Tag Archives: prison break

Review: A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
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: Breakout by Kate Messner

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Breakout
Kate Messner
Bloomsbury
Published on June 5, 2018

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About Breakout

Nora Tucker is looking forward to summer vacation in Wolf Creek–two months of swimming, popsicles, and brushing up on her journalism skills for the school paper. But when two inmates break out of the town’s maximum security prison, everything changes. Doors are locked, helicopters fly over the woods, and police patrol the school grounds. Worst of all, everyone is on edge, and fear brings out the worst in some people Nora has known her whole life. Even if police catch the inmates, she worries that home might never feel the same.

Told in letters, poems, text messages, news stories, and comics–a series of documents Nora collects for the Wolf Creek Community Time Capsule Project–BREAKOUT is a thrilling story that will leave readers thinking about who’s really welcome in the places we call home.

My Review

I’ve read several books lately that show racism and its pervasiveness in schools and communities. BREAKOUT did an amazing job showing what might be called more subtle racism—things where you might at first dismiss the incident as not a big deal or the result of some oversensitivity. The storytelling peels back those layers of indifference and shows the harmful, ugly truth. Telling the story through Nora’s and Elidee’s letters, text messages, poetry, and recorded conversations created the feel of a candid view into the small community.

There are so many things I like about BREAKOUT. Elidee’s poetry and her admiration for Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jacqueline Woodson. Lizzie’s parody news articles. The fact that we get Nora’s perspective as the prison superintendent’s daughter and Elidee’s as the sister of an inmate. I love that the book also includes a reading list of other books on these topics, from books for young readers to texts more appropriate for teen readers.

While the social issues are a solid, important part of the story, at its core, this is a tale of three girls who learn what it is to be friends. To take chances, to trust one another, to forgive, to put themselves in the other girls’ shoes. All those reasons make BREAKOUT a great read.

Content Notes for Breakout

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Nora and Lizzie are from a small, rural, mostly white town (except for the prison, where a majority of the prisoners are black.). Elidee is black and new to the town. Two inmates from the prison escape: one black, one white. The story shows instances of racism and prejudice—most are fairly subtle, like one store owner only enforcing a rule about backpacks being held on the counter when a black customer enters the store.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Nora, Lizzie, and Elidee and their families all help at a church volunteer event making a ham supper for the officers searching for the escaped inmates. They’re all part of the church community.

Violent Content
Teachers rush Nora and her friends inside a school building when officers announce that the escaped inmates are nearby. Accusations emerge stating that some officers physically harm prisoners. A young man is killed trying to evade police. (Nora and her friends don’t witness any of that.)

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of BREAKOUT in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support this blog.