Picking up this book I expected to burn as much for the story and its characters as I did when I was devouring An Ember in the Ashes and A Torch Against the Night. Unfortunately, I found myself tiring of the plot and the characters‘ decisions made.

A Reaper at the Gates opens the doors to a bigger picture - we get to see more of the world and its conflicts, wars, injustice and problems - as well as finding the characters on new paths in their lives - Laia fighting for the Scholars beside her brother, Helene trying to save the Empire from evil, and Elias becoming the Soul Catcher. Each of them have now bigger battles to face than before. Their motivations have become bigger, not involving just their lives but that of many. The stakes have become bigger, the threat deadlier. And yet, I couldn‘t really feel much for them.

The biggest issue I had with this installement was probably the pacing, and the fact that while the characters face new paths in front of them, not much happens. The book focused too much on slowly navigating the characters through their lives, probably placing them where they need to be in the next and finale installement. Which is the reason why this book felt more like a filler than one that delivers some pivotal moments for their development. Especially during the middle part lots of scenes and moments felt dragging, and not even the expanding of the worldbuilding was able to keep me too invested as things just out of hand too quickly.

Despite all of this, this book had some moments that I hadn’t seen coming, which mainly opened up new questions that I‘m curious to see answered in the next installement. Which is why I‘m still invested to see where the story is heading, and - especially - ending.