A review by rinku
Elias & Laia - In den Fängen der Finsternis by Sabaa Tahir

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 Because of some small critiques here and there, I gave A Reaper at the Gates 4.5 stars and not full five stars. Still, it’s an amazing book with an interesting plot and great characters. 

We again follow Elias, Laia and Helene in this book. Elias became the soul catcher and now has to balance this new hard task with his want to protect Laia. Laia herself tries to find allies in the battle against the empire and especially Keris. I was again most interested in Helene’s story who has to stop Keris from taking over the empire but also protect her sister from Marcus; Livia’s need for protection increases in the course of the story since
she becomes pregnant with the new imperator
. 

This book was a bit slower than its predecessor, even with the constant time pressure, because Laia’s and Elias’ plot felt a bit aimless at some points. I had also had two other small problems with the story: Firstly, it was a bit hard to keep track of the different nations/tribes and their interests introduced here. Secondly, some aspects of the story were not clearly enough explained, like
the reason why Elias suddenly was able to control the magic
. 

The ending of this book though shows how amazingly the series was plotted from the beginning. We get to know that
the cook is Laia’s mom and that she was forced to kill her daughter and her husband which was such a dramatic reveal
. Then, all three characters are at the same place since
the capital of the empire is attacked: Helene is defending the city, Laia is trying to get the ring from her, and Elias wants to collect the escaped ghosts. The way Laia gets Helene’s ring was so creative, but the ring is sadly fake. It’s so disturbing as well how Keris perfectly planned everything and how she was able to kill Marcus
. The most powerful moment of the story though was when
Laia left her mother behind to save Helene; this moment gave me goosebumps
. 

I still like most of the cast since many of them have so much depth. Helene became maybe one of my favorite characters of all time. At the beginning, it was so sad how heartless she became because of all the terrible things happening to her but it’s only understandable, just like her hatred towards Laia. But also, she became so strong which can be seen especially when
she survived the attempted assassination
. I ship her so much with Harper, but I somehow doubt that they’ll get a happy ending together. What I appreciate as well is the fact that romance is not the focus of the story. 

After the ending of A Reaper at the Gates, I can’t wait to find out how this series will end and how our characters will be able to win against the demons of the outside world – and the ones inside of them. 
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