RoseBane (Jess)'s Reviews > A Torch Against the Night

5/5 stars. I want to cry!
How do you understand that the book you just finished reading is a good book? Which is worth 5 whole stars, and maybe even more?
I'll tell you my opinion - you should feel it. You have to feel the characters, go through the experience they are going through. You have to feel that you are experiencing what is going on in the book with the characters.
It's a very great connection to a book, and it doesn't happen with most books. Usually, you just read the book from your point of view as a reader. It's hard for you to connect with the characters. And, if you did connect with a particular character, that doesn't mean you necessarily feel and become the character.
If you don't understand what the hell I'm talking about -because I'm a completely complicated person who can't explain herself- I'll explain now.

From the first book I connected with Elias.
Yes yes, Elias. Not Laia. I know many of you have mostly connected to Laia, I don't, but I'll go into that later.
Me and Elias are alike. I will not begin to explain why, because it’ll be long, but our personality is similar.
Throughout the first book, the moment I was sucked into the plot, I could put myself in the position of Elias. I experienced the emotions with him, I experienced the failures with him. It was amazing. It doesn't happen to me with characters usually, so it's a delightful feeling in my opinion. It's fun.
As soon as I started reading the current book, I was worried that this connection would pass. It happened to me before that I became very attached to a certain character, but in the next book she/he changed a bit, and the connection broke off. So it didn't happen in this book. I could still feel Elias. Experience the world he‘s in. But thank God this connection isn’t physical, is it? It could’ve been sucks. (those who don't know what I'm talking about - sorry, don't do spoilers).
So in summary: Elias is a freaking king.

Now let's talk about Laia.
Like I said before, I'm not a big fan of Laia. And to be honest? I liked her even more in the first book. In the current book she was a little far from me. Don't get me wrong, she's a good character. But I guess it's because of my amazing connection to Elias and the fact that Tahir added Helene's point of view.

Oh, Helene. We will talk about her, I have many things to say about her.
In the first book, she confused me. Big Time. In one episode I thought she was nice, in another I thought she was annoying, in another I said to myself "Oh! What a badass!”, And, in another chapter, I thought to myself, "What the hell?". So yeah, I couldn't even form an opinion about her. Which is why I am so happy that Tahir decided to add her point of view.
From the first episode, which was told from Helene's point of view, I could begin to piece together the puzzle pieces of her character. I could finally understand her, accept her and then love her.
And yes, I might surprise you again, but I love Helene more than Laia. (And like I said, that's probably the reason for my distancing from Laia's character, too).

Is it just me or is this review very confused? You see, it took me 4 days to write it. I don't know, I feel like I'm confusing everything, maybe it's just me, but I always find it hard to explain myself when I talk about something so good.

So characters, characters, characters...
I have to take a few lines and write about Tas, this sweet, strong boy I loved so much. And Darin, who I finally got to know. Although that’s obviously not enough, and I must pick up the third book. And Helene's amazing family. And IZZI, oh IZZI!
And Keenan, who I love so much. Really, even after this book, after all the craziness that was discovered, I still really loved Keenan's character.
And you can't forget Harper, of course. He was so intrigued to me! His character was so intriguing. I felt like I was slowly sipping from the bottle, and I hadn't even reached half of it. I really liked him, and I look forward to getting to know him better in the next book.

So after talking about the characters, I'll talk about the plot.
Sabaa Thair knows how to write a good book. She knows how to keep the reader in suspense and make him turn a page and keep reading.
It's amazing how you always stay thirsty for more, how you can't put the book out of your hands. How you keep expecting something and still enjoy it when you receive it.
I'm not sure I'll be able to get more opinions into this review, because I'm starting to feel that my excited brain is starting to confuse everything again.. So I'll stop here.
Excuse me if you read this shit called "review" and I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I did.