Reviews with content warning for Torture - We Hunt the Flame

I really loved this book!! The first 160 pages was too slow!! Hard to get in to. But after that I forgot I was reading! It was hard to love Nasir character but after getting to know him and his background I started to like him. Loved Zafira!! Just....I love her!! And Altair is my comfort character.

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kayaj's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

We Hunt The Flame has been on my TBR far longer than forever*. However, with the recent verbal atrocities committed against this lovely author (an author of color btw) by another (white) author, I decided it was high time to just plunge into the fray. And I’m so glad I did.

*anyone who gets that rather obscure reference gets a gold star

Hafsah Faizal is a wizard with words.

Move aside Dumbledore. Faizal strings together sentences full of imagery, sentences dripping with emotion, seemingly effortlessly. Her prose hangs in the delicate balance of being both simple and dreamy. I adored it.

“The sea glistened like liquid jewels, freedom, beckoning as the Arz had. It called to her, a purr across the soft waves that sounded much like her name.Chimes on the wind. Her name in a breeze.”

We follow the perspectives of Zafira, a girl who braves the forest no one can return from to save her people, and Nasir, the Prince of Death, who assassinates according to the sultan’s orders. I really loved Zafira, and how strong-willed she was. Her caliph (region of the kingdom) is frankly sexist against women. So obviously, watching Zafira (among others) prove that whole sentiment wrong was so, so satisfying. Also, there are strong female friendships with no caveats in this book and the sequel I am over the moon about! She struggles with grief, love, anger, and learning forgiveness. While at times she did feel like a typical YA protagonist, I thought she was overall well-written.

And then there’s Nasir. The Prince of Death. Forbidden from showing even an ounce of compassion or humanity. Nasir is a fascinatingly complex character to read from. He deals with a lot of trauma, and his constant internal conflict makes him unique. I didn’t always love reading from his perspective though? I do understand why he didn’t just punch his father and say “screw you, it’s not the killing for me” and strut out. Sometimes, his cycle of thoughts felt slightly repetitive. And then there would come a point where he had a big character-defining moment that fell flat, mostly because the change in his internal thoughts was so very dramatic.

“He was a mess of scars like the sky was a mess of stars. From the one stretched down his face, to the craters on his back, to the ink on his arm. For that was what scars were, weren’t they? A remembrance of moments dark.”

Originally, I was intrigued because I heard this pitched as having enemies to lovers romance. You could write a book with all my least favorite things in it such as peas and mosquitoes and the sun* but throw in enemies to lovers and I’M THERE. And I’m actually enjoying the slowburn of it all quite a lot. But it’s the friendships, the non-romantic relationships that kept me tearing through the pages. An arrogantly hilarious general named Altair, a no-nonsense warrior named Kifah, and a wise safin named Benyamin kept this gang (called a zumra in the book!) together. Enemies to lovers may be eternal, but banter keeps it from falling apart before it gets to the eternal stage.

*look, i have to make it clear that we vampires don’t like the sun much. or peas.

“But in this moment, we are two souls, marooned beneath the moon, hungry and alone, adrift in the current of what we do not understand. We hunt the flame, the light in the darkness, the good this world deserves.”

This world and magic system is really cool. We don’t get to explore much of it in this book, but the rich history present in this book, and the atmosphere of the journey keep the plot from ever feeling stale. I loved how seamlessly the Arabian influences were incorporated, whether it be through words or clothing or customs. I will say however: this is a slowly paced book. It’s also very much an internal one. We are constantly caught in the currents of thoughts and ideas and emotions.

On the other hand, the ending is an avalanche of plot twists and edge-of-your-seat moments. In this way, at least, I was reminded of Brandon Sanderson’s web of writing. While I was bored at several points throughout the book, there was a really epic payoff at the end. Unfortunately, for some people, it will most certainly not be worth it considering the length of this book. The real stakes of the story don’t begin until maybe about 150-175 pages in. It takes a long time for things to start rolling. So while I truly enjoyed the ending, this book was almost painfully slow in certain stretches leading up to it.

To be perfectly honest, while I was disappointed in some of the pacing and characters, I was impressed with this book as a debut. It’s well-written, lush and overflowing with imagination. Perhaps most importantly, it somehow manages to capture the vast, often incomprehensible range of human emotions. Between that and the insane ending, I’m giving this a 4/5 star rating.

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thatssobridget_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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motherofheleus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Despite my lack of love for the romance, I adored each of the characters and find the main Antagonist to be intriguing.

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starryorbit12's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

Pros:

Interesting concept that turns a basic "find the lost object to return magic" plot into something fresh.
Subverted love triangle expectations. The childhood friend is in love with the female protagonist, but she doesn't feel the same. While she wishes she could romantically reciprocate, she just doesn't love him the same way. No "who do I chose?". The childhood friend is sad but respectful, and he is till loyal and supportive.
Primary love interest has good tension and a slow burn enemies-to-lovers.
Animosity turned camaraderie amongst the group that starts out not trust and using each other. Great banter.
World feels full. All the side characters, even unnamed ones feel like people. It fill out he world so it doesn't feel empty or stagnant.

Cons:

World building. The magic system is vague with little logic. Blood magic is meant to be a bad things with bad consequences, but little is down to explain what it actually entails and the consequences of it. Affinities are explained but not how they work.
The pacing. The first 100 pages are incredibly slow. The pace difference is jarring once the journey begins. Much if what happens is filler as well, and it could have been cut down to tighten the pacing.
The plot happens to the characters. Events and obstacles come to them. They don't cause the plot to progress directly much. You can sometimes feel that things just happen.
Forced miscommunication.
Nasir's refusal to directly answer the question about who killed Deen was annoying. It cause a forced feeling tension between him and Zafira as continues to phrase things in a way to make it feel like her did for no good reason.
Using women for man pain.
Kulsum in particular. While one of my purse is the side characters, she is an expectation. She has no agency of her own. She exists in relation to her connections to the male characters, Nasir and Altair. We only see her through others voicing her. We see her romantic relationship wit Nasir through the relief it being him. The loss of her tongue is shown through the pain it brings him. Nit to mention, she is the only disabled character who is disabled to further a man's story. When we find she was with him to spy for Altair, that is shown through the Nasir's pain and Altair's antagonism. Even the threats the Sultan makes about her are for Nasir's fear. Everything we learn is through what others say she is feeling or doing. Even in the scenes where she still has a tongue, she has no voice. Even without one, she should still be able to express herself. It is glaring compared to how strong the other female characters are, even unnamed side ones.

Overall, a good debut that shines in characters growth and relationships. Plotting and pacing could be refined, but it has all the bones of something good. With some fleshing out in the sequel, I can see much improvement in the flawed areas.

Would I recommend?: Yes.
Will I be reading the sequel?: Yes.

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