A very solid YA fantasy that discerns itself from the multitude of others with a darker and more violent approach, as well as with a distancing from the usual european-style world (I'm not sure why so many people call it roman inspired? Because it's an empire? The real world influences are way more middle eastern).
It was interesting enough, with some moments that diverge from the usual plot formula, and I really enjoyed that it never shied away from the violence that the genre usually doesn't tackle on. The brutality of some scenes really took me by surprise, enough for me to say that this would make a incredible adult novel if it shed away some (very unnecessary) YA cliches.
And those YA cliches are a good part of why An Ember In The Ashes didn't manage to be a 5★ read for me: the romance has barely to no chemistry, there's a hint of a love triangle that makes me want to die, and the protagonist is absolutely bland. Laia has almost no active power through the narrative and I sincerely hope it's on purpose to give her space to grow in the next books, she's got a good soul and says pretty words but her side of the story contributes close to nothing to the plot compared to the other narrator, Elias. He's the one who really builds the bulk of what the story is about: systematic oppression, violence and desensitization.
I'm interested on where the series is going, with the hint of magic and subtle politics we got so far, specially because the downsides are not very prominent compared to the very rich narrative I hope to see more of.