ARC Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

 Expected publication: April 28th 2015

When I first seen the cover of this book, I fell in love. I just adore everything about it! And when the hype around An Ember in the Ashes started to build, I really got excited. I was also a little worried that all the hype and the beautiful cover would get my hopes too high and I’d be let down. However, this book surpassed all my expectations.

An Ember in the Ashes is about an orphan girl trying to save her brother and a soldier fighting for his freedom. Both live under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire.

Right away, I was amazed by the beautiful writing style. Sabaa Tahir has such a unique way for writing. She using words that I’ve never seen used in a book and even a few words I didn’t even know the definition of. I hardly ever (maybe one or two times before) come across words that I’ve never heard of so seeing brand new words really surprised me. And because of that, this wasn’t really a fast read. I had to really focus on reading and not skipping anything. It’s not a bad thing but it was different.

The story is told in the perspectives of the main characters, Laia and Elias. I normally dread dual perspectives but I loved that this book had both characters perspectives. I can’t think of any other book where multiple perspectives was a good thing for me. But Tahir did such an amazing job writing each characters chapters and I loved it.

I thought the character development of the characters were awesome. Laia especially came a long way from the beginning of the book to the end. And one of my favorite things about this book is how diverse the characters are. I don’t think there’s any other characters in YA like them.

Even though this book is around 460 pages, I read it in just three sittings. I couldn’t put it down and had to know what was going to happen next. Towards the middle, I did feel like I was getting no where fast though. I would read for hours but when I looked at the page numbers, I was surprised by how little I had actually read.

I really loved how original and interesting the plot was. It so new and fresh, and really brought a lot of  new elements to the YA genre. And the world building was amazing! My mind is blown by how fantastic the world building was. There was so much detail and creativity.

Overall,  An Ember in the Ashes is one of my favorite books that I’ve read so far this year. I loved everything about this book and even though it’s been a few days since I finished it, I’m still hung up on the characters and the amazing world that Sabba Tahir created. If you’re a fan of high fantasy or just looking for an awesome book, I highly recommend An Ember in the Ashes.