#33 An Ember in the Ashes

 An Ember in the Ashes By Sabaa Tahir

Original read: March 2016 (2 stars)
Reread: September 2019 (4 stars)

An Ember in the Ashes is a debut novel within the fantasy genre. It follows 2 protagonists Elias and Laia (pretentious character names that have too many vowels!) they are from opposite ends of the spectrum, Elias is a trained fighter and Laia is a scholar, the lowest class with society. When Laia's brother Darin (another stupid name) is taken and arrested for treason Laia embarks on a journey to find 'The Resistance' in order to break her brother out of jail, ultimately she must spy in order to build trust within The Resistance. Elais' story was slightly more interesting, in the beginning he is days away from graduation after years and years of training and he wishes to sneak away and leave the academy that hes part of, the penalty for abandoning if caught is death. 

This story is said to be inspired by ancient Rome which in theory i was really excited about and i did enjoy the world building but it didn't encompass anything Roman really. Upon rereading i did enjoy it a lot more and found the audiobook much more engaging than reading it physically. The beginning was a bit slow and it did take a while to get into but the tension was built slowly and by halfway through i was pretty obsessed and finished it within 2 and a bit days. 

Laia is tiny bit bland in the beginning, her decision making is very questionable but her character growth is well done and she does redeem herself by the end. Elais was the main thing that kept me reading, his back story was interesting and i enjoyed how conflicted he was throughout. When i first read this in 2016 i wasnt really into fantasy and read a lot of contemporary at that point but 3 years later and i pretty much exclusively read fantasy with a few thrillers thrown in the mix. I reread this as its my friend Kirstys fav so shout out to Kirsty for getting me to give this one another go! I now fully get the hype!

For me Helene was a stand out character, she was strong, independent and bad ass. She was everything a leading lady should be and in comparison Laia really fell down. Laia's role as a rebel was probably my least favorite aspect of the novel. Not only was she absolutely dreadful at it, but the rebels seemed shocked to find Laia hurt on a number of occasions. Things like this was worthy of an eyebrow raise because Laia was attempting to spy on the most dangerous person in the story, The Commandant, knowing that their previous spies were tortured and killed. So why are Laia's bruises a surprise?

All in all Sabaa's writing was indeed phenomenal, really well done for a debut and the ending has left me wanting more. World building is a really important fact for me, but there is another one that is more important in my opinion: Characters. I’ve said many times now that the characters can be the most influential factor on my enjoyment for a book. I’ve fallen in love with some books because of this, and the same applies to some books I’ve hated. The characters were well written even if Laia was a bit annoying Elias really made up for it! 

“Life is made of so many moments that mean nothing. Then one day, a single moment comes along to define every second that comes after. Such moments are tests of courage, of strength."