An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir swiftly establishes the brutality of the world the characters are living in, in this first of a 4-book YA fantasy series. The Martials conquered Scholar lands 500 years ago and the Scholars are second-class citizens who are frequently enslaved. Elite Martial soldiers known as Masks are also treated violently as they go through their training at Blackcliff. The book alternates POVs between Laia, a Scholar, and Elias, a Mask who has nearly completed his training. They come into contact with each other when Laia enters Blackcliff as a spy for the Scholar Resistance.
I was immediately engaged by the book and quickly became invested in both main characters. An overarching mystery comes into play related to the people known as Augurs who can see the future and seem to be trying to guide events in a certain direction. They aren’t clearly good or evil, and I’m really curious to see where that goes when I move on to the sequel(s). 4.25 stars.
James
In this retelling of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn, Percival Everett follows the original fairly faithfully for about half of the book (based on the plot summary I read because I didn’t recall anything from Huck Finn). Then he really makes it his own. Everett distinguishes James from the Jim of Huck Finn both by centering him with a first-person POV but also by changing his language. All of the slaves in the book appear to be “bilingual.” They can speak English properly, sometimes more so than the White enslavers around them, but they put on a show of speaking in a way that makes them appear less educated and intelligent in order to keep White people content. It’s a safety behavior.
The second half of the book veers away from the original plot and not coincidentally gets significantly darker. Everett is writing in a way that Twain wouldn’t have, probably couldn’t have at that time. The first half of the book is almost an adventure with Huck and James, though certainly still a risky one. When the tone shifts, readers are reminded of the reality of slavery at the time, of the danger that enslaved people were constantly facing. It actually made the story more engaging, but it does come with some content warnings.
This was my second book by Everett, and I definitely plan to keep reading his works. 4.25 stars.
The Tea Dragon Society
Did this book deserve 5 stars? Probably not. Is that the rating I gave it? You betcha! This middle grade graphic novel is exactly the book I needed at the time. It came after finishing a couple of dark books and being partway through another one that was going to some dark places, and I needed something light. I loved this. It follows Greta, who is learning blacksmithing from her mother but isn’t really into it. When she finds a tea dragon and returns it to the owner, she begins to learn more about tea dragons as a species and forms relationships with the tea dragon owners and a girl they’ve taken in.
The art is beautiful, and the dragons are adorable. The story is fairly simple but still meaningful. The author ends with caretaking information for tea dragons, including some that are featured in this book and some that aren’t. I really want a hibiscus or ginseng dragon! I’m looking forward to the sequels.
