A Torch Against The Night Book Review

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"When the fear takes over, use the only thing more powerful, more indestructible, to fight it : your spirit."

The thrilling, long-awaited sequel to An Ember in the Ashes is finally in our greedy little hands ,
I loved An Ember In The Ashes. It blew my mind , all I wanted to do was sing its praises from the heavens . and now , finally i had the sequel we’d been promised , this book was one of the few that I most anticipated this year , and most thankfully it didn't put me down . it even survived my decision not to high rate books without much thinking .
I've been rating many books five stars lately , i was wondering if my rating is being glitched , but seems i am only choosing my books extra carefully that i am ending with books that I have no choice but to extremely like and in sequence , with too many five stars .

It is a bloody, painful and haunting work, It describes the heart bristling oppression along with a skin prickling sadism that is bred into some of its characters . like Marcus , the commandant or the Warden , the latter who is shrewd , Yes . but twisted to the extent of damaged beyond repair .
the book picks up exactly from where it ended in the Ember, with Laia and Elias running for their lives and the Commandant on their tails . The stakes are higher in this book because every decision of theirs could affect the future of thousands of lives . there is the genocide of the scholars , the threats of a civil war , Marcus limitless cruelty to strengthen his reign on the crown , politics/hierarchy that governs the darkness that clouds the Empire and the Darin's Whispers scattered on the wind across the country, the Scholar boy, the flicker of hope, the one who knows grave secrets .

One of my favorite aspects was that we got a POV from Helene . She is such a controversial character, pulled in so many directions ,I think we all grew to love her in the first book and I loved learning more about her inner thoughts and conflicts . I couldn’t help but have my heart break for her . every time they tried to "unmake" her , Helene would rise again, stronger and brighter than before. " Cain said : But you, Helene Aquilla, are no swift-burning spark. You are a torch against the night—if you dare to let yourself burn. "
Laia is getting braver , she undergoes a good amount of character development . while Elias is still struggling with the darkness enveloping him, the tormented yet so genuinely human he is, fighting it. He wants to hurt no one regardless of all the pain , , His interrogation at Kauf shows the light that shines within him "
“Always so afraid of the darkness within.” Mamie Rila takes my hands. “Don’t you see? So long as you fight the darkness, you stand in the light. "

i would say that A torch against the night , just like the first book , is Breathtaking , but when reading this word, one would imagine exquisite lands and vividly colored rainbows , which is not the case here . its the type of breathtaking that one's heart would throw itself backward and clung to the bars of their rib cage , it leaves you no time to breathe, no time to heal between one heart-wrenching blow and another . Even slower paced scenes were enveloped in tension which made the entire book a fast read since I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next . the storyline in general creates an unwavering air of suspense .


But, well , it wasn't flawless . because here comes the romance , i think it was a little bit annoying , kind of cliche .
i have to admit that inspite of my rating , i was feeling bad at some point , and the reason behind that temporary nasty feeling was the love triangle or square or whatever , i mean the worst books pet peeves that i'll never really get used to is love triangles , and by the time we figured it wasn't a love triangle to begin with , it was too late , we've already felt bad .

still , you can see that i have a big heart and i offered the book my forgiveness along with the 5 stars rating , because actually the world building , the plot twists and the writing style all deserved them whole heartedly .

All in all , there are too many dystopian series published, tons of them trying to compete for the attention of people , but when you stumble upon a good one , you're lucky . its such a superb experience .
I will be waiting for the next two books as enthusiastically as I was for this one . and I am hoping that they would be as good , maybe even better , without little glitches that require forgiveness .Preview* :

Now we have the first chapter released !! its awesomeamazingmindblowing !
I can't wait to read the rest of the book *heart aches-chest swells moment*
here is the chapter's link : http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/18/...
ENJOY !

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