An Ember In the Ashes Review

An Ember In the Ashes is a great example of a book that was harmed by its hype. The publicity for this book was such that anyone who remotely followed the ins and outs of YA fiction would have Tahir's debut on their radar. For an obsessive YA reader like me, An Ember In the Ashes was practically jumping up and down on the horizon. I couldn't wait to get my mits on this book.

From all of the advance praise, I was expecting a near perfect adventure novel. What I wound up reading was good, interesting, and compelling, but ultimately problematic. And it was mostly problematic because I expected so much more from it.

An Ember In the Ashes takes place in an alternate past, one where a martial empire has come into power due to their incredible abilities in metallurgy. While they've forged reasonable treaties with a number of conquered peoples, the Martial have been especially brutal towards a race of people called the Scholars.

Laia, one of our protagonists, is one of the few Scholars who knows how to read. To have this knowledge is punishable, but for having such a dangerous ability, Laia is a meek girl. Her story opens brutally, and Laia makes cowardly decisions. Ashamed, Laia becomes determined to save her brother and regain her honor, leading her down a dangerous path of espionage.

Elias, our other protagonist, is about to graduate from a prestigious Martial military academy. He also plots to desert while the festivities are underway. His plans are derailed when Martial soothsayers tap him to compete to become the next Martial emperor.

The great thing about this book is the steep stakes of the plot. Both Laia and Elias veer constantly towards death! There are no boring parts in this book.  I will most definitely be reading the novel's sequel. Sabaa Tahir, the author, took six years to write An Ember In the Ashes, but had said this was mostly due to the learning curve of writing fiction. She expects her book's sequel to take less time. I am excited to see how the story continues to develop.

But, now that I've given the book it's just praise, I want to talk about why I can't jump up and down, raving over it. The interpersonal drama was a bit of a mess. The interactions between characters grew repetitive, the same angsty moments and conversations happening over and over again. There was a tiresome love rhombus I could have done without. The competition for emperor had some lame moments. Everyone kept blacking out and waking up in the infirmary and had to be told what happened.

All in all, An Ember In the Ashes was a solid YA offering, but certainly not the second coming of The Hunger Games. I look forward to the second installment, but will be waiting more patiently this time around.

Code Name Verity Review

Giving this book 3 stars makes me feel like I have no class.  Certainly, this book deserves a higher rating.  But although I appreciated the novel for its meticulous research, daring plot, and unusual narration, it just did not capture my heart.

I'm heartless along with having no class!

The story opens bleakly, with our narrator captured by the Gestapo. We are reading her written "confession" as it were.  She spins a tale of two young women — one is from Manchester, the other is a Scottish noble.  Maddie and Queenie meet during the war effort in 1936, on an air base. The two quickly become friends, but are separated as they take different paths.  Then, they are thrown together again unexpectedly, as both are needed for a top secret mission in France.

I'm not entirely sure why this book was marketed as YA.  Although the ages of these women are never discussed, they're certainly not teenagers.  The only reason I can think of is that the book has a less mature tone.  This sounds bad, I know.  What I mean is, I found the premise to be slightly implausible.  Certainly women took on a more significant role in the war effort during World War II, but I found the story of Maddie and Queenie to be such that is only possible in fiction.  It's the kind of wish fulfillment frequently found in YA literature.

One thing is undeniable, however — the book is incredibly well researched.  So much so that there's a bibliography at the end of the book.  The detail is superb; the voice is solidly of the period. It was extremely impressive.  That being said, I did think that the language was at times overly clogged with this period detail. This made my progress through Code Name Verity somewhat labored.

Another aspect that disappointed me — I can't seem to stop myself — was the friendship between Maddie and Queenie.  I guess I was expecting more chemistry.  But, apart from the fantastic early stage of their relationship, the reader doesn't get to experience the two together so much.  This was a bit of a letdown, since I was looking forward to reading about a solid friendship.

All of this is to say that I expected more from the book than I experienced.  Somehow, though, I feel more disappointed in myself than in the book.