Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be
I have had An Ember in the Ashes on my bookshelf a while now and I just did not get to reading it, but now I finally did. I liked it so much! I needed to finish it because I was so curious on how it ended.
Book Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Rating:
Title & Author: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Genre: Dystopia, Fantasy
Release Date: April 28 2015
Series: An Ember in the Ashes
Publisher: Razorbill
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 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.
I give An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir five out of five hearts. I enjoyed it so much! The world was sort of original, some elements I recognised from other books. But the characters are very original and great. I liked that a lot.
Laia is a strong, curious girl/young woman. She is not whiny like a lot of female main characters I have read about the last few times. Sabaa really shows how strong Laia really is by having her go through terrible things. Which made me feel sad, but also happy she was strong enough to carry through.
Elias is much like Laia, but where Laia has to find out she is strong, Elias is already strong. He has already gone through a lot of hardship and just wants to be free.
I was very happy that even though both main characters get love-interests during the novel, those relationships are not so much on the font compared to most ya fantasy novels. This also makes the relationships between Laia, Keenan and Elias and Elias and Helena seem more real.
The Commandant is awesome! She felt like the hellbeast she is supposed to be. I think Sabaa wants you to hate her and you will. She is so evil, I can not even call her bad. Because she just kills and maims as if it is nothing.
The story of An Ember in the Ashes is in the beginning a bit like Legend by Mary Lu, but it turned away from it pretty soon. And I think I liked it better.
Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!