Seek the Traitor’s Son (The Burning Empire, #1)

Jun 10

About the book

Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: Tor Books

More info:
The StoryGraph | Goodreads
Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the review.

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My review

Like many people, I have a complicated history with Veronica Roth. I’ve only read one of her books since Divergent — it was the standalone, Chosen Ones, which I enjoyed — but it’s been awesome to watch her say “screw the bullies” and return to social media and start engaging with fans again over the last few years. I am rooting for her! So when I heard she had a new dystopian series on the way, I was locked in. And y’all. This book is SO GOOD. It’s absolutely going to be one of my favorites of the year, and I need more of you to read it ASAP!

Here’s the (kick-ass) premise of the book: In a post-climate-apocalypse future, there are warring nations, the Talusar and the Cedrae. The Talusar people worship a fever that kills 100% its people who catch it — but half of those people then come back to life and have enhanced abilities. The Cedrae people are like “yeah you can miss me with that,” which the Talusar see as blasphemous. Our main character, Elegy, is summoned by the Augurs (who got their prophetic abilities from, you guessed it, the fever) alongside the ruthless Talusar general, Rava Vidar. The augurs tell them that there’s a prophecy that says one of them will lead their people to victory over the other…but they can’t decide which of them it is, so they’re telling them both. YUP.

(NOTE: While that does sound like the start of a sapphic enemies to lovers story, it’s not. Rava is sadistic and there is a separate slow-burn romance B-plot. It’s not a queer romance, but the book is excellent and there are other queer characters, so we will let it slide this time.)

I was hooked on this one from the start. That intriguing, electric beginning paves the way for a book that treats its characters and their relationships (both romantic and familial) with tenderness and nuance.

One thing I especially loved was the way Roth is happy to lightly subvert certain gender stereotypes. Elegy is the fighter who holds herself distant. Theren (the male main character) goes through some serious trauma and needs softness to heal. Things like that made the book feel comfortable and easy to sink into the story without feeling cookie-cutter or cheesy.

I LOVED Elegy’s sister, who primarily serves to drive a plot that involves an alien flower and shows us that the stakes are much higher than we thought. I also loved the fraught, complicated relationship between Theren and his mother, and that of Elegy and her other (half) sister.

Finally, I did NOT see the ending coming, and I am extremely eager to see how it shapes the second half of the story in book two. I’m so glad Roth already has it finished so we won’t have to wait too long!