Review: A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

Wow, my feelings are hurt.

If you haven’t read An Ember in the Ashes, book one in this series, I urge you to do so! It is a Roman and middle eastern-inspired fantasy world full of the mythical creatures that go with the lore of the Middle East. It is a fantastic world, and Tahir does not shy away from having these people in a war-torn place be suffering the very real effects of living in an occupied land. She paints compelling characters that will make your heartache as they hurtle towards their destiny. Also, it is legitimately a great time.

This series feels like you are sprinting straight into something very painful (briar patch, poison ivy, a pool full of swords) but having a very good time while doing it. Sabaa Tahir is really a master at compelling you to turn the page when you are sure it is going to upset you. She puts the perfect amount of happy or hopeful for you to simultaneously be able to delude yourself into thinking that maybe this one aspect will all right and know that this small happy part is 100% an omen of something terrible to come.

This book was just as action-packed and full of character growth as the first one. I was absolutely glued to the pages as I read.

I truly can say I did not expect some of the twists. And what I found incredible was when Tahir would do what I expected to happen but in a completely different (and way more painful for the characters) way. Especially the Elias thing. I thought I had that figured out like 300 pages in advance. I didn’t find the Keenan thing that shocking, but the tension between knowing something is afoot and no one else being suspicious was excellent. Tahir writes this series in such a way that even if you were spoiled completely beforehand, I think you would still have an amazing reading experience.

The setting was also done so well in this book. I loved seeing how different places asserted their effect on our characters. I love the middle book thing where you get to see the world you fell in love with both expand and also be blown up. Things get broader, and the stakes get higher. And with a four-book series, I get that experience again, though I am sure in a completely different manner.

I have such trouble writing reviews of complete series I am reading all at once. I want the whole review to just say, “read it, loved it, would rather be reading the next book right now,” but that is not useful to my future self when seeing how I felt about a book. I really had a great time reading this book.

I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.