mybookishhome's review against another edition
4.0
I think I would've given this book 5 stars if I had read it right after the first three books. I still really enjoyed this story and thought the ending was good. If you haven't picked up the Ember Quartet, I highly suggest you do.
heyamymae's review against another edition
4.0
The middle dragged a bit for me but a solid conclusion to a really great YA fantasy series.
sarahsbookss's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
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
thebookkeepers's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn’t ready for this series to end, but Sabaa did it justice. A wonderful conclusion to the Ember quartet. The pacing was perfect and the reader gets full closure on all the characters and plots. Heartache & joy that Sabaa is known for leaves the reader in a state of awe. Expert storytelling and one of my favorite series that I’m happy to say I was able to get several friends and my husband hooked on as well. Phenomenal!
claudiaque's review against another edition
3.0
I don’t know where to start with this. It took me awhile to even process if I liked this or not and I think I fell somewhere in…kind of?
This is the fourth and final book of the Ember series. We follow Elias, Helene, and Laia on their last hurrah to beat the bad guys and save the world or whatever (seriously how do you summarize last books without spoiling? I’m not good at this part)
I thought this book was much better paced than the last one. The action had a clear forward momentum that rarely let up. The characters are all together for most of the book which I thought was a weakness of the last one as well and it did feel improved here. There are some absolutely great character interactions.
I think my main problem is with the ending. Being as vague as possible it felt a little like Helene and Laia must be competing for the trauma Olympics while Elias could windwalk away unscathed. It made the ending itself feel trite and not enough to actually feel settled down or even realistic character wise. There’s a twist involving a character that I really didn’t care that much about so the twist was rather ineffective in softening any blow.
There was also a lot of focus on the villain of the story and I think honestly that the humanization of him was a little overdone. The man committed genocides, can we not sing kumbaya songs about him just cause he was sad first?
Keris, who up to this point had been an amazing and ruthless villain was completely undone. Her backstory too felt like it was writing one giant excuse for, again, GENOCIDE. Her ending was absolutely unworthy of her and felt kind of silly.
Overall, this was a pretty disappointing end for me for a very promising series to start. I did read it in a day though so it was easily consumed and kept me at least interested. I know I'm mostly by myself here in being disappointed, sorry!
This is the fourth and final book of the Ember series. We follow Elias, Helene, and Laia on their last hurrah to beat the bad guys and save the world or whatever (seriously how do you summarize last books without spoiling? I’m not good at this part)
I thought this book was much better paced than the last one. The action had a clear forward momentum that rarely let up. The characters are all together for most of the book which I thought was a weakness of the last one as well and it did feel improved here. There are some absolutely great character interactions.
I think my main problem is with the ending. Being as vague as possible it felt a little like Helene and Laia must be competing for the trauma Olympics while Elias could windwalk away unscathed. It made the ending itself feel trite and not enough to actually feel settled down or even realistic character wise. There’s a twist involving a character that I really didn’t care that much about so the twist was rather ineffective in softening any blow.
There was also a lot of focus on the villain of the story and I think honestly that the humanization of him was a little overdone. The man committed genocides, can we not sing kumbaya songs about him just cause he was sad first?
Keris, who up to this point had been an amazing and ruthless villain was completely undone. Her backstory too felt like it was writing one giant excuse for, again, GENOCIDE. Her ending was absolutely unworthy of her and felt kind of silly.
Overall, this was a pretty disappointing end for me for a very promising series to start. I did read it in a day though so it was easily consumed and kept me at least interested. I know I'm mostly by myself here in being disappointed, sorry!
shelovestoread's review against another edition
I hate you Saba Tahir because what the frick track Holly he'll cuz noooo
bookswit's review against another edition
4.0
This highly anticipated conclusion to this series is satisfying. I had to wait over a year from finishing the third to starting the fourth. I always struggle to start a series that isn't completed for this exact reason.
Sabaa is a fantastic writer. She weaves the magic of the story brilliantly and the flow is smooth and easy. Her characters are easy to love and just as easy to frustrate the reader.
I won't dive into the characters or imagery too much as the summary does enough and one should start with book one anyway.
I think I would enjoy a reread of the series as much as the first go. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Sabaa's imagination pushes to paper.
Sabaa is a fantastic writer. She weaves the magic of the story brilliantly and the flow is smooth and easy. Her characters are easy to love and just as easy to frustrate the reader.
I won't dive into the characters or imagery too much as the summary does enough and one should start with book one anyway.
I think I would enjoy a reread of the series as much as the first go. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Sabaa's imagination pushes to paper.
thebooksareeverywhere's review against another edition
4.0
Good news, I managed to not skip 60 pages of this book like I did with A Reaper at the Gates. I’m glad to say that I’m fairly sure the issues I had with book 3 of this series were largely due to my problems and not problems with the book itself. I definitely managed to focus on this one more and enjoyed it a lot more because of it! After my strange experience reading A Reaper at the Gates I made sure with this one to really pay attention to the different points of view and focus on all of the information, which definitely helped.
I also definitely enjoyed this one more due to the way the characters began to intertwine once more. I struggled a little with them all having completely different narratives, being in different parts of the world and the side characters being different to. It felt jarring to change between their points of view for some of the story, but that definitely improved with this one.
You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest.
I also liked the more character focused elements of this one, and I found it had a slightly slower pace with more scenes with just one or two characters. I definitely enjoy books that look in depth into characters and feel I have more of a connection to them, so that felt right to me. It also meant that when the characters were going through tough points in their lives, I could sympathise with them a lot more. I know a lot of people aren’t happy with how this book ended, and although I can see why, I didn’t mind the ending and felt like it closed off the story well.
The plot was good, but also felt a bit anticlimatic. I just didn’t feel as connected to the story as I wanted to be in it’s most crucial and climatic moments. I definitely enjoyed Elias’ viewpoint more than any other in this book, which was a bit of a shock to me. I have enjoyed reading about all of the characters throughout the series, but I really felt for him as a character fighting against himself and just found his subplot to be the most interesting to me.
It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.
Overall I have enjoyed this series but it hasn’t blown me away as much as I expected it to. I would still recommend it and I feel like I might find more of a connection to it in the future if I decide to reread it. It has definitely been a unique fantasy story, but I did find An Ember in the Ashes to be my favourite in the end!
★★★★
4 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
I also definitely enjoyed this one more due to the way the characters began to intertwine once more. I struggled a little with them all having completely different narratives, being in different parts of the world and the side characters being different to. It felt jarring to change between their points of view for some of the story, but that definitely improved with this one.
You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest.
I also liked the more character focused elements of this one, and I found it had a slightly slower pace with more scenes with just one or two characters. I definitely enjoy books that look in depth into characters and feel I have more of a connection to them, so that felt right to me. It also meant that when the characters were going through tough points in their lives, I could sympathise with them a lot more. I know a lot of people aren’t happy with how this book ended, and although I can see why, I didn’t mind the ending and felt like it closed off the story well.
The plot was good, but also felt a bit anticlimatic. I just didn’t feel as connected to the story as I wanted to be in it’s most crucial and climatic moments. I definitely enjoyed Elias’ viewpoint more than any other in this book, which was a bit of a shock to me. I have enjoyed reading about all of the characters throughout the series, but I really felt for him as a character fighting against himself and just found his subplot to be the most interesting to me.
It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated.
Overall I have enjoyed this series but it hasn’t blown me away as much as I expected it to. I would still recommend it and I feel like I might find more of a connection to it in the future if I decide to reread it. It has definitely been a unique fantasy story, but I did find An Ember in the Ashes to be my favourite in the end!
★★★★
4 out of 5 stars
-Beth
May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽
karnam's review against another edition
5.0
There are not enough words in english that can explain how much i love this book. Honest to god it's the best in the entire series and it broke my heart. I am a mess. I'll never recover from it.