Thiago Abdalla did something really special with this one: he made me fall in love with an idea. In addition, my favorite thing about this book were its themes. If you follow my reviews or my YouTube channel, I bet that sentence just made your eyebrows shoot up. Right?! I'm a character driven reader, what's this about themes?! All I can say is, Abdalla can write his tail off because I was caught up in the exploration of death, how it was viewed by different cultures and races of people. Closely tied in with the theme of death, were religion and faith - I have always been fascinated to see how a person's beliefs hold up under pressure or when great tragedy falls or something tests them beyond anything else they've encountered before. Abdalla delivered. Speaking of delivering, Kevin Kemp narrated the audiobook for this one and I was only a few chapters in when I messaged the author and said if he didn't have Kevin narrate the rest of the series, I was going to show up at his house in protest. Maybe I said I'd riot. At any rate, Kevin Kemp did a remarkable job and has a new fan in me. I would also make a case for saying the author had a small exploration of mental health in the form of Lynn's POV. Beyond these themes, this novel was rife with politics, magic and freaking zombies. Yeah, read that again. Zombies. In a fantasy novel. Where magic is involved. Remember me mentioning death and it being viewed differently based upon religious beliefs? Some believe death means you were deemed unworthy, others believe it's a gift - what do you think happens when they encounter zombies?!! So if the themes aren't enough to keep you interested - the Sentinels and their Griffins might do the trick. I was so curious to learn more about them, their bond and their magic. Did I get enough about them in this book? No. I want more! (So I preordered book 2...lol) I loved the pacing in this one, the fight scenes and battles - I couldn't get enough. The story is given to us in 3 POVs and each one had a different way of doing things, so I was always learning about each one as well as watching them all learn about the zombies and how they each thought their people may have accidentally created the zombies. Sort of. They had different ideas about where they came from anyway. Our 3 POVs were a prince named Adrian who believed in the Seraph - the Seraph who left because of all the killing people were doing. Adrian is of those who believe you die because you're unworthy and you should be burned and never spoken of again. Our next POV is Nasha who belongs to one of the clans - her storyline was my favorite - the clans believe that death is a gift. Their magic was so intriguing to learn about, as well as their hierarchy. Lynn is the final POV and my second favorite - she is a Sentinel who we first meet in prison. She hears the voices of those she's killed and feels that she no longer deserves to be a Sentinel. Learning her story was SO GOOD - I enjoyed her development the most...especially at the - wait, that would be a spoiler. I think. Gosh. READ THIS BOOK! The scheming that takes place in the different territories between the political positions - I really want to dive into this, but I can't figure out a way to do so without getting into spoilers. Especially after reading some tidbits found in the prequel, A PREQUEL TO ASHES. I am just eaten up with having to wait on the next book in the series - I can't wait to see what happens next!