A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Torch Against the Night is the second book in a series by Sabaa Tahir. Just like the first book, this one is very plot-driven, very action packed. I won’t go too much into the plot or the characters because I don’t want to spoil anything. But I enjoyed the book as much as I enjoyed the first one.
This time, the story is told from three different perspectives. Sometimes these perspectives interacted with each other. But they were separate from each other, it gave them the ability to really transform and evolve as characters.
There were some really big reveals and plot twists, some that I didn’t see coming. And these twists happened all the way up to the end of the story. It will be interesting to see how they all play out in the next book.
Even though the story jumped from one character from one chapter to another in the next chapter, the writing, itself, was very fluid. The one critique was that it got a little slow in the middle of the book. There was a lot of character building in some chapters which seemed to slow the plot down a bit. It was necessary for the ending to be the big reveal that it is, but sometimes the descriptive paragraphs were a bit long.
As far as profanity, like the first book, there is no profanity other than the profanity of that world. “Ten hells” and “bleeding skies” were used a lot throughout the book in place of real-world profanity.
There is a little more sexual content in this book, though it’s more implied than graphic details. A few kissing scenes (one where her back arched into him and things like that).
And as for violence, it is all throughout the book. There is a genocide happening in this book in the series, and there is mention of shallow graves, beheadings, and stabbings. Also, there is poison and slow death included as well.
I continue to enjoy this series very much. I definitely will put the next book in the series on my list to be read. A definite recommendation for those who enjoy political intrigue, magic, and quest fantasies.