Book Review | A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

Title: A Torch Against the Night

Author: Sabaa Tahir

Publication: August 30th 2016 by Razorbill

Series: An Ember in the Ashes #2

Pages: 452

Genre: YA Fantasy

Copy: Bought

Summary: 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.

So I was getting ready to write a regular ole review when I looked back at my notes, and I decided that they summed up my feelings pretty accurately.  So here are some thoughts (in no particular order) from my messed up brain about A Torch Against the Night.  Warning: colorful language abound.

•strong sequel starts out strong
•good character development: laia yaass girl
•elias wtfffff noooooo honeeyyyy

•a torch against the night more like A TRAITOR IN THE NIGHT

•character deaths will be the death of me
•afya. just afya.
•5 stars hallelujah
•liked the added POV that's cool
•helene's is kinda boring thooo not gonna lie
•liking helene's internal conflict going on tho
•MARCUS IS AN ASSHOLE
•FUCK THE COMMANDANT
•ending was wtf
•NEED THE NEXT ONE

Let me know if any of you had a similar reaction to this wonderful sequel!  Or, if you haven't read it yet (what're you doing??), what are you excited to see?