"An Ember in the ashes" by Sabaa Tahir: Review:

“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.”

A book written by a Pakistani-american young adult? Wouldn’t say no, especially since I’m very interested in books written by Arabs and Muslims lately. And it’s a fantasy book, so why wouldn’t I read it? An ember in the ashes was my read during October, and it was one of my best reads of 2020 (well I have many of them, guess 2020 was actually good in the reading part).

Laia, a scholar girl (Scholars are oppressed individuals living under the Martial Empire. They can live as slaves in the Martial, or live a difficult poverty life), lives with her brother, Darin, and her grandparents in the city of Serra. One day, they will be attacked in their house and her brother will be arrested by the Masks, as they accuse him for treason. Laia, hopeless as she lost her entire family, will do everything to rescue her brother. She will meet the Resistance, an anti-Empire, begging for their help. They will accept, but in exchange, she has to became a slave for the commandant of the Empire, and enter Blackcliff Academy as a spy, to help them destroy the Empire.

Elias, a Mask in the Blackcliff academy (Masks are soldiers in the Martial Empire’s most ruthless enforces, that fight with so much strength and force, leading sometimes to killing people), and the son of the Commandant, plans his escape from the Empire since he’s not into what they are doing, and their main purpose. As he was trying to make his plan successful, one of the augurs, a group of men and women hooded, keepers of prophecies and who can manipulate present and future, told Elias that his destiny is to stay at Blackcliff and make it good here, and that, by taking the trials to become an emperor. He offers him a deal that he can’t decline. Along with his bestfriend Helena, and his rivals the twins Marcus and Zak, they will take a lot of test during this trial.

So while Laia is trying to save her brother by enduring the cruelty of being a slave under the commandant’s control, fighting for her life and trying to bring more information to the Resistance, Elias is also fighting to stay alive in the series of trials he is taking to become an emperor, finding himself sometimes confronted even to his bestfriend.

You know when you read a book and at the first pages you know this one is going to be huge? This one made me feel like that! The writing is so good, the characterization is amazing, and the story is wonderful! Laia was a huge character for me, she endured a lot during the little time she spent in Blackcliff, especially what the commandant did to her, and it was so awful. But seeing her character evolve during the story warms my heart, she went from the little scholar who wasn’t confident, to the one who will do anything to save her loved ones.

Elias was also a character that I admire a lot. Being a mask was not easy, especially when you know what your main purpose is. I respect him for trying to escape the Blackcliff Academy, for not turning his back so many times to a lot of people. I wish there was a lot of characters like him in the story. The commandant was Evil, like pure evil! The sadism she had, when she was torturing her slaves, how she was acting with her boy, and how she can sometimes support some evil things the masks were doing, left me with no words!

There are some characters that I want to know more about, like Helena, Marcus and Zack. I think that’s the only thing that I didn’t like about this book. Maybe we will know more about them in the sequels.

An astonishing book, full of actions and suspense that will not let you breathe till the end! I hope that the sequel will be as good as “An ember in the ashes”.