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meggieisbooked 's review for:
An Ember in the Ashes
by Sabaa Tahir
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The whole premise of these fantasy schools where most of the children enrolled will die before graduation make absolutely zero sense. There is no military or government (fictional or otherwise) that would spend valuable time and critical resources on training children to become soldiers, only to have half of them die in the process. No country (no matter how corrupt) would invest in something as wasteful as that. I'm unable to suspend the logical side of my brain to believe that the parents of these children would allow them to be ripped from their arms for the "honor" of becoming a Mask.
If the Augurs are so powerful and all-knowing, why have they allowed these horrible things to pass? They bring children to a death camp, meant to weed out the weakest of all, but if they have the gift of foresight, then they could spare the children who would die in the culling process at Blackcliff. They say they don't interfere, but that's all they do, pulling the puppet strings of children forcing them to murder other children.
Which leads me to another point of contention for me: the Trials. Again, if these Augurs already know the outcome, there is no point to the trials. Again, what government would consent to pitting their best soldiers against one another in a battle to the death. Time wasted, resources consumed, lives forfeited; apparently it makes no difference to the Empire, cuz new Masks just grow on trees 🙄
I have so much more that I want to rant about, but I feel like this is enough.