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Review: A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

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A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2)
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill
Published August 30, 2016

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About A Torch Against the Night

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.

My Review

Books that show graphic violence are always a struggle for me to read, and this one comes close to the edge for me. That said, I really enjoy the story and can’t stop rooting for the characters. I love the relationships between the major and minor characters so much. The cloaked woman who comes to Helene in the night. The leader of the desert tribe and her flirtatious brother.

I love the ways A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT surprised me. I feel like the story world got broader and deeper, and it made the story and the characters so much richer. I like that even though the story got bigger, it also continues to feel like that steady march toward an inevitable clash between good and evil.

Am I going to read the third book? Definitely. It’ll probably take me a little bit to get to it, because I’m worried I’ll read it and then be scrambling desperately for the fourth and final book, which won’t be out until possibly 2021. Long wait!

If you enjoy books like THE WRATH AND THE DAWN or GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS, add this series to your reading list. Also check out my review of book one in the series, AN EMBER IN THE ASHES.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Laia and her brother have bronze skin and dark eyes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used with moderate frequency.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex. Kissing between boy and girl. She invites him to undress her in one scene and indicates that she wants to have sex with him.

Spiritual Content
Laia and Elias face opponents and allies which are mythical beings. Some try to destroy them while others seem to want to help them.

Violent Content
Battle violence and some gore. Some scenes include references to and brief descriptions of torture.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

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Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3)
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published April 8, 2014

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About Dreams of Gods and Monsters

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera’s rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited – not in love, but in a tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as – from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond – humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

My Review

At last! The final book in the series. This is my second read-through, and there were so many moments in this one that I really looked forward to.

There were also some pretty dark things I had forgotten about. Karou experiences some trauma that’s pretty graphic. See the trigger warnings below.

I think what I love best about this series is what it says about the power of love to heal a breach caused by hate. The story shows how destructive hate can be, not only to between two groups that hate each other, but the way nursing the hate causes its own corruption, too.

While the earlier books in the series introduce the idea of the star-crossed love and the two groups at war, DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS focuses on the process of healing that must happen in order for the warfare to truly end.

And okay, all that is really awesome, and I’m totally a fan, but the characters make the series truly memorable. Karou and Akiva. Zuzana, Ziri, Leroz, Issa, and Brimstone. All completely unforgettable.

So yes. I loved all three of these books, and I would probably read them all for a third time at some point. It’s the kind of story with the kind of characters that you just want to revisit every so often. The kind of story that reminds you about the power of love and the fact that it takes courage and work for those good things to triumph over evil, but it can and does happen.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Most characters are chimaera or angels.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning
Kissing between boy and girl. References to sex and nudity.

One scene shows a character trying to rape another character. It’s graphic and intense. There are some references to other rapes, but those are not shown on scene.

Spiritual Content
Chimaera and angels each have myths about their origins involving the gods and goddesses they worship.

Some characters have magic, though the magic comes with a price, usually a toll in pain. Other characters have coins that represent wishes, in large or small denominations.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Some descriptions of battle or fighting and situations of peril. References to war. References to some grisly murders and mutilation of bodies. Some references to torture.

One scene shows a character trying to rape another character. It’s graphic and intense.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
Laini Taylor
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published September 27, 2011

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About Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

My Review

I first read DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE years ago, but I somehow skipped over ever posting a review. I remember that even when I first read it, I found the story super addicting and loved the cast of characters. Reading through it again has been like picking up an old friend– a very addicting friend! I still flew through the story on my second read.

One of the things that struck me and stayed with me after reading is what Karou shares about having regrets about having sex with her boyfriend, who turns out to be a a pretty big disappointment. It felt super real and very easy to relate to.

I also realized that I somehow always picture Akiva completely wrong. I’m not sure how I did that since the story described him, particularly his golden eyes, lots of times. But this time through I’ve tried to picture him more closely to what the author describes.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE contains some violent scenes and threads. There’s this underlying sense that the world– both worlds, really– are a violent place. I had forgotten about that element to the book.

If you liked SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo or The Lumatere Chronicles by Melina Marchetta, you want to add this series to your reading list.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Most human characters are Czech.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex.

Spiritual Content
The monsters Karou sketches are chimaera from another world which also includes angels– which look like humans with fiery wings. Each of those groups has myths about their creation and worships gods and goddesses.

Karou receives wishes in payment for running errands. They can only be used for small things, like wishing an itch on someone or something like that. Larger wishes are available.

Violent Content
Some descriptions of battle or fighting and situations of peril. References to war. References to some grisly murders. Karou runs errands which include meeting with some unsavory characters.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes #1)
Sabaa Tahir
Razorbill Press
Published April 28, 2015

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About An Ember in the Ashes

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

My Review

I feel like the last person in the world to finally read AN EMBER IN THE ASHES. I’ve had a copy for years, and still, it took me forever. Not for any reason to do with the book. I heard Sabaa Tahir speak in 2016 at YALLFEST, and have been a fan of hers since then. For some reason, it has just taken me FOREVER to read her books. Can I just pretend I’ve been waiting until the fourth book is published before starting the series so I can binge read them? (Actually, no, I can’t, because the fourth one doesn’t come out until next year.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed the setting of AN EMBER IN THE ASHES. I like the desert setting and the complex political landscape. It’s not as simple as the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. I liked that a lot.

And the character development. Laia grows SO much from the first page of the book to the last, and I love that. I found it so easy to identify with her timidity and her commitment to rule-following and staying safe at the beginning of the story, but I cheered for her every step of her journey, too, as she got bolder and more fierce.

I love that the story feels like it has so many layers, too. Laia and Elias each have goals and plans. The resistance has a plan. The emperor has a plan. And the Augers (like fates) have a plan, too. It definitely makes the story feel larger-than-life and like there are so many places it can go.

I think readers who enjoyed the DIVERGENT series by Veronica Roth or THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Mass will like AN EMBER IN THE ASHES.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Laia has bronze skin and dark hair and is from an oppressed and often enslaved people called Scholars.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Some references to sex.

Spiritual Content
One character uses magic to heal another. Augers relay prophesies about certain characters.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
Soldiers execute family members of a suspected traitor and threaten to rape another. Laia becomes a slave to a cruel master who mutilates her slaves. Some graphic descriptions of those instances. A man tries to rape a woman after beating her.

Elias belongs to an elite unit of soldiers which uses extreme methods of discipline as part of training, including making soldiers watch/jeer at a younger trainee being whipped to death for trying to run away. He participates in some violent challenges which pit him against his peers.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis

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Give the Dark My Love (Give the Dark My Love #1)
Beth Revis
Razorbill Press
Published September 25, 2018

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About Give the Dark My Love

When seventeen-year-old Nedra Brysstain leaves her home in the rural, northern territories of Lunar Island to attend the prestigious Yugen Academy, she has only one goal in mind: learn the trade of medicinal alchemy. A scholarship student matriculating with the children of Lunar Island’s wealthiest and most powerful families, Nedra doesn’t quite fit in with the other kids at Yugen, who all look down on her.

All, except for Greggori “Grey” Astor. Grey is immediately taken by the brilliant and stubborn Nedra, who he notices is especially invested in her studies. And that’s for a good reason: a deadly plague has been sweeping through the North, and it’s making its way toward the cities. With her family’s life–and the lives of all of Lunar Island’s citizens–on the line, Nedra is determined to find a cure for the plague.

Grey and Nedra continue to grow closer, but as the sickness spreads and the body count rises, Nedra becomes desperate to find a cure. Soon, she finds herself diving into alchemy’s most dangerous corners–and when she turns to the most forbidden practice of all, necromancy, even Grey might not be able to pull her from the darkness.

My Review

When I first heard about GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE, I tried really hard to get hold of a review copy. I’d met Beth Revis at a book con and she’s one of the most amazing people– super genuine and open and really kind– and I’d read and enjoyed her books before, so it was kind of a no-brainer! Alas, I did not get a review copy, so fast forward to much later when I decided to treat myself to a copy of the book care of a birthday gift card. Yay!

First, I love the unique story world. The mystery surrounding the plague and the backstory about necromancy plus the opportunity Nedra gets to study alchemy at an elite school. It all fit together really well and gave the story a really unique feel to it. Nedra and Grey pretty much both had me hooked from their first few pages. I love her passion for helping others. I love his integrity.

There are definitely some dark elements to the story, and the good versus evil lines get pretty complicated, so that’s something to consider if that matters to you. I like complex characters, so I enjoyed the bends in the story, and I’m super eager to read the sequel, BID MY SOUL FAREWELL, which came out September 24, 2019. I already have a copy and want to read it while the first book is still fresh in my mind.

If you liked THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan or TO BEST THE BOYS by Mary Weber, then you’ll want to grab yourself a copy of GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE as fast as you can. All of them have intricate and original fantasy worlds with strong female characters faced with impossible choices.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Nedra’s sister Nessie likes both boys and girls.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. A couple sleep in the same bed. One student makes lewd comments about Nedra, insinuating that she’s sleeping with her professor in order to get good grades.

Spiritual Content
A powerful necromancer once raised an army of the dead but was later hanged for his actions. Necromancy remains forbidden. Most people worship the god Oryous. Ritual celebrations and prayers are shown in the story.

Violent Content
Some battles shown. Situations of peril. Families of plague victims are made to lock themselves in their houses on quarantine as neighbors threaten to shoot them if they emerge before the quarantine ends.

Drug Content
Some reference to drinking wine.

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Review: The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

Book Review and Content, Memoir, Nonfiction, , ,

The Truths We Hold
Kamala Harris
Penguin Press
January 8, 2019

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About THE TRUTHS WE HOLD

Senator Kamala Harris’s commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents–an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India–met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley.

Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole.

Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California’s working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California’s thorniest issues, always eschewing stale “tough on crime” rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither “tough” nor “soft” but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might.

That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in The Truths We Hold a master class in problem-solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times.

Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.

My Review

I’ve been curious about TRUTHS WE HOLD for a while, so when my name finally came up in the holds at the library, I was super excited to read it.

A lot of it focuses on her family and early life, events that shaped Kamala Harris’s beliefs and values. She also discusses some of the issues she tackled as a prosecutor and California’s Attorney General.

I found her message inspiring, and her hope for the future really uplifting. She seems really smart and deeply caring, and her passion for the people she serves made reading about what can be big nameless, faceless political issues interesting the way that having a passionate history teacher makes even the grinding parts of history engaging and memorable.

I’m not usually a huge nonfiction reader, but I found myself sneaking in a few pages of TRUTHS WE HOLD between chores and in other odd spare moments. I would recommend reading this book to anyone who’s curious about Kamala Harris’s life and her values.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
Kamala is a Democratic Senator from California and currently running for president.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
No profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief story about how she met her husband.

Spiritual Content
References to her Christian faith.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content 
None.

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