A review by ebonwilde
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

2.0

i was pretty neutral about this until around 88%. the whole fourth trial was??? who sets their best friend up to be sold as a sex slave, especially after she's literally begging you to do something?? elias is a nasty bitch, because a few chapters before this, he was so into the trials, not only did he slaughter people he had known for ten years, people he considered family, he also attempted to kill helene (the best friend). if he could do that, he could definitely kill laia. what makes it more annoying is that he doesn't know laia at all. they have three conversations max before this scene. if you can kill your comrades whom you've trained with for more than a decade, you can and should be able to kill this rando?? but instead, he allows helene to be sworn into service to man who has bragged to elias about how he'd rape her when she became his blood strike. multiple times even. what makes it worse is that he questions her afterward, asking why she'd ally herself with a rapist, like she's not the rapist's main victim and he the man who put her in that position.

one thing that i really first liked about this book was that there wasn't really any romance and that it focused mostly on political intrigue. but because the relationship between elias and laia is so severely lacking, this scene just ends up bizarre. i really don't understand how he could do that to helene just because he wants to fuck laia. because him lusting after her is honestly what all their measly three interactions sum up to.