“You are my masterpiece, Helene Aquilla, but I have just begun. If you survive, you shall be a force to be reckoned with in this world. But first you will be unmade. First, you will be broken.”
Though I enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes more, I think this was a really great sequel. If you loved the action and violence in the first book, A Torch Against the Night won’t disappoint. It’s full of bloody scenes and brutal characters in a world based on ancient Rome, but it also touches on themes of loyalty and love—should you serve the Empire you have sworn your allegiance to, or save your family instead?
A really strong addition was Helene’s POV. I loved her. Forget Elias and Laia, Helene is my favorite character. She was bloodthirsty and powerful and the hell she had to go through to get where she was, to become a Mask and now a Blood Shrike, was seriously intense. Her conflicted feelings over Elias—the man she loved who betrayed the Empire she served—added even more heartbreaking drama as she was ordered to hunt him down.
“Ah.” He tilts my chin up and searches my face. “Panic, fear, and desperation. I prefer you like this, Blood Shrike.” He bites my lip, sudden and painful, his eyes open the whole time. I taste my own blood.
“Now, Shrike,” he breathes into my mouth. “Go fetch.”
I hate to say it, but the plot ambled a bit. It showed some slight signs of second book syndrome. At the beginning, the main plot was to rescue Laia’s brother, Darin, from the prison Kauf. You’d think that would just be the start of the plot, right? Nope, that was the majority of it.
I expected the story to branch off in different directions and ultimately build into something bigger by the end . . . but that wasn’t really the case (besides a cool subplot about Elias visiting the Soul Catcher), and thus the climax felt a little weak. I know some people will appreciate the clear and driven storyline, but it just wasn’t for me. I prefer my plots to be more complicated.
Simple plot aside, the amount of emotion Tahir managed to elicit through her scenes was insane—I was horrified when Helene was getting tortured; I felt her fear and rage, I was scared for Laia, who was embarking on a dangerous mission, and I felt compassion for Elias, who regretted all the lives he’d taken at the hands of the Empire. This world is so nasty I think it would be hard not to be flooded by feeling at the unfairness of it all.
Also, is it a bad thing that I kind of love the Commandant? I know she’s a horrible person . . .
“The Commandant’s first scim whistles through the air, divesting the child of his head. At the same time, she draws her second scim, plunging it through the heart of the second child. Knives appear in her hands, and she flings them—zing-zing-zing—one by one into the throats of the last three prisoners.”
. . . all right, she’s downright evil, but there’s something so fascinating about her.
I’m looking forward to some more awesome nastiness in the next book.
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