{"id":714,"date":"2020-01-09T11:49:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T09:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.winterlia.se\/web\/?p=714"},"modified":"2020-01-09T12:18:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-09T10:18:54","slug":"an-ember-in-the-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=714","title":{"rendered":"An Ember in the Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Sabaa Tahir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In, An Ember in the Ashes we follow Laia and Elias, two people with two very different lives. Laia is a Scholar, a suppressed people living under the strict ruling of the Martials. They fear for their lives every day. Elias is a Mask, a force trained to kill and torture for the Empire. When their stories align, Laia have to get into Blackcliff, the school where Masks are trained, and Elias wants out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book was a win for me, that much I can say. I flew through it and I found myself constantly wanting to read more and it was hard to put it down. Sabaa Tahir is great with tension, of building up each chapter in a way that makes it impossible not to read the next one and the next one. And it was this tension that made me end the book feeling like it was great, that it was a clear 5\/5 stars for me. And because of that feeling, I am going to give it a full score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relationship between Elias and Laia is instantly full of tension. He\u2019s a Mask and she\u2019s grown up fearing them. It makes for a really interesting dynamic and I think Sabaa Tahir did a great job portraying their relationship here. It was one of the best things in the book for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, on further analysis and think it becomes clear that there are plenty of issues that gets buried under that tension. This that I\u2019m only able to overlook because that initial feeling was great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is presented in both Laia\u2019s and Elias\u2019s perspective, but we start out with Laia and somehow the story is structured in a way that surrounds her more than him. That said, this is Elias\u2019s story without doubt. I know that sounds confusing in a way, but I\u2019m going to try and explain here without spoiling anything. Laia\u2019s main objective here is to break her brother out of prison, that\u2019s what drives the story and that\u2019s what we start with. But shortly, Elias\u2019s story takes over and by the end I\u2019m left with that sense that Laia was there only to push Elias\u2019s story to the end of the book. Laia was sort of left hanging a little in my opinion. This story is more about the brutal trials that Elias and his friend Helene (and the other Mask in training) are forced to endure. Nothing bad about that, but it\u2019s not really what we were promised at the beginning.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other thing is Laia\u2019s character. She\u2019d supposed to be 17 or something like that, but she reads like 12. She\u2019s childish, whiny and incapable of doing much at all. I see the reason for much of that, and I get that there has to be room to grow here, but she shouldn\u2019t feel like a child when she\u2019s almost an adult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Elias, he\u2019s well developed in a way, but I still find his core motivation a bit flawed. He doesn\u2019t want to me a Mask, because they are awful people. He\u2019s not like that. Ok, I can accept that. But what I find strange is how he waits until he graduates to plan an escape. He\u2019s lived through years and years of torture, from the age of 6 to 20, he\u2019s lived a life consisting of nothing but torture. Yet it is just days before he\u2019ll become a true Mask and be let out of the school that he decides he\u2019s had enough? I don\u2019t see why he didn\u2019t escape sooner, neither do I see why he doesn\u2019t just wait for graduation and leaves once he\u2019s been sent on a mission. Surely it must be easier to escape as a Mask on missions than leaving a heavily guarded school (which is more like a prison honestly). I have a feeling there was a line or two in the book explaining this, but it wasn\u2019t enough. His story here is too convenient to fit the plot of the book, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that, it just needs a proper explanation to be believable.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, like I said in the beginning, there are so much tension and pull in this book that you just fly through it and doesn\u2019t notice all the flaws unless you really analyze the story. Therefore, this book will get a full score from me with a warning, if you don\u2019t like reading about torture, death and basically any other brutality you can think of, then don\u2019t pick up this book, because it\u2019s dark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sabaa Tahir In, An Ember in the Ashes we follow Laia and Elias, two people with two very different lives. Laia is a Scholar, a suppressed people living under the strict ruling of the Martials. They fear for their lives every day. Elias is a Mask, a force trained to kill and torture for the Empire. When their stories align, Laia have to get into Blackcliff, the school where Masks are trained, and Elias wants out. This book was a win for me, that much I can say. I flew through it and I found myself constantly wanting to read more and it was hard to put it down. Sabaa Tahir is great with tension, of building up each chapter in a way that makes it impossible not to read the next one and the next one. And it was this tension that made me end the book feeling like it was great, that it was a clear 5\/5 stars for me. And because of that feeling, I am going to give it a full score.  The relationship between Elias and Laia is instantly full of tension. He\u2019s a Mask and she\u2019s grown up fearing them. It makes for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[4],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"An Ember in the Ashes","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.winterlia.se\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/AnEmberintheAshes.jpg","cwp_image_link":"image","wppr_links":[],"cwp_rev_price":"","wppr_pros":["Great relationships","Lots of tension","Immersive"],"wppr_cons":["The main plot gets overshadowed","Laia's a bit childish","Lack of believable backstory"],"wppr_rating":"90.00","wppr_options":{"1":{"name":"Overall","value":"95"},"2":{"name":"Plot","value":"85"},"3":{"name":"Writing","value":"95"},"4":{"name":"Characters","value":"85"},"5":{"name":"Ending","value":"90"}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}