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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