Ashes to Smoke to Embers: The Ash Princess Trilogy

It's hard to not want to use the metaphor of a Phoenix here when the whole series and the main character all revolve around magic, and fire magic specifically. So I will indeed use it! No point in not using it just because it feels kind of cliched.

Anyways, I first picked up Ash Princess last year about a couple weeks before the second book came out, not even realizing it was that close, and set it down on my shelf, and then bought Lady Smoke the second it came out and added it too. Then over the summer when I was trying to clear off my TBR shelf, I picked up Ash Princess, and blasted through it.

Then I moved on to other books on my shelf, or tried to, and just could not, not when I knew Lady Smoke was waiting there for me. So I grabbed it up, and blasted through that one too.

Now Ember Queen is here, and she was certainly the finish worth waiting for. The grand finale. The New Years firework display.

I'll stop.

So, now that I stayed up late list night to finish off the series, I'll actually step into my review of the whole thing. This massive, beautiful trilogy that handles redemption and second chances and those that don't deserve them because they don't want them, so, so well.

Spoilers Ahead

I can say with total honesty, that this series could absolutely be a crossover adult series, while it is also still safe for the younger YA readers, even if it does get pretty hardcore sometimes. Think The Hunger Games Trilogy! (Or series now?) It's rough, but it's important stuff there in that book, and as long as you know your kid well and what they can handle, it's perfect.

The Ash Princess trilogy takes things a little bit more into fantasy than the Hunger Games does, so it might feel a bit more detached in terms of that. But you are never allowed for a single moment to think "Hey, I'm just here for a good time!" There is always something happening that will cause your mind to stop and turn it's wheels for a little bit.

This series talks about colonialism, racism, xenophobia, deep rooted sexism, refugees as a result of colonialism amongst other reasons, and many more other important things, that can be hard to package for younger kids, or kids that might not really think about these things. and of course, it's hard to not think about them now, but the main thing that happens in high school is this: kids stop listening to their parents and they start searching for other sources of information.

It's why so many white teen boys of liberal families find themselves radicalized by nazis online. They're told they should have things that they don't, and that certain groups including their parents are the reason that they don't. They're taught to hate.

So books are the main point of standing to show the other side of things to a lot of teens.

But aside from the importance of the topics in this book, it's just an incredible read, that reminded me a lot of the slightly newer trilogy by Joanna Hathaway, Dark of the West. Second book out this month!

It's dark, it's brutal, but above all, the characters are so realistic and flawed you could see them in the people around you.

Theodosia is our main character, starting out the series as the subjugated Ash Princess, brutalized, shamed, tortured by the conquering Kaiser. She's radicalized into rebellion by the capture of her father who asks her to be the one that takes the knife that kills him. She takes his necklace, and his apprentice, also a rebel, hides in the staff and begins to use Theo's invisibility and status to undermine the Kaiser.

Thing is, the one Theo should be worried about, isn't really the Kaiser, or the Kaiser's heir, nor the general, Theyn, who hates her dearly and was the one to slaughter her mother. It's in fact, the Theyn's daughter, the only one that showed her kindness, though it was double edged.

When she realizes Cress won't side with her, she makes the decision to poison both her and her father. It's the only way forward. But the poison doesn't kill Cress, it changes her for the worst, and now she's the enemy with the magic that before only Theo's people could use.

Cress becomes prime enemy number one, and marries the Kaiser after his wife is killed, thus making her the true mastermind behind it all, with one goal. Turn Theo to her side and make her bow again, or kill her.

Cress is truly one of my favorite female villains of all time, because of how dimensional she is. She's the girl in the hall who's sweet and soft and treats you with kindness, until you realize it's not without a price and you start to demand respect, not just being treated like a pet. Then she becomes your worst enemy, she's the victim, and you're thrown to the wolves because how could you do that to her!

But she's never just that. Her mother abandoned her, her father was cruel, and she did show kindness to Theo, who struggles with the claws of that for the entire series. And this is where the idea of redemption only being deserved when the one offering forgiveness offers it, is when the person actually wants it. When they want to be better, because they recognize they were wrong, and that redemption isn't a one way, one stop street.

Because here comes her foil, Soren, the Kaiser's heir, and Theo's main love interest. He's a soldier, and a commander, but above all, he is not his father's son. He returns to court after a particular conquest, and sees the way Theo is being treated, and shows her kindness, and clearly is desperate for forgiveness, but he's not ready for redemption.

Theo uses him for the rebellion, while also falling a bit in love with him too, and when the second book rolls around, he's imprisoned and being tortured by the pirate queen that rescued them, but he recognizes that hey he probably deserves this. More than probably.

She sets him free because he's needed, and they begin healing the rift between them, while Soren begins working towards the chance of redemption, while recognizing he may never be given it.

He's captured by Cress at the end of book two and Theo is left for dead, but Theo survives, and begins to capture back her enslaved people, which ends up with her accidentally recovering Soren and his half brother back from Cress in a strange turn of events.

In the end, Soren helps them take the castle back, and the kingdom is saved, Cress is defeated, and he owns up to what he needs to do. Queens don't marry in this kingdom, so he takes the roll of ambassador for his people as they are separated and sent off to be dealt with by their conquered kingdoms, and also of Theo's supporter. There's a conversation with the rest of the rebels where they each lay out when they forgave him, and it's truly beautiful.

Laura Sebastian has found a way to address the problem that YA has now, both in writers and in the fandom, that redemption to them is only allowed when the person has done like, one, kind of bad thing. When they spend the rest of the books/book begging for redemption. Or when they die.

That's a very common, very American trope.

Redemption should be this: The one that has been hurt by the offender offers it, and the one who has hurt wants it. They fight with every fiber of their being while also realizing they may never reach it, but they never lash out about that.

Redemption is complicated, and it's messy, but it's never off the table completely, not in fiction. (LOOKING AT YOU JJ AND TERRIO)