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m_r3ads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, and Grief
Minor: Misogyny
maurits's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I'm bit conflicted about this book. It has a lot of great components, but also clear missers. On missers: when it comes to handling the mixture of grief and distrust, I think the author kind of glosses over it. Moreover, an important theme in the book is darkness, but we are sort of left in the dark (haha) about the specifics and how darkness relates to magic. Lastly, it can get kind of annoying that the author uses Arabic or made-up words that definitely can just be in English. I understand wanting to preserve things like "habibi" and "hayati" (both terms of endearment), but things like "hashashin" (assassin) and "shukrun" (thanks) are better to put in English.
But the things that I like about the book are more numerous. First off, Faizal's writing style is impeccable. She knows how to choose her words, and it makes her writing a pleasure to read. An example:
But the things that I like about the book are more numerous. First off, Faizal's writing style is impeccable. She knows how to choose her words, and it makes her writing a pleasure to read. An example:
You and I are strangers, Huntress. Allies by circumstance. We may leave Sharr and never think of each other again. 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. You are like Tamin. You remind me that hope is not lost.
Second, the setting deserves mention. The fact that Faizal is building on Arabia for her fantasy world helps defeat some clichés.
Lastly - sort of related to her writing style - Faizal knows how to take you on a journey with the characters. I wouldn't say the characters are exceptionally well-written (because they're not) but you can actually feel what they feel.
The plot isn't much special, but it didn't bother me. I suck at predicting plots so any plot is surprising to me.
All in all, 3.25 stars. I would recommend it. I hope, in future books, Faizal will further improve her writing. She shows great promise and I'll keep an eye on her upcoming works.
Lastly - sort of related to her writing style - Faizal knows how to take you on a journey with the characters. I wouldn't say the characters are exceptionally well-written (because they're not) but you can actually feel what they feel.
The plot isn't much special, but it didn't bother me. I suck at predicting plots so any plot is surprising to me.
All in all, 3.25 stars. I would recommend it. I hope, in future books, Faizal will further improve her writing. She shows great promise and I'll keep an eye on her upcoming works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Grief, and Misogyny
mypatronusisajedi's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Violence, Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
library_of_alexandra_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-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? Yes
3.5
While this got a bit trope-y at times (eyes are always CRASHING into each other), and there were too many elaborate family reveals , I overall enjoyed this. It lives up to the enemies to lovers hype. Maybe not the found family hype but I think they just need more time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Sexism, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Body horror, Toxic friendship, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death and Torture
solouncapitulomas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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
5.0
“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.”
A story about loss, suffering, love, but mostly; a story about magic which includes all of the former.
I enjoyed this book so much I do not think I can put it into world, an amazing debut of the amazing author and cannot wait to read the sequel and see how our zumra will deal with all the phantoms of their past and free Arawiya at once.
I had this book at my tbr for so long and I really wanted to read it, but I was scared (once again) because I’m still new at this “high fantasy” shit and I, sadly, was not taught Arabian cultura in school so my anxiety kept telling me I wouldn’t be able to understand anything but oh did Hafsah made sure that we didn’t get lost, such a great author.
I fell in love with our main characters from page one and Altair had me cackling all the time, this is the kind of book that should be getting adaptations IMAGINE IT U GUYS, I even cried reading the acknowledgments bc I was so happy of how great this book was. I will definitely reread it some day in the future but first I need to read We free the stars and see if I liked it as much as other people have.
This story was amazing, the magnificent world building, lovable characters and the plot omg THE PLOT U GUYS, it just kept turning and turning and it kept my attention, I even had to read on my phone bc I couldn’t stop I TRULY COULD NOT.
Sorry for all the caps y’all, I’m just happy I enjoyed it. Everyone should really give it a try. If you like fantasy, power hungry villains, great plot but also characters centered stories THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.
Here are some quotes I loved and will, hopefully, convince you to pick it up:
“Monsters bore no duty to the innocent.”
“This was pain worse than a sword. This was forgetting and then remembering everything afresh, the curse of memories.”
“There is a certain beauty in chaos, magnificence in the uncontrollable.”
“The living can’t survive with promises to the dead.”
“How was such unfairness to the best of souls possible?”
“There was nothing more respectable and dangerous than a woman of confidence.”
“If I told you my name, would you bow? Or would you flee?”
“Befriend enough spiders, and one will garner enough gossamer.”
“Death is the one thing certain in human life. Why does it still come as a surprise when it happens?”
“Emotion was a terrible thing to act upon.”
“We are all flesh and blood, soul and heart. Capable of malevolence, just as much as benevolence. One wrong does not make evil.”
“She knew the world was cruel, but she had never tried to perceive the limits of its cruelty.”
“That was life, wasn’t it? A collection of moments, a menagerie of people. Everyone stranded everywhere, always.”
“Knowledge without action is vanity, but action without knowledge is insanity.”
“The moon wanes, but the night waxes, steeped in a desperate black from which most of us will never emerge.”
“Everything that exists does so to repress its opposite.”
“We’re so quick to dismiss the sentiment as weak, but hearts beat for love, don’t they? A life without purpose may be no life, but a life without love is nothing but an existence.”
“Just as our eyes tailor to the darkness, so do our souls.”
“If this was what it felt like to be lost to the darkness, she never wanted to be found again.”
“But what happened when one soul marooned the other? When death decided to stand between them?”
“Sometimes, when you live a life of captivity, trapped for so long, freedom becomes a thing to fear.”
“‘All right’ is when you’re bleeding black but it’s not as bad as bleeding red. When the world crashes but you’re not alone when it does. When the darkness is absolute but you hunt down the smallest flame and coax it brighter. When you carve the good out of every bad and claim it a victory.”
I was listening to Red Desert by 5sos & Demons by Imagine Dragons while writing this review
‘kay, I’m out
Bye
A story about loss, suffering, love, but mostly; a story about magic which includes all of the former.
I enjoyed this book so much I do not think I can put it into world, an amazing debut of the amazing author and cannot wait to read the sequel and see how our zumra will deal with all the phantoms of their past and free Arawiya at once.
I had this book at my tbr for so long and I really wanted to read it, but I was scared (once again) because I’m still new at this “high fantasy” shit and I, sadly, was not taught Arabian cultura in school so my anxiety kept telling me I wouldn’t be able to understand anything but oh did Hafsah made sure that we didn’t get lost, such a great author.
I fell in love with our main characters from page one and Altair had me cackling all the time, this is the kind of book that should be getting adaptations IMAGINE IT U GUYS, I even cried reading the acknowledgments bc I was so happy of how great this book was. I will definitely reread it some day in the future but first I need to read We free the stars and see if I liked it as much as other people have.
This story was amazing, the magnificent world building, lovable characters and the plot omg THE PLOT U GUYS, it just kept turning and turning and it kept my attention, I even had to read on my phone bc I couldn’t stop I TRULY COULD NOT.
Sorry for all the caps y’all, I’m just happy I enjoyed it. Everyone should really give it a try. If you like fantasy, power hungry villains, great plot but also characters centered stories THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.
Here are some quotes I loved and will, hopefully, convince you to pick it up:
“Monsters bore no duty to the innocent.”
“This was pain worse than a sword. This was forgetting and then remembering everything afresh, the curse of memories.”
“There is a certain beauty in chaos, magnificence in the uncontrollable.”
“The living can’t survive with promises to the dead.”
“How was such unfairness to the best of souls possible?”
“There was nothing more respectable and dangerous than a woman of confidence.”
“If I told you my name, would you bow? Or would you flee?”
“Befriend enough spiders, and one will garner enough gossamer.”
“Death is the one thing certain in human life. Why does it still come as a surprise when it happens?”
“Emotion was a terrible thing to act upon.”
“We are all flesh and blood, soul and heart. Capable of malevolence, just as much as benevolence. One wrong does not make evil.”
“She knew the world was cruel, but she had never tried to perceive the limits of its cruelty.”
“That was life, wasn’t it? A collection of moments, a menagerie of people. Everyone stranded everywhere, always.”
“Knowledge without action is vanity, but action without knowledge is insanity.”
“The moon wanes, but the night waxes, steeped in a desperate black from which most of us will never emerge.”
“Everything that exists does so to repress its opposite.”
“We’re so quick to dismiss the sentiment as weak, but hearts beat for love, don’t they? A life without purpose may be no life, but a life without love is nothing but an existence.”
“Just as our eyes tailor to the darkness, so do our souls.”
“If this was what it felt like to be lost to the darkness, she never wanted to be found again.”
“But what happened when one soul marooned the other? When death decided to stand between them?”
“Sometimes, when you live a life of captivity, trapped for so long, freedom becomes a thing to fear.”
“‘All right’ is when you’re bleeding black but it’s not as bad as bleeding red. When the world crashes but you’re not alone when it does. When the darkness is absolute but you hunt down the smallest flame and coax it brighter. When you carve the good out of every bad and claim it a victory.”
I was listening to Red Desert by 5sos & Demons by Imagine Dragons while writing this review
‘kay, I’m out
Bye
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death
bmumford's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
ruuntvoces's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
michellemaas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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
I wanted to love this book more than I did. On paper (excuse the pun) it had everything most fantasy readers would want: an enemies-to-lovers plotline, knife to the thought trope, found family trope, diversity, strong female leads, etc. Even with all that, while still a good book, it just didn't live up to my expectations.
I will start with the most off-putting thing: the Arabic. I would venture as far as to say that there was at least 1 Arabic word per paragraph (though it felt more like 1 per sentence). I'm not claiming to speak 8 languages or read the dictionary for fun, but I am not often stunted by unknown words but I spent this entire book playing the game of "guess that word". I even tried Google Translating some of the words whose definitions I couldn't decipher from the context, but not even Google knew (likely some fantasy made-up word, though I wouldn't know) and it just became too much. I want to put a disclaimer here that the version I read did not have the glossary that the printed books have. I don't know if any of the ebooks have the glossary but mine didn't and I didn't realize that Hafsah Faizal put the glossary on her website as well until I was 90% done with the book already. I love that the author drew from her culture and language to accurately express her thoughts (and as a bilingual person myself, I know that it is all too easy to think/speak in a combination of languages) but when you are marketing to an international market having 1/2 of your book be in a foreign language might not be for the best. That being said, this is a situation that is easily remedied (although slightly more inconvenient) but I still wanted to mention it.
I saw a few comments about the world-building being difficult to understand due to the language and I wanted to clarify that I don't agree with that. The world-building is very similar to that of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (please note I said world-building, not plot. There are no arenas!). There are 5 "districts" (I can't remember the word they used for it in the book) all governed by the Sultan. The Sultan is however a cruel ruler and allows the towns to suffer. We have the badass female MC who goes into the woods to hunt for game and with the help of a friend she provides for her dying town. Everyone is becoming more desperate by the day due to the expanding forest (Arz) and harsh conditions so the MC goes on a quest to a special island to bring back the McGuffin that will save everyone. The Arabic was annoying as someone who doesn't speak it but it doesn't impact your ability to understand the story by any means.
The last issue I want to discuss is that of Zafirah and Nasir's relationship. Mainly the question: love or lust? Nasir is a harashin (assassin) and Zafirah has a huge problem with him being a murderer, especially because he and his friend caused the death of her friend. While this can be said for most enemies-to-lovers relationships what bothers me is how big a deal Zafirah made about it. I am not by any means condoning murder or suggesting she take that information in her stride or anything, but up until like 5 chapters from the end, she was still very hung up on the fact that her love interest is a murderer. Usually, we see the heroin slowly come to terms with her brooding boyfriend's dark past but there wasn't any of that. Zafirah was super bothered by his profession and then suddenly she wasn't because he was hot? I just find it quite annoying that the author made such a big deal of how opposed she was to Nasir's past only to not explore how she came to terms with it. I realize this will likely be addressed in the sequel, but I'm not reviewing the sequel right now so I wanted to get it off my chest.
Though my review was a little harsh, I still really enjoyed this book and wanted to end off by praising Hafsah Faizal for diversifying the pool. Quite a few of the situations in the book were inspired by the Arabian culture and it was cool to read about characters who didn't fit the cookie-cutter fantasy novel mold. Furthermore, this was great work considering that this was her first book and I can't wait to see where her career goes from here!
I will start with the most off-putting thing: the Arabic. I would venture as far as to say that there was at least 1 Arabic word per paragraph (though it felt more like 1 per sentence). I'm not claiming to speak 8 languages or read the dictionary for fun, but I am not often stunted by unknown words but I spent this entire book playing the game of "guess that word". I even tried Google Translating some of the words whose definitions I couldn't decipher from the context, but not even Google knew (likely some fantasy made-up word, though I wouldn't know) and it just became too much. I want to put a disclaimer here that the version I read did not have the glossary that the printed books have. I don't know if any of the ebooks have the glossary but mine didn't and I didn't realize that Hafsah Faizal put the glossary on her website as well until I was 90% done with the book already. I love that the author drew from her culture and language to accurately express her thoughts (and as a bilingual person myself, I know that it is all too easy to think/speak in a combination of languages) but when you are marketing to an international market having 1/2 of your book be in a foreign language might not be for the best. That being said, this is a situation that is easily remedied (although slightly more inconvenient) but I still wanted to mention it.
I saw a few comments about the world-building being difficult to understand due to the language and I wanted to clarify that I don't agree with that. The world-building is very similar to that of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (please note I said world-building, not plot. There are no arenas!). There are 5 "districts" (I can't remember the word they used for it in the book) all governed by the Sultan. The Sultan is however a cruel ruler and allows the towns to suffer. We have the badass female MC who goes into the woods to hunt for game and with the help of a friend she provides for her dying town. Everyone is becoming more desperate by the day due to the expanding forest (Arz) and harsh conditions so the MC goes on a quest to a special island to bring back the McGuffin that will save everyone. The Arabic was annoying as someone who doesn't speak it but it doesn't impact your ability to understand the story by any means.
The last issue I want to discuss is that of Zafirah and Nasir's relationship. Mainly the question: love or lust? Nasir is a harashin (assassin) and Zafirah has a huge problem with him being a murderer, especially because he and his friend caused the death of her friend. While this can be said for most enemies-to-lovers relationships what bothers me is how big a deal Zafirah made about it. I am not by any means condoning murder or suggesting she take that information in her stride or anything, but up until like 5 chapters from the end, she was still very hung up on the fact that her love interest is a murderer. Usually, we see the heroin slowly come to terms with her brooding boyfriend's dark past but there wasn't any of that. Zafirah was super bothered by his profession and then suddenly she wasn't because he was hot? I just find it quite annoying that the author made such a big deal of how opposed she was to Nasir's past only to not explore how she came to terms with it. I realize this will likely be addressed in the sequel, but I'm not reviewing the sequel right now so I wanted to get it off my chest.
Though my review was a little harsh, I still really enjoyed this book and wanted to end off by praising Hafsah Faizal for diversifying the pool. Quite a few of the situations in the book were inspired by the Arabian culture and it was cool to read about characters who didn't fit the cookie-cutter fantasy novel mold. Furthermore, this was great work considering that this was her first book and I can't wait to see where her career goes from here!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Animal death, Slavery, and Trafficking
aseel_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
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
obsessed 😍😍😍 this was definitely an Arab inspired fantasy, all the language, food, clothes, political system, loved it!! I really liked the characters and their personalities/dynamics!! said NO WAY so many times at the end, which is always a good sign!! the plot was semi unique but I really enjoyed it. can't wait to read the next one
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Mental illness
sadiefc's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence