Reviews with content warning for Violence - We Hunt the Flame

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

120 reviews

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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sreddous's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I think... I respect this book more than I actually like it. If that makes sense.

The pacing is overall a bit slow. This is sometimes a really good and interesting thing -- I do like that this book clearly tried to do something different with its structure. I think a lot of potential authors (including myself darnit!) feel pressured to fit books into 'boxes', like: [INCITING INCIDENT] MUST HAPPEN ON PAGE 5!! [ROMANTIC ARC] MUST HIT [SPECIFIC BEATS]!! etc. So it's cool to see a book try something different.

The slow pacing lends itself to some fantastic, immersive worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is EXCELLENT here. Oh, man, you can FEEL this weather and TASTE these spices and such. It's really easy to imagine yourself in this weather and in these settings.

Additionally, the plot has some super cool twists. The villain characters are very interesting here. I wasn't able to predict the reveals that happened near the end, but none of the twists felt unrealistic either. Really cool villains, and there's just enough violence to keep the threats simmering.

The place where I think the slow pacing didn't help this book is with the protagonists' character arcs and interactions. It almost felt like they were... on purpose, stubbornly, trying to avoid becoming friends, and while that makes sense in the beginning of their journey, it got annoying by the middle. Both POV characters feel a romantic connection, but IMO it wasn't built up to well. As late as like 3/4ths of the way into the book, they're still denying their feelings for each other, and other characters call them out on it, and we get some description that shows how conflicted the POV character is, and this happens.... a lot. There's slow-burn, and then....... there's stuff that feels unnecessarily repetitive.

I also don't really see WHY they like each other. There's an internal thought from Nasir in act 2 that implies he likes Zafira because she "saw him as human," but... that's not unique to her. Altair never treated him with any actual pomp and was constantly talking casually around him. I don't think it's well-built-enough, whatever is special about Zafira that changes him. I also think characters like Deen were... almost hilariously useless. I actually scoff-chuckled out loud during some of the scenes with him.

Some of the interactions and connections after the Lion shows up and reveals some twists are more emotional and believable and added some cool depth to some characters, but the Lion doesn't show up until after page 350. The slow pacing in and of itself isn't a bad thing -- what I'm saying is, I wish that slow pacing was used to actually build character connections and chemistry so that their interactions and decisions make more sense. And that's not what it's used for, IMO.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book if you're looking for a "emotional teamwork connection, great chemistry," type of story. I WOULD recommend it if you're looking for a "the world is full of so much magic to uncover under every rock it's dizzying!! Oh, another Weird Cool Magical Being to fight! Ahhh so much to discover!" type. There's value in both!!

So yeah. Super immersive worldbuilding, pretty overall writing style, interesting magic, interesting diverse creatures. Not-as-great character arcs and romance.

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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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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issed's review

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

We love a strong woman with personality
Nasir is so confusing ?? He doesn’t know what he wants never communicate, it would’ve been more accurate if he was 17 as well but he is 20
I like the team but I’ve wish they were a little bit closer
Love the mysterious world
The first half is SO SLOW
The ennemies to lovers made sense but wasn’t that intense and they quickly became lovers

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

3.5

I found this to be a slow paced story at the start, but gradually it goes much faster. The world building is really fantastic and so soaked in poetry. I really liked all of the dynamics between the characters in the banter was very fun.

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joensign's review

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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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justagirlwithbooks's review against another edition

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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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chai_and_books's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. Yes the pacing was off. yes the world building was a little hard to follow. Yes the characters were a little bland at the start. But once the real adventure started, everything magically pulled together (get it- because they were searching for magic- ok nvm). I loved Zafira's characterization. She's strong and knows what she was wants, but is untrained and you see that when she's confused and makes hasty decisions. Nasir was boring to me at first, but his interactions after him and Altair reach the Arz gave me life. His actions are heavily influenced by the trauma he endured and the way Faizal portrays his journey from that to finding his voice is well done. Altair is the Kenji of this world and no one can tell me otherwise. He's witty, unserious but genius friend we all deserve tbh. I'm not the biggest fan of the found family trope but this group of people, forced together by circumstance, felt like they were meant to be together. All the different dynamics within the group were enjoyable and I'm glad they were explored for the most part. But most importantly, the way Nasir and Zafira gave- We didn't get a lot of them in this book but whatever crumbs we did get, I hung onto them for dear life. They are my children and they deserve to be happy together.
Overall, was it the best fantasy book the market has to offer? No. It had its flaws, however I would highly recommend it to people who are new to the fantasy genre and want a wholesome (for the most part) story with a romance subplot that will make you scream, cry and punch the air.

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cozyreader9752's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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a10a's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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