A SKY BEYOND THE STORM BY SABAA TAHIR // spoiler-free book review: this YA epic fantasy series has gutted me and I’m not okay,,,

The long wait is over, and so am I. This post is written by Ruby, who is completely done. Deceased. Let’s get into the suffering, shall we?

Title: A Sky Beyond The Storm
Series: Ember Quartet book #4
Author: Sabaa Tahir
Page count: 516
Date published: 1 December 2020
Genre: Young adult epic fantasy

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Synopsis:

Picking up just a few months after A Reaper at the Gates left off…

The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.

By his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom.

And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

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STAR RATING: (5 out of 5 stars)

Not sure how I ended up here, but let’s get this sob session over with…

I also don’t have anything to sugarcoat because I feel a lot of pain about this right now, so quite literally we’re jumping straight into it.

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And we’ll start with the villain. Because we apparently have two now and they’re so evil and I,,, speechless. Yes, Keris is still here, and it sickens us all. But hello to many epic battle scenes. That’s not a spoiler; it’s the last book in a fantasy series, so you should expect that.

Whilst not my absolute favourite in the series, I’m happy we got it over with. And I don’t mean it in THAT way, but rather that we finally got our resolution. I’ve seen some criticisms of the ending, which I personally didn’t have any issues with. I have one, but I can’t say because of spoilers. Overall, this book ended the series the way it needed to and ripped me apart in the process : )

This book is DARK, and I love that Sabaa took us there. A lot of vast and empty spaces. And a lot of lore, which truly allows her writing to shine, and I LOVED EVERY WORD. Like, truly, nobody was doing it like Sabaa, and I can’t wait to read more of her books.

Let’s talk about how satisfying it was to finally tie up all of these strings. This world is so wholly unique and imaginative, but brutal and gory, and we’ve been WAITING to put an end to it. I’m not kidding when I say you don’t want to go here, but we are all quite literally forced, and the reading experience is very surreal tbh.

Quick moment to talk about Livia and Darin, our favourite siblings who add so much joy to this series. Which is not the most appropriate word, but maybe you’ll understand if you’ve read the book. But I really loved how much they added to not just the cast of characters, but also to Laia and Helene’s development. Props to Sabaa for that.

Helene and Harper could stomp on me, and I would thank them, for the record. That’s all I’ll say there. No, wait, I also adored them, and I will sob into my pillow about it. Like they have like 6 scenes EXCUSE YOU ELECTRIC CHEMISTRY??!?!

Thank god my other baby children COMMUNICATE in this book. I feel like I’m under an embargo here but I truly can’t say much for obvious reasons, but you know I love Elias and Laia with my entire heart. Highlight for spoiler: Very happy we got the real Elias back in this series. I didn’t mention him in the last review because mans is lowkey doing a lot and also not much in book 3. But Laia said no more, and I loved it. That’s all I say, because you need to experience it for yourself.

If you’re looking for a YA fantasy series to be obsessed with, look no further I cannot recommend this series enough. Filled to the brim with history, world-building, some romance and a lot of devastation, this series is worth your while.

“You are broken. But it is broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is broken things that are the most unexpected, and the most underestimated”

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“Would that we all knew the cracked terrain of each other’s broken hearts. Perhaps then, we would not be so cruel to those who walk this lonely world with us.”

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“How much pain exists in the world because we cannot get past what has been done to us, because we insist on inflicting pain right back?”

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“We are doomed, you and I. To offer more love than we will ever be given.”

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“We must understand the creatures, fey or human, who populate our tales. Respect them. Love them, despite the villainous things they do. We must see them. Else how will our stories echo in the hearts of those who hear them? How will the stories survive beyond one telling?”

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“Or perhaps she’s simply beautiful, and looking at her feels like sunlight flowing into a room lost to the darkness for too long.”

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“Sometimes, there is no reason. Sometimes you kill and you hate killing but you are a soldier through and through so you keep killing. Your friends die. Your lovers die. And what you have at the end of your life is not the surety that you did it for some grand reason, but the hard knowledge that something was taken from you and you also gave it away. And you know you will carry that weight with you always. For it is a regret that only death can relieve.”

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“I am fully, foolishly in love with him. He is the weak spot in my armor, the flaw in my defense. Damn my traitorous heart to the hells.”

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“When your mind does not hear you, train your body. Your mind will follow.”

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“I stare out at the desert, a speck of nothing against its vastness. These rocks, this dirt, it will abide for millennia, while I am but a moment in time that will be over all too soon. The thought is crushing, and I cannot breathe.”

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“I thought I served a great cause: protecting the Empire. But all I did was protect people who were never in any danger.”

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“Emifal firdaant. May death claim me first.”

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HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? OR STARTED THE SERIES? WHAT BOOK ARE YOU ON? WHICH HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE SO FAR? I’D LOVE TO KNOW