_Reaper at the Gates_ by Sabaa Tahir

***You may want to avoid this post if you have not read the earlier books in the series. I have attempted to avoid spoilers for THIS book, but may not avoid spoilers for the SERIES.***

Love it

"Skies save me from the men in my life and all the things they think they know." p12

"Hope is stronger than fear. It is stronger than hate." p114

Description

We stare at each other, she and I. Laia of Serra is all passion. Feeling. Everything she thinks is written on her face. I wonder if she understands what duty even is. p26

Love. I sigh. Love is joy coupled with misery, elation bound in despair. It is a fire that beckons me gently and then burns when I get too close. I hate love. I yearn for it. It drives me mad. p173

I wish suddenly for Elias. Impossible jobs with low likelihood of success are Elias' forte. Somehow, he always pulled them off, no matter the cost-- and usually with a cheeky comment. It was both inspiring and irritating. p215

Clever phrasing

"Shrike." He leans close, his distress evident. "She's penned a play," he says. "I can feel it. Don't act the part she's written for you." p116

So much real life

"Just because they're not Mercators or Ilustrians doesn't make their lives any less valuable. We have to do something." p118

These are the lives of my people, and come what may, I cannot leave them to die. p119

They love talking down to women as much as they love their money. p144

"Everyone believes that nothing concerns them until the monsters are knocking on their doors!" She winces at my shriek, but I do not care. "Until they are burning down your homes and destroying your lives and killing your families." p229

Because I know this feeling sweeping through me far too well, the feeling that all my effort, all I have worked for, means nothing. That everything and everyone is a lie. That all is cruel and unforgiving and that there is no justice. p418

I gesture the Martials in. "I'm not going to tell a mother with a crying child she can't escape through here," I snap. "I don't care if she's Martial or not. Are you?" p421

Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure. p448

Motives

"Don't just look at her actions. Look at her. What does she want? Why? Look at her past, her history. How has it altered her mind? The Nightbringer is her master, you say. What does he want? Will she get it for him?" p152

???

The cruelest anger comes from the deepest pain. Nan used to say that. Speak, Laia. p36

"It's perfect." Her fingers brush mine as she takes it. That touch. Ten hells. I steady my breath and crush the desire that thrums in my veins. She slides the armlet on, and seeing her in that familiar pose, one hand resting on the cuff-- it feels right. "Thank you." p65

My mind races forward to me laying her down on the Forest floor, spending hours exploring every inch of her body. For a moment I see what we could have had: Laia and her books and patients, and me and a school that teaches more than death and duty. A little one with gold eyes and glowing brown skin. The white in Laia's hair one day, and the way her eyes will mellow and deepen and grow wiser. p66

Oh skies. How can I speak to a king? I'm no one. How can I convince him of anything? p259 

For discussion

"To lead, you have to do ugly things." p157

"You must have a guard with you at all times, Blood Shrike," Avitas says. "Not because you are incapable, but because the Blood Shrike must show her strength. There is strength in numbers." p166

"You are second-in-command of the Empire," he says. "If you didn't need protection, it would be because no one saw you as a threat. Needing protection is not a weakness. Refusing to trust your allies is." p213

Potential Spoilers

Though it's discomfiting, I am forced to admit that the jinn were wronged. Grievously wronged. Which doesn't make what the Nightbringer has done right. But it does complicate my view of the world-- and my ability to look on him with unadulterated hatred. p361

I'm confused--- p324 "When the Karkauns come, the civilians will be forced to retreat into their homes to wait and see whether their brothers and fathers, uncles and cousins, sons and grandsons can hold the city." But it was clear earlier that women can and are fighting, too...

"You know what it means to destroy an entire race. How could you want it when you have survived it?" p410

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