Review: An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes has caught my attention on countless occasions, constantly screaming out for me to grab it and read it. Despite my interest, I held off on buying the book for a very long time. When I found books one and two in the series, An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night, on offer, I decided to bite the bullet and grab them both.

In truth, I’m not entirely sure what it is about the book that had interested me for so long. There were plenty of things, really. The good reviews. The number of friends who loved it. The fact the book was inspired by Ancient Rome. The dystopian element. The slave and warrior element. Plenty of things interested me, left me curious.

All these elements resulted in my mind conjuring up many possibilities for the series. With so many expectations, with so many possibilities in my mind, I was rather surprised when this book wasn’t anything like I had imagined. It was an entertaining book, I cannot deny that, and yet I had imagined so many possibilities except for what I was given. It was surprising, but not in a bad way.

If I am being completely honest, when I started this book I was a bit unsure. Things were rather slow at first, and I found myself waiting for things to come together. I wanted to better understand the world, I wanted more about the characters, and I wanted things to start moving. After about a quarter of the book, I suddenly found myself addicted. I was unable to put the book down, desperate to see how everything came together. Things I was curious about opened up, and we were introduced to many new elements. I found myself lost to the pages, and before I knew what was happening time has passed me by and I was deep into the book.

Don’t get me wrong, the story was far from perfect. There were things I felt were never explained in full, there were events I thought to be a bit on the silly side, and there were characters that never reached their full potential. However, I was addicted throughout. There were so many elements introduced, with those I was a bit disappointed by leaving me with the hope the future books will tie them together much better.

I think, for me, however, the biggest issue was the romance. I hate love triangles, and this book took things a step further through a love square. A is attracted to B, B is attracted to A and C, C is attracted to B and D, D is attracted to C. So much urgh. It pulled away from so many interesting elements. I did not care for any of the romance at all, and each time it appeared I found myself growing rather annoyed. I do not mind romance in my fantasy novels, but with this one the constant pull between characters left me annoyed. I could have easily done without it, taking more battle scenes instead.

Overall, An Ember in the Ashes proved to be an addictive story. There is no doubt I will be diving into A Torch Against the Night soon to see what comes next.

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