abarnhart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
mdzreynolds's review against another edition
4.0
gayusbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Ever since I finished An Ember in the Ashes, I was consumed with this need to know the rest of the story & the wait for the next book was almost excruciating. ( Because I was a fool & ordered only the first one ). Anyway A Torch Against The Night didn’t disappoint. The story is well thought out, with pieces of the puzzle that scattered throughout both of the books falling perfectly into place and the twists & turns are satisfyingly plotted out. But one thing I noticed about this one is that,there is a lot of suffering going on. Even though the first one had it’s fare share of torture, there was an underlying warmth of friendship & light banter. With Elias & Laia on the run, the chaos of the empire in full force & Helene in the opposite camp, I know the tone of the book can’t be the same.
Also Laia with her equal attraction towards both men kind of got tiring after a while. She reminded me of Elena from Vampire Diaries in that aspect. ( Side question: Am I the only one who’s not a fan of Damon Salvatore?). I think it’s to show the growth of Laia’s character, but still it would have been better if her relationship with Elias focused more on their emotional bonding.
Anyway, other than that , A Torch Against The Night is a perfect continuation to the story and you know Sabaa Tahir has created a fantastic and complicated world when you understand & feel for the villain. Nightbringer is one of the best villains in my opinion.
nicoleg_haus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
tinydonats's review against another edition
4.0
Laia is like my homegirl, I be calling her a dumb bih in my notes lmao. She's cool though, she cool.
This was so exciting. We started right where we left off in Book 1, right in the thick of it. I love the complex relationships. Even in Book 1, the relationships were complex and it made them more realistic. Not everything is black and white, and people can care about someone and still hurt them. It's just very layered and real and messy and I love mess. The relationships just get more complex and convoluted in this book. It's so stressful and *pain* and angst but also delicious and exciting.
The plot twists were so great, I was shook. It was fantastic. The characters get much darker as a whole, they all go through some harrowing things. The story as a whole turns darker and dire. The story shifts and Sabaa is nice and gives us her little plot building bricks to show us what she has in store.
I am so excited for the next two books because Sabaa is great and this plot, this world, these characters, have so much to offer and I'm really glad there are two more books of this.
tuiking's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
maryaakkad's review against another edition
5.0
Okay, so this book was painful. (It's been three days and that's all I could come up with).
No, but for real. So first off, Helene broke my heart, like I had to put the book down several times while reading her chapters to cool down a bit (let's take a second to appreciate a book where a side character gets her/his own pov and isn't useless and/or annoying). Second, while I did feel nostalgic at some points for the original setting of the story, the pace and the events kind of distracted me from that to a point where I didn't really care that much after a while (so that a was a really long sentence). I just meant that the plot build up and pacing was on point.
Moving on. I still really like Laia and Elia's relationship because it doesn't feel forced, and witnessing the-forgive my cheesiness-blooming relationship between them doesn't feel awkward. Also, the commandant is as insane as always, but that's nothing new.
“Because sane plans never work, girl,” she says. “Only the mad ones do.”
readbybryn's review against another edition
4.25