An Ember in the Ashes Book Review

5/5 Stars

An Ember in the Ashes is a debut young adult fantasy novel by Sabaa Tahir. It follows two characters, a scholar turned slave girl named Laia, and a solider named Elias. Their society is sort of based on ancient Rome. There is an empire who has taken over these different groups of people. Laia is a part of the scholar group and her people are attacked by the soldiers. They kill her grandparents and take her brother to prison. Laia barely escapes. She goes in search of the resistance, a group of rebels who are trying to fight against the empire and bring order back to their world. She believes that they can help her save her brother.
Elias on the other hand is a trained soldier. He is a Mask which is the most deadly of all of the soldiers. He has been training since he was eight years old but he knows that he is different than the other students. He believes that what the empire is doing is wrong and he doesn't want to hurt people. He tries to escape but then is chosen to participate in a set of trials to become the new emperor. As one can guess, Elias and Laia cross paths and work together to figure out how to escape the empire.
This book was fantastic. I went into it with very high expectations because there was so much hype surrounding it. It was an epic fantasy story that was much darker than I anticipated. I found the pacing to be perfect and the characters to be interesting. The plot was fast paced but there was a lot of world building and information being thrown at the reader but because the story was so engrossing, it's hardly noticeable. This book was marketed as a stand-alone fantasy which was kind of annoying because the ending of the book left off at a cliff hanger. Thankfully, its sequel was announced a few weeks ago and that can be expected in 2016.

**Spoilers ahead. Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled**

I loved this book. Like I said, my expectations going in were very high because of all of the hype it received from reviewers and publishers. It did not disappoint. I loved most of the characters. I thought reading from both Laia and Elias's points of view was great because it gave the reader a chance to see how similar they were. Laia is very strong and brave. There are many parts in the story where she could have died. When she became the Commadant's slave, my heart was beating so fast because of the cruelty that the other characters had faced at the hands of the Commadant. Some of the hardest scenes to read were when she was with the Commadant.

Elias was another interesting character. He has been training his whole life to be a Mask and then realizes that it isn't what he wants. He knows what everyone is doing is wrong. Most of the Masks seem as if they have lost their souls. They go in and blindly kill everyone just because of an order that  someone has given. Elias is different because he feels guilty. He is one of the best soldiers ever to be at the school and yet he is the only one who feels remorse when he kills. He hasn't been corrupted because of the school or his family.

I thought Laia and Elias's relationship developed very nicely. It wasn't instant. They both have similar goals and realize that they can help each other. I'm interested to see how it progresses in the next book.

The Trials were something else. How were they even called trials?! If you fail one or make a mistake, you could die. They were so scary and intense but they were interesting and entertaining to read. All of the trials were cruel to the characters. I could hardly stand to read them because they were so intense.

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