Review- A Torch Against the Night

Stars: 5 stars
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Genre: YA Fantasy
Publisher: Razorbill


Review:

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I'm happy to report that after a decidedly difficult experience with the first book, An Ember in the Ashes I LOVED this installment. Maybe I loved it because it reads more like traditional adult fantasy than the first one. Tahir doesn't pull any punches with the amount of dark and downright horrible things that happen in this second installment-- and I respected her commitment to the story and the characters.

It took me more than a third of the first book to get into the story largely because it read like most other teen fantasy novels. There were a bunch of love trials and what felt like teenage angst. There were hints that Laia was more than what she seemed, a lot of things that have been done a lot by a lot of people.

However, by the second third of the first book, there were hints of depth and Laia's character had started to fill out. The introductory and development of the secondary characters like Izzi, Cook and Helene started to work and I started to care what happened to them. There were a lot of mysterious elements introduced in that first installment not properly answered and sadly, many of them were again NOT answered in Torch. Like WHO is this Cook person?! (I have my suspicions.)

But, in this installment, Laia is fully formed as a character. She is fierce and tenious-- someone you can really route for. More importantly so is Elias. His demons come front and center in this book and he becomes a character that I really, really connected with. I wanted his and Laia's love story so bad! I did not feel fulfilled! That alone will get me reading book 3.

Even better, we get into Helene's head and find her to be a deeply conflicted, rounded character. Somehow the three head POV rotation works here in a way that it maybe doesn't for me a lot of the time. In the first book, I mostly wanted to brush off Helene because I couldn't really understand her blind allegiance to the empire despite the genuinely shitty things that were happening to and around her. Here, we get to see inside her head, what makes her tick, and understand the truly horrible choices put before her.

The setting reads like Gladiator which is unique, but the newness ends there. Book one introduces relatively little of what would be found in adult fantasy and so the Romanesque setting is really the only novelty from other YA reads in this genre. What I really liked in Torch was the full-on dive into fantasy: wraiths, the Forest of Souls, magical abilities, etc. There are elements of great fantasy here, reminiscent of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. And as I said before, Tahir doesn't shy away from the darkness. People die. There is a genocide. There is torture. These elements make the story incredibly engrossing and much more emotionally relevant than if Tahir had written a lighter, more friendly book. At the end, I was DYING for the next installment (which I will have to wait until next year for!!!! *sighs*)

Book Review: The Wrath and the Dawn

Stars: 4 stars!
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Amazon

Review:
My first 1001 Arabian Nights retelling and boy was it a good one! Got this rec from Ivy Book Bindings, who I almost always steers me in the right direction as far as great fantasy goes. This was a total winner, great pacing, beautifully written, and with an EPIC love story at the center of everything. I had to knock off a star though because the ending made me WANT TO SCREAM. I know there is going to be a sequel, but this installment did not resolve anything and it left all the characters in the worst way and I just wanted to keep flipping to the next page because I was sure that I missed something.

Aside from the lack of ending, this book was a home-run. It might be because I haven't read many books like this. The setting in the Arabian desert, the amazing clothing, the kings, sultans, princesses, the food, the palace etc. The whole middle-eastern fairy tale thing completely rocked my world. I wanted to dive in, curl up and take a nap on Shazi's platform bed covered in colorful pillows. 

But even without all of that, I think I would have loved this book. Shahrzad is a fierce heroine. Fierce like Beyonce, but good with a bow like Katniss. She's absolutely great-- and the way that she falls in love with Khalid against her own will was just delicious. Khalid is a tortured hero, but not really in the  typically angsty way. Although honestly what we know about him for most of the book really is what we DON'T know about him. Once his secret is fully revealed (which if you know the story, I guess you know going in) you realize he sort of does have the weight of the world on his shoulders and there is really no good way for him to spin it. 

I'm not sure where the author is going with the next book-- I read the synopsis and thought that is seemed a bit of a departure from where she left our characters, but I'll take it. I wish it was coming out before May though!

Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Rating: 5 stars
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fiction-fantasy
Publisher: William Morrow Books

Not much needs to be said about this book.  

1. It's a Neil Gaiman. If you like Gaiman, you'll like this. If you don't like Gaiman, you'll probably like this. It's that good.  Though be sure to put on your thinking cap and your weird shoes, but after all, as I said-- it's Gaiman.

2. Listen to the audio book. Really. I mean it. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO BOOK. Gaiman narrates. He's amazeballs. His narration has more atmosphere than any of the audio books I've read in the past year combined. If his author gig fails, I think he has a career as a audiobook reader. That voice!

3. The story is simple, poetic and gorgeous. It's also creepy as hell. Gaiman's descriptions and use of language are just...I don't even know...completely captivating.  

4. In fact, everything about this short little book is captivating. I'm not even going to tell you what it is about, because honestly it doesn't matter. The story is beautiful and interesting, but it's all about the ATMOSPHERE, like I said. 

5. Go, read it.

Review: The Winner's Curse

Rating: 4 stars

Author: Marie Rutoski

Genre: Young adult fantasy

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux

Goodreads
Amazon

Click here for the first five chapters on Kindle.

This novel is thought-provoking and deliberate. I enjoyed it and I want to the next book in the series sooner rather than later. I didn't give five stars because I felt like there was purposeful distance between the reader and our two protagonists, Kestrel and Arin. The distance I felt was probably due in part to the fact that both Kestrel and Arin are both very stoic characters, deliberate in their actions and their thoughts, but I still felt I couldn't get close enough to them to really understand everything that they were doing. Sometimes I felt like I was on the outside watching them, inside of right there with them. It was told in the third person, alternating between Kestrel and Arin. Another strange thing was the that when Arin's perspective was first introduced he is referred to as "the slave." This was because the reader hadn't yet been given Arin's name so we only knew that he was a slave and not much else about it, but it was still a bit jarring. I don't think it would have been as confusing if it were a third person narrator telling us about him, but the 3rd person perspective was supposed to be from the Arin and Kestrel's perspectives, respectively.


Another thing that contributed to the distance between reader and the characters is that there is a lot of implied communication between the two of them. While this made the novel feel smart and intriguing, it also didn't allow me to feel a lot of intimacy with the the characters.


Both Arin and Kestrel as intelligent and calculating, excellent at reading other people, both strategists with complicated agendas which are not always clear either to the reader or to each other. These implications make the book both intriguing and sometimes frustrating. Intriguing because you want to keep reading, because you don't really know what Kestrel's ultimate plan is, or who Arin is really. Lots of agendas here. Lots of subtlety from the author.


Rutkoski writing is quite brilliant. She leads you through her story and the world that she has created without being heavy-handed. There is a lot to consider in this novel. It is a story about loyally, ownership and slavery. There is a lot that is provocative about its exploration of slavery and what it means for both the owner and the owned. Kestrel struggles with the idea that she owns slaves and more importantly that she owns Arin-- in fact she bought him herself-- she is no bystander to the act of slavery, she actively chooses to participate. But a lot of Kestrel's behavior is dictated by the rigid rules of her society. Her situation is complicated by the fact that she is the daughter of the Empire's top general. There's not a lot of room for her to rebel, or dissent without completely going AWOL. Though she struggles with the idea of slavery as accepted by her society, parts of her don't agree. She is a rebel, but at first a passive one.


Once love enters into the mix and all bets are off. (But don't get too excited, while this is a "romance" there is very little true romancing going on here.) The tables get turned in the middle third of the book and the master becomes the slave. That's where things got a little jumbled for me. Both Arin and Kestrel are fighting so hard against each other, what they want and what they believe, that is becomes a bit trying. I could understand them both, but I also just wanted them to make a decision. But I guess that was really the point of the thing, they are star-crossed lovers.


The ending redeems the book. For me it wrapped it up and made it a four star read and not a three star. This is how a book in a series should finish. The central conflict is resolved and a secondary conflict is left undone making you want to read the next book. I was glad that there wasn't a cliffhanger, or an "ending" that resolves nothing and just stops in the middle of the story-- that seems like has been happening with more and more books recently. Here we get good closure. The kind of closure that makes clear, finally just want the characters mean to each other and they lengths they will go to for one another.


ARC copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.