An Ember in the Ashes | Sabaa Tahir

You guys. I cannot praise An Ember in the Ashes enough. While I didn’t discover it until 2019, four years after it was published, I’ve never been so obsessed with anything in my life. I devoured the first three books in no time, and I am highly anticipating the release of the fourth and final book in December 2020. If you haven’t discovered this author/series, you’re welcome.

The Plot

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 from 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.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Review

I live for YA fantasies. But I’ve tried so many of them and there are quite a few that didn’t grip me. When I started Ember for the first time (I’ve since read it through two more times), I literally couldn’t put it down. I lost sleep, I shirked all my responsibilities, it was bad. But the good kind of bad that made me want to do it again.

Full disclosure, this series switches perspectives and is told in first-person present tense. It hasn’t always been a popular choice, though it’s growing increasingly common in YA. It can be dangerous to switch perspectives because you risk alienating the audience if they like one perspective more than another, but Sabaa Tahir has such a handle on her characters that it’s pretty seamless once you get into it. I honestly loved every character she introduced and I was excited to see their perspectives as the story played out.

Plot

I’ll start with the plot because there are intricacies in this book that I’m still unraveling. Sabaa Tahir is an own voices author and her mythology is well thought out. You can find out more about her on her website (Do it. She’s SO cool). Anyway, she has a clear structure in mind and it doesn’t feel like the plot meanders at any point which is always nice, especially in a post Game of Thrones world. There are a lot of moving pieces but it’s clear how much work she put into the planning because it all unfolds with great pacing and nice reveals.

There is an art to delivering information, in terms of how and when an author chooses to tell readers anything. It’s hard to talk about this aspect without spoilers, but just know that Sabaa Tahir is an expert and it was so fun to analyze the choices she made throughout.

Romance

Okay, so I can’t wait anymore to talk about the romance. Reader beware, nothing comes easy for Sabaa Tahir’s characters. She loves to make things difficult for them, and she has a special talent for squashing their happiness. But it only made me that much more invested in their stories. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, because it would literally be a crime, but you can see where it’s going in the description. The romance in the book is a sub-plot which I LIVE FOR because I’ve grown out of my love-is-everything stage. It’s integral to the story, but it doesn’t steal the importance of the major plot. Even still, it had me SWOONING.

Characters

By far, the best thing in this book is the characters. Laia, Elias, Helene, The Commandant, The Nightbringer, etc. There are so many people for you to meet, and each of them comes with a well of depth and backstory. None of the cast falls flat – so much so that one of the characters I hated at the beginning of the book became a favorite by the end. Each relationship is given time to progress, along with solidly built backstories for the ones that existed before the start of the book.

The Gist? This Book Rocks

Finally, I have to praise Sabba Tahir’s style. While I was reading I had to stop to jot down quotes and other things I noticed about her authorial choices. I had to stop when I came across unique descriptions like “hungry air” grasping at Elias’s legs. SUCH a treat to read her powerful voice. And each narrator has their own style, so it never feels like an author narrating for a character. It really feels like you’re in their heads.

I love reading (obviously). But after 12 years of formal education + 4 more years in college, it can sometimes sound like a chore. This series reminded me that READING IS SO MUCH FUN. I’ll probably start the series again when I finish this post because it’s that good. Find An Ember in the Ashes on Amazon and go read it immediately.

See you next time! Don’t forget to drop your thoughts in the comments, and happy reading.