Reviews tagging 'Torture'

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

112 reviews

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Murder, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Torture

Minor: Gore, Slavery, and Cursing

mattyb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Stalking, Violence, War, Torture, Gore, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

yvonne_does's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

ncoletti's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: War

jackierabbit's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

Some of the writing in this book is gorgeous. I really mean it. 

Spoiler-free examples:

“But he was the Prince of Death, Amir al-Maut, as his mother had once called him in the old tongue, and good night always felt like goodbye.” P. 303

“Somewhere in the distance, a bird cried. Zafira couldn’t breathe past the delight expanding in her chest.” P. 318

But most of the writing is, in my opinion, akin to Tumblr poetry circa 2012. And it’s so repetitive. 

Spoiler-free examples: 

“She was going mad. She was the daughter of a madwoman, the daughter of a madman. Madness lived in her blood. That was the only explanation for this.” P. 187

“I have

to get out of

the way.” P. 222

(Yes, it’s really formatted like that. This occurs several more times.)

“She needed to lie down. What was she, an old man? She didn’t need to lie down.” P. 250

Examples with spoilers: 

”She didn’t need the others, the shadows reminded her.” P. 250

“Sometimes their surroundings mimicked her thoughts, wilting and wavering before she blinked and everything righted. The darkness was always happy to see her.” P. 299

(Also on page 299, we see the phrases “Weariness and wariness,” and “trekked and tracked.” Someone was feeling alliterative.)

And the worst offender: “She wanted Nasir to kill the Lion. His mother wanted him to kill the lion. She believed he could kill the Lion.” P. 418

Because this is already fairly lengthy, I won’t get into my opinions of the characters, the romance, the plot, or the world-building. To sum it up: I don’t like it. The one shining light was the Arabic. Habibi is my favorite term of endearment and one we should be using more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent and Misogyny

Minor: Child death

miagic_tome's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I can’t believe I let this book sit on my TBR for so long, I loved it! So well written, and the two narrators did an amazing job reading. I thought the world building was great and the characters were so unique and interesting. Onto the second!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Torture, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Rape

katievallin's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Kidnapping, Child death, War, and Domestic abuse

bootsmom3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

joensign's review

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Kidnapping, and Child death

justagirlwithbooks's review against another edition

4.0

 “Love is for children, said the girl.
Death is for fools, said the shadow.
Darkness is my destiny, said the boy.
Allegiance is my undoing, said the eagle.
Suffering is our fate, said the beauty.
And they were all horribly wrong.” 

So... I can't review this book in one single line. There's too much to say:

Lowkey wasn't expecting to get so invested into this world and enjoy this book as much as I did! Maybe I'm just a romance girl at heart. The way I absolutely ATE it up. I was here for this book lol. Solid plot, solid worldbuilding, solid writing (lots of great quotes), the yearning, the unintentionally funny moments that made me laugh out loud, great characters, great dynamics... I had a fun time reading this book, which I haven't had in a really long time! This book goes from 0 to 100 real quick, and it's around about after the 100 pages mark. 

I was also re-reading certain bits to get a better grasp on the world and the characters and the plot. There is a few little nuggets of foreshadowing that I really enjoyed, as well as the plot twists. I was in this weird state where I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want it to end but I also wanted to know what would happen next. Books are weird like that. 

Was the romance a little rushed but also kind of not? Yes. 

Was the pacing all over the place? Yes. 

Could some of the characters have been developed more? Yes. 

But I still had a great time!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny