An Ember in the Ashes: Abuse & Slavery Sucks

Disclaimer *Review Slap is my personal opinion, I have received no compensation whatsoever in posting this review. Also title of post may fudge the actual title in discussion.*

**Due to the fact that everyone who matter's already reviewed An Ember in the Ashes I will mix it up a bit and make my review for shit's and giggles with songs!!**

 An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Out now!

 An Ember in the Ashes is set in a fantastical world, through which a resident of such a place would describe it as:

 I come from a land
From a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam

Arabian nights!
Like Arabian days
More often than not
Are hotter than hot
In a lot of good ways

Okay okay I kid. Please don't sue me Disney, I assure you I am poor.

The setting however does take place in a stereotypical middle eastern dessert except there's more white people. In a bustling city the reader is shown that this place is ruled with an iron fist. One of the main characters is Laia who is of the Scholar people. Her ancestor's were taken over by the more brute Soldier Clans that have enslaved her people for several generations now.
 Then there is Elias, a young man from the Soldier Clan who attends a school that teaches it's students how to be Masks AKA Neo Nazi's, or ruthless killer's; which ever description floats your boat.

He was a boy
She was a girl
Can I make it anymore obvious

Any-who one night Laia is at home minding her own business when she see's her big brother's drawings are of top secret Neo Nazi stuff. Naturally she freaks out and right when her brother tells her he won't get caught and everything will be okay; soldier's bust through the house killing their grandparents, arresting Laia's brother after a good beating and proceed burn their house down. Impeccable timing Neo Nazi's!

Laia manages to escape being raped, murdered and/or burning to death in her house. On the run she decides to seek out a Scholar rebel group to aid her in retrieving her brother. The Scholar group are not very nice but they're not Neo Nazi mean. After listening to Laia's plight they tell her they will get her brother out if she agrees to be a slave for the Neo Nazi School's headmistress to spy on her. This book has some heavy stuff in case you didn't realize.


 Now this Headmistress is so into being evil that even the Neo Nazi's are scared of her.

How evil is she you ask?

Just ask her son, who is the other main character! He is in his last year at the Neo Nazi school and is considered Best Student of the Year. Turns out that he hates it and just wants to leave. His attitude towards the School and Empire is nothing but disgust. His thoughts are not the norm, he was raised outside of the Neo Nazi hatin' life by peaceful nomads. He was raised by relatively decent people till the age of five when Solder's came and slaughtered his adoptive family only to tell him he is adopted and must return home to go to school.

Can someone say trauma?

To top off the exponential onslaught his mom is the Headmistress and totes hates him. She tells him upon meeting for the first time that she is upset Elias is still alive since she left him the desert to die after giving birth to him.

This is a reason to support Plan Parenthood.

Then a tournament is held to determine the next Emperor! With a prophecy thing that creepy minding reading, immortal monks keep foretelling! Will Elias raise to the occasion? Will Laia be able to save her brother? Will there be more trauma making the reader question the morals of humanity?

Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z! Bring Me My Book!

Real talk for a sec! I do highly recommend you read An Ember the Ashes when you get the chance! It had a plot that kept getting more complicated in a good way! At first I was concerned with world building which leads me to think that the second will just take off on the first page. In Conclusion, the hype surrounding this book is- in my opinion, worthy!