Red Sister

Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence (2017)

Eight-year-old Nona is set to hang for murder, but at the last minute she is saved by Abbess Glass, who takes her away to the Convent of Sweet Mercy. Here she is to train in fighting, poisons, and the faith of the Ancestor. However, the family of the man she tried (unsuccessfully) to kill have not forgotten her and will do anything to stop her.

In this world there are special bloodlines, and Nona is hunska, which means that she is extremely fast. Gerants are giants, including the man she tried to kill. Quantals and marjals are able to tap into various types of magic. At Sweet Mercy, Nona learns of a prophecy about a Chosen One with multiple of these bloodlines, and a Shield who is destined to protect the Chosen One.

This all takes place in what appears to be an extended ice age, only a small part of the world habitable. Past civilizations have been lost, but people have manipulated the sun (and/or moon? the details are fuzzy to me now) so it focuses and keeps the Corridor open and habitable. But the sun is dying so they know they don't have a ton of time left. It's a desperate time, many people are starving, and Nona is grateful for the luxuries she finds at Sweet Mercy: a soft bed, hot water, plenty of food at every meal.

At some point, each girl will decide on her focus: Red Sisters are fighters; Grey specialize in espionage, stealth, and poisons; Holy Sisters focus on the faith; and Mystic Witches are those gifted in magic. Each year of training focuses on one of these areas, and during this book Nona is in the Red Class where they learn fighting. There are three books in the series, but I don't know if it's complete.

I found the setting and story pretty fascinating. I'm always drawn to books set in cold climates, and I like stories about someone being taken from their crappy life and set off to train in a special school. It suddenly sounds a lot like Harry Potter, now that I describe it that way! I admired all the young women in this story for their strength, bravery, and loyalty to each other. It wasn't the easiest book to get through, taking me close to two weeks. I don't know if that's just because of how my life was in those two weeks, or if it's actually because of the book. It's fairly dense and doesn't move super fast, but I have no real criticisms about it. The world-building and plot were compelling, and there were passages I re-read because of the beauty and cleverness of the writing. Part of me does want to continue this series so I can find out what happens and learn more about this world, but right now I just need to read some shorter, easier books for a bit.

Red Sister was the final book for my 2019 TBR Pile Challenge.

The Everlasting Rose

The Everlasting Rose (The Belles #2) by Dhonielle Clayton (2019)

I've been dying for the release of this book since I finished The Belles back in January. When the last book ended Camille was on the run - the Queen was dead, Princess Sophia was trying to claim the throne and Princess Charlotte, who was the rightful heir, was missing. Charlotte had recently awoken from her deep sleep, thanks to Camille who had also discovered that the cause wasn't a mysterious illness after all, but poison administered by her sister Sophia. Now, Camille is in a race against time to find Princess Charlotte and return her to the palace to claim the throne.

Princess Sophia claims that her sister is dead, and she's preparing for the funeral and her own coronation. She's also offering rewards for the return of Camille, her sister Edel, and the guard Remy who has been helping him. Camille and Edel use newfound powers to disguise themselves as they move around, but still they must be careful. When they learn of an underground resistance run by a group called the Iron Ladies they wonder if maybe they'll have help.

I really liked revisiting this world and spending more time with Camille and her sisters. While trying to locate Princess Charlotte, Camille was also trying to find her Belle sisters who had been moved to different locations. She was very worried for their safety, especially as she learned more about Princess Sophia's dark plan for the Belles once she was officially Queen. If the Belles were treated like chattel before, now they would be treated even worse. Camille also has a new romantic interest in the guard Remy, who she used to dislike but is now getting to know much better.

It was also great to see more of the world introduced in The Belles. I was especially interested in the Iron Ladies, who didn't partake in the beauty rituals everyone else did, using only basic maintenance to dull the red in their eyes and make their straw-textured hair easier to deal with. One of the other symptoms was described as mental unbalance though, and that wasn't addressed here. I don't know if it's an omission or something that will be a addressed in a potential third book. Honestly, there were a few bits in this book that didn't quite make sense or were awkward. And then there was the impulsiveness of Camille, wanting to run after her friends who were captured though she obviously didn't stand a chance of saving them. But she's a teenager, so that is just a part of her personality I think. One of her hot-headed impulsive actions created a needed diversion though, which is obviously good, but I wasn't sure whether or not it was planned. Camille is fairly unpredictable and her instincts aren't always on point.

At any rate, these were minor issues in a book that was overall pretty action-packed and difficult to put down. I loved spending more time in this world and with these characters. I can't tell if there's going to be a third book, because although there's more that I want, things were fairly resolved in the end. But I'm hoping this series isn't over!

The Stone Sky

The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3) by N.K. Jemisin (2017)

During the course of The Obelisk Gate, we learn that nobody in Essun's time knows that the Earth used to have a moon. Alabaster implores her to learn how to harness the power of the obelisks because the moon is in long orbit and rarely nears the Earth. But soon it will be near enough to the Earth that maybe it can be knocked back into the old trajectory. This is the crux of The Stone Sky - Essun needs to try to achieve this feat, which hopefully will end the Seasons once and for all.

But she is where we left her at the end of the last book: traveling from the destroyed community inside the geode to another place where they all hope to live. Unfortunately, they're going in the opposite direction of where Essun's daughter Nassun last was - not that it matters, because Nassun is traveling too. She is also learning to harness the power of the obelisks, but for a very different purpose. Also in this final volume, we get a really great back story - that of Hoa, the stone eater, back when he was....well, not a stone eater. This story reveals what caused the moon to be knocked out of its orbit in the first place.

There is so much great stuff in this book! I had been dying for the back story, and of course was anticipating the moment Essun would attempt to get the moon back to its rightful place. It was so tense though, since Nassun's plans were pretty opposed to Essun's and only one of them could be successful. Also, Essun was slowly turning to stone as Alabaster did in the last book, which is a side effect of harnessing the obelisks in this way. So she had to be very careful using her powers because each time she did, another part of her would turn to stone. She had to really pace herself here.

The relationships between characters in this series are complicated, and watching how they develop was one of my favorite aspects of the story. In a Season, many things are suspended and times are desperate, which means you really, really want your community as a whole to survive because your own life depends on it. Those who are commless don't last long. Survival is the most important thing, but it's a given that not everyone is going to survive. This necessarily affects interpersonal relationships and means that leaders often have to make very tough decisions for the good of their community. Essun was in rough shape while she was traveling, but knew she wasn't going to get much of a break. She also had a lot of tension with Ykka, the leader of the community Essun inadvertently helped to destroy. I also really loved the relationship between Essun and the stone eater Hoa. And of course, Essun and Nassun were headed for the same place at the end and they didn't really have an awesome mother-daughter relationship in the best of times. So, there was a lot going on here!

I may have mentioned this before, but this is the first time in a very, very long time that I have read a series start to finish, one right after the other. Surprisingly, I didn't feel like I needed a break at all (even though the story was so bleak!) and I didn't get tired of it or wish it would hurry up and be over. Generally I'm pretty impatient and always thinking about the next thing, but I was so invested in what was going on that I wasn't at all in a hurry to leave it. In fact, I'd love another visit to this place - after the things happened at the end of this book I really want to know what everything was like for everyone going forward.

N.K. Jemisin has a book of short stories coming out later this month called How Long 'til Black Future Month, which is one of the best titles I've heard in a while. Of course I'm already on hold for it, but I was very excited to learn yesterday that one of the stories takes place in the world of the Broken Earth series, so I will get to revisit it after all!

The Obelisk Gate

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth #2) by N.K. Jemisin (2016)

Since this is the second book in a series, there need to be spoilers for the first book, The Fifth Season.

For one thing, Damaya and Syenite are names that Essun used during different periods in her life, so the three stories are really all one story. I didn't talk much about the plot of that book, but it begins with a huge rift in the Earth that is bringing on a Fifth Season. At the very end, Essun is reunited with Alabaster, who is slowly turning to stone, and he asks her if she's able to call the obelisks to herself yet, and if she's ever heard of a moon. The Obelisk Gate picks up during this same conversation, and Alabaster explains that she needs to find out if she can control the obelisks, and it's very important and related to the moon.

The book moves back and forth between Essun's story and that of her 8-year-old daughter Nassun, who disappeared along with her father at the beginning of The Fifth Season. Nassun has pretty powerful powers of her own and her relationship with her father is strained at best. He's taking her to a place he's heard of where they may be able to "cure" her, but that's not what this place turns out to be all about. Nassun meets her mother's old Guardian, Schaffa, though she does not know that he knew her mother. Schaffa has changed since those days and he and Nassun work together to train her and she continues to discover new ways her powers work.

There were some very cool things in this story, such as a whole community that lives inside a geode. I kind of hope this is made into a movie someday so I can see it because it sounds spectacular. Plus everything involving the obelisks was kind of cool, though I admit I'm still a little unsure about the role they play - we see ways in which they are used, but I'm wondering how they will relate to the larger picture. I also liked everything about the stone eaters - I have a hard time not picturing them like the weeping angels from Doctor Who, but I find them so delightfully creepy.

In a way, I think this books suffers a little from being the second book in that I didn't feel like the plot was furthered as much as I would like, but there was a lot going on and many new elements introduced, so I ended up liking it as much as the first. Last weekend I decided to grab The Stone Sky from the library when I went into work on Monday, but I ended up being out sick and someone else got our copy before I returned. I requested a copy from another library and was afraid I wouldn't get it before this long weekend. But I got it just in time, which is great because I need to start on it immediately! I'm really, really looking forward to seeing where this story goes in the final book!

The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1) by N.K. Jemisin (2015)

As far as I can tell, this book takes place in our world but far, far in the future. There is one big land mass called the Stillness, ironically, because it is unstable, shifting and moving and filled with geological cataclysms. Every now and then one is catastrophic enough to cause a Fifth Season, during which the sun will be blocked out for months or years, and civilization dies leaving only enough people to begin again when the Season is over. The people live in a constant state of disaster preparedness.

There are people in this world called orogenes or, disparagingly, roggas. They can sense and control movement within the earth, stopping or causing earthquakes, and moving the earth's plates. There are three stories about orogenes in this book. One is about Essun, a woman who's toddler son has just been murdered by her husband. One is about Damaya, whose parents have just reported her and she is removed by a Guardian who watch over people like her, keeping her under control while teaching her how to effectively use her powers. The third story is about Syenite, paired with a man named Alabaster to hopefully breed and create another person with the same powers. Although orogenes are powerful, that power can be controlled by Guardians and orogenes are basically treated as slaves.

It took me quite a while to get into this book. I was initially rather disoriented and confused, but also intrigued. The world-building was pretty amazing even if I didn't quite understand it. After finishing I went back and read the prologue again and it made much more sense this time - I sort of wish I had done so earlier in the book. There are still things I'm a little unclear about, like the role of the obelisks that hover in the air, but I expect some of this will become more clear in the next book, The Obelisk Gate.

It's very dark, and an unpleasant world to be in, but nonetheless compelling. Getting to know the characters and their motivations is a big part of what I like about this book, particularly since they're all in such desperate situations. It's also kind of a tough book to say much about without spoiling it.

I'm very grateful to a coworker who told me I should be sure to have the second book on hand because I would want it when it finished. Initially I wasn't sure I'd move on to the second book, or maybe not right away (this is an unpleasant world and I thought I might want to read something light and funny between books) but I'm glad I heeded my coworker's advice. I went home on Friday with close to 100 pages left, thinking I might finish it over the weekend and instead finished that evening.

I've already moved on to The Obelisk Gate and should have a post about that one before too long!

This was on my 2018 TBR Pile Challenge and is probably the final one that I'll read. The remaining title is NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, but my interest has waned in favor of some of his other work. But since I read both of my alternate titles, I can consider the challenge completed.

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman (1995), narrated by the author and a full cast

The orphan Lyra Belacqua has grown up at Jordan College in Oxford, though she's no scholar herself, preferring to explore the college grounds with her friend Roger rather than spend her time learning. But her carefree life comes to an end when her guardian Lord Asriel arrives with strange tales from the North about a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis and a mysterious substance called Dust. He removes Lyra from Jordan College and she goes to live with Mrs. Coulter, a scholar and explorer who is very warm and kind towards Lyra. But all is not as it seems, and soon Lyra is going North herself to rescue her kidnapped friend Roger who has been kidnapped, armed only with a strange truth-telling contraption called an alethiometer and accompanied by a group of Gyptians and an armored bear.

This is my third time through this series, which I've been wanting to revisit for quite a while. When I heard that Philip Pullman will be releasing a new book this fall in a related series, I knew it was time to go back and listen again. This is one of the first audiobooks I ever listened to, and still one of my favorite. It's narrated by the author and a full cast, and it's just wonderful.

As much as I love the story of Lyra's adventures, it's the world-building which has always captivated me about this series. In particular, I love the idea of daemons. In this world, every person has an animal that is connected closely to them, like a part of their soul, and they cannot survive if they are separated. Lyra's is called Pantalaimon and because Lyra has not yet reached puberty, Pantalaimon can change his shape and become whatever animal he wants. But eventually all daemons must settle on a final form. I just love the idea of having a special pet friend who you can talk things over with and who is always with you. In Lyra's world, you're never alone.

Ever since reading this I've also wanted an alethiometer, the "golden compass" of the title. It's a complex instrument, covered in symbols that each have many meanings. Lyra learns to read it and is able to ask it questions with her mind and then discern the answers by interpreting the symbols the device's hands point to. How can I get one of these? It just seems like it would really come in handy.

As is the case with any really great series start, the book ends with more questions than it answers, which of course is the reason to keep going. The reader is introduced to a whole new world and the more we learn, the more we want to know. It's been a long time since I last experienced this series so I only remember bits here and there, so the rest of the story will likely be as much a surprise as it was the first time. I look forward to starting The Subtle Knife very soon!

Uprooted

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (2015)

In the village of Dvernik lives a young woman named Agneiszka, near the edge of the evil Wood. Guarding all the people of the valley from the Wood's power is a wizard called the Dragon. But the people of Dvernik pay a high price for his protection: every ten years he plucks a young woman from the village who he keeps for ten years until he sets her free and chooses another. Agneiszka dreads the choosing, not because she fears being taken, but because they know that her best friend Kasia will be the unlucky one. She is the smartest, most beautiful, most talented, and she has been preparing for her fate for her whole life. But to everyone's shock the Dragon picks Agneiszka.

Inspired by fairy tales and the story of Baba Yaga, this story has many fantastical elements. Girls locked in towers, spells, a magic wood - but unlike many traditional fairy tales, Uprooted has a complicated plot that makes sense, and great character development. When Agneiszka is first taken to the Dragon's tower, it reminded me a little of Beauty and the Beast (just without the talking teapot.) But as Agneiszka begins to learn about her own powers, and the full implications about the power of the Wood, things got much more interesting.

The most enjoyable part of the novel might be the lush, descriptive writing. It's easy to get lost in Novik's descriptions of the spells, the tower, the Wood, everything that Agneiszka sees, tastes, or smells. Here is the description when she enters the Wood:

"The trees were great pillars in a dark endless hall, well apart from one another, their twisting gnarled roots blanketed in dark green moss, small feathery ferns curled up close for the night. Tall pale mushrooms grew in hosts like toy soldiers marching. The snow hadn't reached the ground beneath the trees, not even now in the deep of winter. A thin layer of frost clung to the leaves and fine branches. I heard an owl calling somewhere distantly as I picked my way carefully through the trees."

And this, later:

"I should have been spent. But magic was still alive and shivering in my belly, too much of it with nowhere to go, as if I were an over-ripe tomato that wanted to burst its skin for relief, and there was an army outside our doors."

I also loved the setting, which I suppose is a magical version of Eastern Europe. The power of the Wood was super creepy, with heart-trees that wrapped themselves around victims and held them there forever, not quiet dead, but not alive either. Those who escaped the Wood were still corrupted, but it wasn't always obvious until people around them began hurting themselves or others. The images of the Wood's reach are dark and haunting and I won't soon forget them.

This novel is sometimes tagged as being young adult, but I'm not sure whether or not it is. Agneiszka is a teenager when the story opens, and I think teens who like fantasy would probably really enjoy this book. At the same time, parts of it felt pretty dense, and at one point in the story I began feeling a bit bogged down by everything that was happening. I had to force my way through for a while until I started feeling the forward momentum again. I don't know if that was me or an issue with the pacing of the book, but either way it luckily didn't last long.

I don't normally pick up fantasy books, especially those that are based on fairy tales, but I kept hearing such good things about Uprooted that I didn't want to let it pass me by. It's a great story to lose oneself in, and I found it quite enjoyable and satisfying.

Carry On

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (2015), narrated by Euan Mortan

As you may know, Rainbow Rowell's book Fangirl contains excerpts from a work of fanfiction, and Rowell has developed the basic idea of that fanfiction into a novel. The star is Simon Snow, a magician who is supposed to be the Chosen One, but has a terrible time controlling his magic. He goes to a special boarding school for magicians where he rooms with a vampire named Baz. Simon and Baz have been enemies since they met and they're both convinced that one of them won't come out of this relationship alive. But in their final year, Baz doesn't show up in the fall and Simon is super jumpy, expecting him to turn up unexpectedly at any moment. He's already having problems with his girlfriend, he receives a strange ghostly visitor, and is now convinced that his missing roommate is surely up to something.

Part mystery and part romance, this fantasy story is a departure for Rowell and I was honestly a little hesitant to read it. I've read Fangirl twice and though I love it, my least favorite parts were the Simon Snow passages. But obviously that is a lot different when it's fully developed into a whole novel.

Simon and Baz are great characters and I loved every moment I spent with them. Especially Baz! He's the presumably evil vampire and, despite being his nemesis, is hopelessly in love with Simon Snow. I loved the way that Baz continued to insult Simon even as he was attracted to him. Like staring at Simon thinking about how much he wanted to kiss him, and noting that "his lips are hanging open (mouth breather.)" He is dark and surly and sarcastic and I love him more than any other character I've read about recently. Simon, who is lovable in a totally different way, sought stability in his future with his girlfriend Agatha, and when she broke up with him he felt quite lost. He had no family of his own, just Agatha and his best friend Penelope. He was awkward and easily flustered, and I imagined him in constant, charming disarray.

The plot revolves around Baz's mother who was killed when he was just a baby, by the same vampires who turned him into one. Simon learns new information about this event, which leads to he and Baz working on the mystery together, bringing them ever closer. This all happened in a magic world where many of the spells are based on nursery rhymes or common sayings. Spells have more power if they are based on something that lasts over time as opposed to, say, an advertising jingle. The big enemy here is called the Insidious Humdrum, which looks like Simon Snow when he was younger, and is stealing magic from all over Britain. (Did I mention this takes place in England? The British-isms make it even better!) Other characters include the troll-like numpties, a female goatherd named Ebenezer, and the powerful Mage who is also the closest thing Simon has to a guardian. It was all deliciously fun and I would not be at all upset if it was the beginning of a longer series.

Carry On was almost a 5-star read for me, but I was a little less enthusiastic about the end. It was good in many ways but there was one major thing that I expected to be resolved and I was a little disappointed that it was just left hanging there. And I wanted more of Simon and Baz together once everything else was done. But that is really just a minor criticism in what was otherwise just as wonderful as I should expect from Rainbow Rowell. The audio narrator, Euan Mortan, did a great job of making these characters come alive.

Like all of Rowell's books, Carry On made me super happy in a million ways. It's clever and witty and made me wish the characters were real. If you read it, just be aware that it starts out slow, but it is absolutely worth it to stay the course. I know that in a way it's a riff on Harry Potter (and it really made me want to read that series again!) but it really is its own world and characters. When I finished my first instinct was to start it all over again, but instead I'm just going to wait impatiently for Rainbow Rowell to publish another book.

Summers at Castle Auburn

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn (2001)

Born the illegitimate daughter of a deceased noble, Coriel spends summers at the castle with her uncle Jaxon and half-sister Elisandra and the rest of the time with her maternal grandmother. Coriel's grandmother is an herbalist (or witch) and Coriel plans to follow in her footsteps. But at the castle her relatives have other ideas about her future. Coriel feels torn in two: she wants a future as a healer in her village, but also loves her sister and other friends at the castle where she spends every summer.

Little is mentioned about her time with her grandmother, focusing instead on the summers. Castle life is very different, with parties and feasts and all the luxuries of royalty. In addition to the regular servants, the family also keeps slaves from a magical people known as the aliora. Coriel has always admired her uncle Jaxon and hasn't questioned his prowess as a hunter of the aliora, and though she has known some of the slaves all her life it is only as a teenager that she begins to question the practice, and her admiration of Jaxon fades. Similarly, she has always been in love with Prince Bryan, but now that they are both older, she no longer envies Elisandra for being his betrothed.

This is not a story with a lot of action, at least not at first. The first several chapters are just setting the stage of Coriel's life and I felt quite drawn into her life and didn't care much that I had no idea yet what the story was going to be about. This allowed me to get pretty invested in her life, I think, so that later when all the things started happening I really felt like I was involved. Mostly it was a coming-of-age story with Coriel starting out innocent, but then learning more and really having her eyes opened to things going on around her, and how she deals with this new knowledge.

My only criticism is that I wish it would have dealt with the topic of the aliora a bit more. They are hunted and enslaved, but still don't seem to be considered "lesser" for reasons I can't mention without spoiling the story. Just a little bit more discussion about how people viewed them would have made it a lot more clear to me. But that's literally the only thing I can think of that was remotely wrong with the book, and even that didn't actually detract from my enjoyment, only made me wonder a bit.

I hadn't ever heard of this book until Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner posted a glowing review of it. Castles? Summer? I'm in! It is pretty much exactly what I expected/hoped it to be. I'm not a big fantasy reader* but here the fantasy elements were woven in with the larger story rather than dominating it. This is an older book so I wouldn't have found it on my own, and I'm very glad I heard about it. I read as much of it as possible while sitting outside on sunny days, and I highly recommend that you do too!

*I don't know what I think fantasy is. I have read and enjoyed plenty of fantasy (I mean, Harry Potter for one!) but when I think of it as a category I seem to think it's one I don't read.

An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (2015)

In a world inspired by ancient Rome, a young woman watches as the only family she has is ripped from her by the Martials, the ruling class. Determined to save her brother, she seeks out the Resistance for help. They agree, but for a high price: she must go undercover as a slave and spy on the Commandant at the most prestigious military academy in the country. The Commandant is cruel and vicious, and her last slave was killed after just two weeks. Laia doesn't know how she'll survive, but it's her only choice. Meanwhile, the Commandant's own son, Elias, dreams of escape from the academy and a life he wants no part of. When their paths cross, Laia and Elias begin to forge an unlikely friendship.

The idea of an oppressed underclass in a violent society and one or two teenagers trying to break free seems familiar for a reason. When you add in the Trials, in which Elias and four other recent graduates must compete to the death to become the new Emperor, it conjures comparisons with several other teen dystopias. Since I'm already going down this road, I'll start with the things I didn't like about the book (in order from least to most bothersome) and then move on to what I liked.

Laia's devotion to her brother is what the whole story hinges on and like in so many other books, this deep familial love drives our heroine to risk her own life again and again. I'm honestly never totally convinced by this and - here especially - she has so little chance of surviving and even so it's far from certain that her efforts will save her brother anyhow. It's also true that Laia had nothing left to lose, so I'm willing to overlook this for the most part.

Speaking of the risks, the Commandant is supposed to be so ruthless and cruel that slaves rarely lasted more than a week or so with her. Initially this showed in her treatment of Laia, but then it started feeling like the Commandant let a lot go. Had there been some explanation, like maybe the Commandant being sick of having to train new slaves and making a decision to let up a bit, this would have made more sense. As it was, it's obvious that Laia just needed to survive in order for the book to continue.

I've identified the line of dialogue that I dislike the most in the world, and which appears in far too many books including this one. That line is: "It's not like that." When Elias defends the slave Laia, his best friend Helene accuses him of being sexually involved with Laia. This is not true, yet instead of saying, "No, actually I just feel bad for her because she's a slave," which would be the truth, he says "It's not like that." Why is this line always used in books? It's so close to an admission of guilt, it's more like trying to reframe it. It would be like saying, "Yes, I slept with her but not just for a cheap thrill like you think." It's weak and lame, and I've never heard anyone say it in real life.

Those are very specific criticisms, but what I liked about the book is much more general. I mentioned earlier that the setting was inspired by ancient Rome, and it definitely had that feel about it in terms of its place in history. I liked this historic dystopia feel, void of any kind of technology, and felt like I was transported to a very different place than I had ever been before.

Despite some of the plot holes, the story really kept me going and I enjoyed it a lot while I was reading it. I wanted to pick the book up at every opportunity and sit for hours reading to find out what happened next. I really didn't know where it was going to go, and I was surprised many times.

One specific thing that I can pinpoint that I liked was the character of Helene. She and Elias were super close and there was a bit of sexual tension happening, which was especially awkward since they had been such good friends for so long. But what I liked was that Helene was portrayed realistically as part of their class in that she wasn't sympathetic to the Scholar class, including Laia. Elias really was pretty alone in his views, which makes his character more special, and Helene was a complicated, believable character who I still admired quite a bit. I should mention that she is the only female student at the school, so she's not in an easy position. She is super smart and strong, but is still a product of her society in some ways.

I probably wouldn't have picked this up on my own but we chose it for my book group and I did really enjoy the time I spent reading it. My criticisms are enough that I won't give it high ratings and I'm not likely to continue the series (did I mention it's the first in a series? Of course it is.) But I spent a few enjoyable days getting lost in the story and in this fascinating, cruel world.

An Ember in the Ashes is a fantasy and thus fulfills another square for Winter Bingo. I unfortunately have no series finales or works in translation on my reading horizon, so this fantasy square isn't actually helping me much.