have locked away your weakness, and all that's left is anger and strength."

There is not much joy or humor in A Torch Against the Night. This novel is a harrowing tale of genocide, prison torture, devastating betrayals, public executions, and a menacing evil coming to power. Laia and Elias have escaped the city, but their journey to rescue Laia's brother from a high security prison is an ugly one. They are joined by the enigmatic and shadowy rebel Keenan show more and Laia's dear friend Izzi, but they do not know what dark fates await them. With bounties on their heads, their path plagued by roadblocks and delays, and Elias slowly succumbing to poison, this book is a somber affair.

"Shadows gather, Elias, and their gathering cannot be stopped."

This book did not interest me for much of the first half and we are faced with the unfortunate task of slogging through a horrid love triangle. However, the legendary jinn have a stronger presence in this installment and chapters told from Helene's perspective break up the monotony while offering a disturbing glimpse of the bloodthirsty new Empire.

Tracks:
Who Stole the Soul - William Elliott Whitmore
It Only Takes One Shot - Lera Lynn
The Way it Goes - Gillian Welch
My Silver Lining - First Aid Kit
Sweetgrass - Lauren Shera show less

Book 2 of the Ember in the Ashes series starts immediately where Book 1 ends- seamlessly. For me, Book 2’s are usually a disappointment in that their sole purpose is to set up Book 3. In this case, Book 2 is every bit as good as the first one.

Characters- The characters have realistic flaws. No one is pure good or pure evil, which I appreciate. Main and minor characters are done well, have stories you care about and no one exists just for the sake of being able to kill them off later to create “fake” drama. Everyone serves a purpose and has a story you care about, which is why it hurts so bad when something terrible happens to them. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t elaborate- but understand that the danger to show more characters is REAL, Sabaa Tahir has no qualms about torturing, maiming or killing characters. (Which I equally appreciate and hate….LOL)

Story- I love the story arc, I have read plenty of books in which a strong female lead is trying to work against the ruling class to save the world….but somehow this is done better than I have ever seen it done. I also appreciate that one of the villains is also a woman, so often the female MC is fighting against a patriarchy. I also appreciate that there is more than one villain and there is still WAY more going on than we have been apprised of. Even within the villains, there are folks working to their own ends……just so much drama. I am not sure how Tahir finishes this in two more books, although she obviously did.

Writing- There is a lot going on, but I appreciate the short chapters and descriptions that are “just enough.” I can read a few chapters after work and my tired brain can handle it. There are some Fantasy books that I need to read during the summer when I am not working so that my brain can keep up with large casts of characters, or dense, description packed world building.

Much like Book 1, there are things either depicted on the page or talked about that some readers may find triggering: Including but not limited to torture, child slavery, slavery, child abuse, starvation, physical abuse, death, violence, gore, genocide, executions, family loss, murder, coercion, manipulation, toxic relationships and I may have left some out. The violence and other triggers are not gratuitous, and add to the drama and tension in the story but for some folks this may be difficult or mentally distressing to read about. You will have to decide what is best for you and your mental health.

This book is full of tension and much like Book 1, I had a love/hate relationship with turning the page- torn between needing to know what happens next, and scared to find out what happened next. This is not a lazy afternoon read- this is a fly by the seat of your pants, stressful, adrenaline filled, angst ridden, mile a minute, tension fueled ride and I enjoyed every minute of it. This book is like Game of Thrones and Hunger Games got together and had a book baby, WOW. show less

I’m not done reading, but I’m so ready to review....I sat on his book till the next came out and I have to say, yeah, I’m not sorry. I worried I’d forget the first (I didn’t) I worried I’d be disappointed (I’m not)

Apologies if I spell things incorrectly- I’m on my iPad with a sleeping child laying on me—and I listened.
The good:
Helene becomes a fully formed, 3D human. And it’s heartbreaking
Elias...reluctant mask, hero complex Elias...has a good bit of growth served up to him through side characters and Laia and it’s heartbreaking
Caris and Marcus remain wickedly cold. I like YA fantasy for this at times. Give me straight up evil.
The pacing is breath taking, heart racing perfection and it’s heartbreaking
Sabaa show more Tahir’s feminism. Lots of talk about not taking away a woman’s choice, and propping up women by women. Subtler things like Hel considering her sisters wishes...oh, and well, the badasses of this book are women. And they are badasses in a myriad of ways. Tenderness, leadership, evil, cunning, love, fire, fight, intellect...

war in an empire, oppression, genocide, elite soldiering, nobility...a young woman of color rising to the occasion. Her counterparts doing the same. I love these characters, I’m with them, this book may not be groundbreaking but it’s entertaining...

Now, don’t read further if you care

There are several things I need to discuss here including the loss of laia’s Virginity...
Elias is fucking....dead-ish.
What the hell is Laia
Ember, torch, then REAPER?
The swoon of Elias’s prayer directed at Laia show less

I think that this second book in the series that began with An Ember in the Ashes is better than the first book, and the first book has been wildly popular. This second is definitely not a standalone, however.

Note: Spoilers for Book One, but none for this book.

In Book One, we met Laia, a young woman determined to rescue her brother Darin from the prisons of the Martial Empire. Laia and her family are Scholars, enemies of the Martials. Laia manages to enlist the help of an elite Martial soldier named Elias Venturis. Elias, though skilled in killing, has somehow remained good on the inside, and is sickened by what the Empire asks of him. In particular, he loathes the sadistic commandant, who happens to be his biological mother.

As Book One show more ends, one of the worst of the Martials, Marcus, has become Emperor, and Helene, long the best friend of Elias, has become (not by choice) Marcus’s chief assassin. Elias decided to flee the Empire, and he and Laia are on the run, racing to try and rescue Darin from the notoriously bad and impenetrable prison to which he has been taken.

This book is almost all action from the moment it begins - taking up right where the first book ended, and adding even more violence and brutality to the tale.

The focus shifts back and forth among Laia, Elias, and Helene. All of them struggle with competing loyalties, and accommodation to their roles in the changed Empire. The females are intelligent and brave, at least up to a point, but there is no doubt they are the heroes of the saga. [Note if I said “heroines” it would imply they were only sidekicks to male heroes. So one has to choose the “masculine” form of the word to indicate their prominence in the story.]

There is also a time limit to something that will happen in this book, adding a lot of tension and energy to the story, and making one want to race through to the climax.

Discussion: There is more depth to this book than just the usual YA tropes, of which there are plenty. But there is also much sadness, loss, pain, suffering, and a sensitivity to feelings of loneliness and horror. There is guilt, loyalty, and love, and triangles, albeit with fuzzy edges.

The books raise questions we continue to face in real life: how, in the face of tyranny and threatened death, can we stand up for justice, and at what cost to ourselves and our families? Is it wrong to take the “easy” way out? How do we live with ourselves for the bad choices we have made?

There is also an ongoing theme of the fear of hurting those we love, and the advice not to lock oneself away from others because of it: “What point is there in being human if you don’t let yourself feel anything?”

And perhaps most importantly for these fallible characters, there is the admonition not to let failure defeat them:

“Failure doesn’t define you. It’s what you do after you fail that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfect good air.”

In the Acknowledgments, the author thanks some of her fellow YA fantasy authors for their friendship and chats, and interestingly, I can see the influence of some of them in this work. When one of the characters speaks of love, it particularly reminds me of Renée Ahdieh:

“You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release.”

Evaluation: It isn’t often that a “book two” of a series is better than the first book, but I think it is true in this case. I didn’t always like the choices made by the characters, but couldn’t help liking them or hating them for who they were, and really enjoying the story. show less

UPDATE 10/01/2021

CW: child abuse. torture, brutal on-page death of loved ones, slavery, genocide

Well the drama continued and got even darker! In my opinion the more interesting story arc in this book was Helene's. She is depicted as both vicious and vulnerable. I love characters that fight moral wars within themselves as she is torn apart by duty, familial love and the bonds of friendship. Not quite as strong as the first book but still loved it.

UPDATE 6/12/2021 - Rereeeeead!

Enjoyed it even more than the first one (in part because I didn't have to hear the horrible voice the narrator used for Helene in the audio version of book one). Excellent plot with twists I didn't anticipate. Amazing and varied female characters. Really good ethical dilemmas. Her world building is very good as well. The sections with the Dreamcatcher were sometimes a bit choppy, and I'll be interested to see how she develops this strand in the final book.