Book Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

 Book title: An Ember in the Ashes
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: April 28, 2015
446 pages
My rating: 3/5

“There are two kinds of guilt. The kind that’s a burden and the kind that gives you purpose. Let your guilt be your fuel. Let it remind you of who you want to be. Draw a line in your mind. Never cross it again. You have a soul. It’s damaged but it’s there. Don’t let them take it from you.”

Seventeen-year-old Laia knows not to defy the Martial Empire that has occupied her land—she has already lost her parents because of the Empire. But when her brother is arrested for treason, she turns to a group of rebels to ask for their help to free him. In exchange, she promises to spy for the rebels within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, she meets Elias, who is training to become an elite soldier, but who is secretly planning for his escape.

An Ember in the Ashes is the first book in Sabaa Tahir’s young adult fantasy series. I listened to this book as an audio book, and it significantly affected my experience. I found the writing of this book (it’s Tahir’s debut novel) clunky and full of clichés. I’m sure that if I had been reading the book, it wouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did in the audio format.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the voice actors. They did a decent job, but I still ended up listening to the book at double speed. That means that even though I could follow the overall plot easily, I must have missed a lot of little details. Elias’s friends, in particular, I could never learn to tell apart, and when something happened to some of them, it didn’t have much of an emotional impact on me.

The worldbuilding in this book was very shallow. I only need to mention the names of the different cultures: Scholars, Martials, Mariners, and so on. It honestly reminded me of the factions in Divergent and felt very lazy. The plot wasn’t particularly original either. There was an evil empire, a rebel group opposing it, and deadly trials. All staples of young adult fantasy, but the book didn’t do anything new or exciting with these elements.

There was also an obligatory love triangle—or rather, a love square, as Laia is conflicted between two boys and Elias is conflicted between two girls, who he can only describe in terms of their looks. I did like Laia’s character, but Elias just annoyed me.

All in all, I was rather disappointed with this book. However, if you want to read yet another young adult fantasy with evil empires, rebels, and trials, you might enjoy this book more than I did. I give this book three stars.