Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing for giving me an ARC of this book to read. All opinions are my own.
Have you ever read a book that enthralls you so you don’t want to put it down, but it just overwhelms you to the point that you have to put it down at times? That was me with Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee. I am normally a really fast reader but this book took me days to read because I kept having to stop reading it because I just became overwhelmed by everything that was happening, but in the best way. This book draws you into the world and keeps you there, but since the concepts are on the darker side, if you are like me it can consume you.
I immediately had to give props to Molly and the rest of the team behind this book for putting a trigger warning at the beginning of this book, because it prepared me for some of the darker elements including abuse, both physical and emotional. If you are sensitive to this, please be careful reading this book. While this book handles it very well, it is a present aspect of character development. This book has a sequel coming out later this year (2021) and I am very excited to read it, especially after the ending.
There are a few things I want to mention that aren’t spoilers per se, but are more on the spoiler-side of things, so please don’t read below unless you are willing to get a little more information about the characters/ending than what is written above. Harley, the main character, grated on me at times throughout the book. I understood where she was coming from with certain aspects of her character, and it did make the end of the book that much more satisfying, but getting there was rough from time to time. All of the other characters in this book were also full and well rounded characters, and you either loved or hated them because they felt real. Finally, that ending. I loved that ending, even though it was a massive cliffhanger. I laughed maniacally at the ending and I am so looking forward to the sequel at the end of this year.
Overall I give this book a 9/10 – Some of it dragged a *tiny* bit for me, and some of it just was overwhelming so I put it down for time here and there, but overall it was so addicting that I had to just keep going back to it so I could finish and know what happened to everyone. I am very excited for the sequel and seeing what else happens in this world!