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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
“There is a certain beauty in chaos, magnificence in the uncontrollable.”
Embarking on a dangerous quest to restore magic to the once-prosperous kingdom of Arawiya, the Arz Hunter, Zafira bint Iskindar disguises herself as a man to serve her caliphate by traversing the deadly Arz forest to feed her starving brethren. Bidding farewell to her beloved family and friends in Demenhur, one of the five great caliphates of Arawiya, Zafira, despite her youth, is no stranger to perilous expeditions. Parallel to Zafira’s own journey, the Prince of Death, Nasir Ghameq, is also sent on the quest by his abusive father—the kingdom’s Sultan—with the caveat that he must slay the Arz Hunter (or Huntress), to render his mission complete.
“If you want me obedient, Prince, kill me and carry my corpse.”
The first few chapters set the scene by explaining the history of Arawiya, describing how each caliphate once provided a unique function to the kingdom via magic bestowed on them by the Six Sisters. Once the magic that held the kingdom together was depleted, the caliphates were divided, slowly encroached on by the eerie Arz, and burdened with a wicked curse, making life almost unbearable. The Arz—and Zafira’s mystical connection to it—is a major plot point in the book, but only for the first half. Unfortunately, it is swiftly and conveniently rendered all but irrelevant for the rest of the book. When it was referenced towards the end, I realised I’d forgotten all about it. I’m not sure why it was depicted as such a threatening and ominous entity if all it took to get rid of it (albeit temporarily) was the wave of a hand. It’s quite disappointing because after describing it in such detail, I was really looking forward to reading how the other characters (specifically Nasir and Altair) would’ve traversed the Arz, having no prior experience and possibly succumbing to its evil.
This brings me on to my next point about the journey – trudging through Sharr.
The chapters detailing this were very long and very boring. Despite this being the majority of the book, there was very little action bar short and anticlimactic skirmishes with ifrit. If this had been split up, such that half the journey was the Arz and half Sharr, it would’ve been a much more enticing read. The slowness is a major detractor for this book. It only really picks up after the 100-page mark when the history lesson on Arawiya and Zafira and Nasir’s tragic backstories are relayed at length.
I appreciate that world-building is difficult, but I failed to find the book engaging on almost all levels. The plot, in theory, was intriguing—I loved the concept of restoring magic to a deteriorating kingdom and the characters having innate/dormant powers (jismi/ensuri), but the writing was really quite poor, inconsistent and overall, incredibly disengaging. Scenes that should’ve been short and snappy were unnecessarily prolonged, and scenes that would have actually benefitted from more detail and elaboration were disappointingly short.
This book came across as an Arabised The Hunger Games meets Throne of Glass. Zafira and Katniss in particular had a lot of similarities in terms of temperament, family dynamics, affinity with archery and the whole love triangle. It didn’t really come across as unique and Zafira as this strong independent girl boss character just felt two-dimensional and flat. In fact, there was very little character development overall and I didn’t really take to any of them bar Altair for his wit and banterous side-kick energy. Nasir and Zafira often felt like two sides of the same coin, and not in a good way. Whilst I did sympathise with Nasir for his poor treatment by his father, he had little to no redeeming qualities and I wasn’t particularly taken by the plot twists regarding his mother, Altair etc. The interactions and dialogue between the characters were unnatural and felt pretty contrived. Nasir’s ill-timed and out-of-character innuendos had me cringing, and his interactions with Zafira weren’t as exciting as I’d anticipated, there was no chemistry whatsoever.
Enemies to lovers, where? I’m still looking.
To elaborate on what I previously called the ‘Arabisation’ of the novel, although I did appreciate the Arabic (or ‘Safaitic’) words thrown in here and there to assist with the world-building, at times it felt a bit excessive and unnecessary. The word ‘kharra’ was smeared on every other page which really put me off, and as someone with familiarity of Arabic I occasionally struggled with remembering meanings. I can imagine it being even harder for those who don’t know Arabic at all.
To finish on a positive note (!), the imagery and descriptions of the different lands were beautifully vivid.
“Night feathered the horizon, painting the skies a blend of charcoal and winterberries, while a smattering of stars winked and danced in shy greeting.”
“Glorious slants of gold shone on the green foliage ahead of here, where a path unfurled in the stillness. Colourful flowers spread petals, coaxing her near with soft chimes. Be free, Huntress.” (p250)
Other quotes I really liked include:
“Death will be her companion. He’s kept her safe all this time. Why stop now?” (p94)
“Death is the one thing certain in human life. Why does it still come as a surprise when it happens?” (p253)
“There is freedom in knowing you’re dead. When you’re a specter no one can touch.” (p284)
“We hunt the flame, the light in the darkness, the good this world deserves.” (p285)
I also liked the short chapter length (but maybe this was to give the illusion that I’d get through the book quicker…). The banter between characters actually had me laughing out loud a few times, too. I do wish this could make up for how poor the dialogue as a whole was, though.
Overall, I blame myself for having high hopes. Actually, no I don’t. I blame the internet for once again hyping and praising a book which ultimately does not deserve it. I think a large part of why this book is so praised and celebrated is because the author is a visibly Muslim woman – and a niqabi at that. We genuinely love to see Muslim women approaching genres that have otherwise remained untouched but please, can we be honest with ourselves and write constructive reviews to genuinely help and support writers. The author clearly has brilliant ideas and a wonderfully creative mind, but the stories need to be better thought out.
Lastly, I don’t know about anyone else, but the font was tiny in my copy, so I’ll be contacting the publishers to fund my eye test at Specsavers.
2/5
Embarking on a dangerous quest to restore magic to the once-prosperous kingdom of Arawiya, the Arz Hunter, Zafira bint Iskindar disguises herself as a man to serve her caliphate by traversing the deadly Arz forest to feed her starving brethren. Bidding farewell to her beloved family and friends in Demenhur, one of the five great caliphates of Arawiya, Zafira, despite her youth, is no stranger to perilous expeditions. Parallel to Zafira’s own journey, the Prince of Death, Nasir Ghameq, is also sent on the quest by his abusive father—the kingdom’s Sultan—with the caveat that he must slay the Arz Hunter (or Huntress), to render his mission complete.
“If you want me obedient, Prince, kill me and carry my corpse.”
The first few chapters set the scene by explaining the history of Arawiya, describing how each caliphate once provided a unique function to the kingdom via magic bestowed on them by the Six Sisters. Once the magic that held the kingdom together was depleted, the caliphates were divided, slowly encroached on by the eerie Arz, and burdened with a wicked curse, making life almost unbearable. The Arz—and Zafira’s mystical connection to it—is a major plot point in the book, but only for the first half. Unfortunately, it is swiftly and conveniently rendered all but irrelevant for the rest of the book. When it was referenced towards the end, I realised I’d forgotten all about it. I’m not sure why it was depicted as such a threatening and ominous entity if all it took to get rid of it (albeit temporarily) was the wave of a hand. It’s quite disappointing because after describing it in such detail, I was really looking forward to reading how the other characters (specifically Nasir and Altair) would’ve traversed the Arz, having no prior experience and possibly succumbing to its evil.
This brings me on to my next point about the journey – trudging through Sharr.
The chapters detailing this were very long and very boring. Despite this being the majority of the book, there was very little action bar short and anticlimactic skirmishes with ifrit. If this had been split up, such that half the journey was the Arz and half Sharr, it would’ve been a much more enticing read. The slowness is a major detractor for this book. It only really picks up after the 100-page mark when the history lesson on Arawiya and Zafira and Nasir’s tragic backstories are relayed at length.
I appreciate that world-building is difficult, but I failed to find the book engaging on almost all levels. The plot, in theory, was intriguing—I loved the concept of restoring magic to a deteriorating kingdom and the characters having innate/dormant powers (jismi/ensuri), but the writing was really quite poor, inconsistent and overall, incredibly disengaging. Scenes that should’ve been short and snappy were unnecessarily prolonged, and scenes that would have actually benefitted from more detail and elaboration were disappointingly short.
This book came across as an Arabised The Hunger Games meets Throne of Glass. Zafira and Katniss in particular had a lot of similarities in terms of temperament, family dynamics, affinity with archery and the whole love triangle. It didn’t really come across as unique and Zafira as this strong independent girl boss character just felt two-dimensional and flat. In fact, there was very little character development overall and I didn’t really take to any of them bar Altair for his wit and banterous side-kick energy. Nasir and Zafira often felt like two sides of the same coin, and not in a good way. Whilst I did sympathise with Nasir for his poor treatment by his father, he had little to no redeeming qualities and I wasn’t particularly taken by the plot twists regarding his mother, Altair etc. The interactions and dialogue between the characters were unnatural and felt pretty contrived. Nasir’s ill-timed and out-of-character innuendos had me cringing, and his interactions with Zafira weren’t as exciting as I’d anticipated, there was no chemistry whatsoever.
Enemies to lovers, where? I’m still looking.
To elaborate on what I previously called the ‘Arabisation’ of the novel, although I did appreciate the Arabic (or ‘Safaitic’) words thrown in here and there to assist with the world-building, at times it felt a bit excessive and unnecessary. The word ‘kharra’ was smeared on every other page which really put me off, and as someone with familiarity of Arabic I occasionally struggled with remembering meanings. I can imagine it being even harder for those who don’t know Arabic at all.
To finish on a positive note (!), the imagery and descriptions of the different lands were beautifully vivid.
“Night feathered the horizon, painting the skies a blend of charcoal and winterberries, while a smattering of stars winked and danced in shy greeting.”
“Glorious slants of gold shone on the green foliage ahead of here, where a path unfurled in the stillness. Colourful flowers spread petals, coaxing her near with soft chimes. Be free, Huntress.” (p250)
Other quotes I really liked include:
“Death will be her companion. He’s kept her safe all this time. Why stop now?” (p94)
“Death is the one thing certain in human life. Why does it still come as a surprise when it happens?” (p253)
“There is freedom in knowing you’re dead. When you’re a specter no one can touch.” (p284)
“We hunt the flame, the light in the darkness, the good this world deserves.” (p285)
I also liked the short chapter length (but maybe this was to give the illusion that I’d get through the book quicker…). The banter between characters actually had me laughing out loud a few times, too. I do wish this could make up for how poor the dialogue as a whole was, though.
Overall, I blame myself for having high hopes. Actually, no I don’t. I blame the internet for once again hyping and praising a book which ultimately does not deserve it. I think a large part of why this book is so praised and celebrated is because the author is a visibly Muslim woman – and a niqabi at that. We genuinely love to see Muslim women approaching genres that have otherwise remained untouched but please, can we be honest with ourselves and write constructive reviews to genuinely help and support writers. The author clearly has brilliant ideas and a wonderfully creative mind, but the stories need to be better thought out.
Lastly, I don’t know about anyone else, but the font was tiny in my copy, so I’ll be contacting the publishers to fund my eye test at Specsavers.
2/5
this started out great but lost me down the line; it felt very disjointed in places and moments & emotions didn't rly stick the way they probably should have. definitely enjoyed parts of it though (I really liked the epilogue and it makes me excited for the sequel)
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i really wanted to like this book and was hoping to read the sequel after this but i sadly didn’t enjoy it.
i loved that it was middle eastern inspired and both the setting and writing were beautiful. Also, the numerous twists and reveals were exciting. however, i didn’t connect to any of the characters and felt the action didn’t pick up until the last fifty or so pages. it was slow and i didn’t find myself aching to pick it up.
i loved that it was middle eastern inspired and both the setting and writing were beautiful. Also, the numerous twists and reveals were exciting. however, i didn’t connect to any of the characters and felt the action didn’t pick up until the last fifty or so pages. it was slow and i didn’t find myself aching to pick it up.
This was such a struggle for me. I don’t know if I was just in a slump or if it was the actual book. I feel like the tone of the book stayed the same the whole way through. There was a couple of character reveals and twists but nothing that was shocking or got your heart racing.
Hoping the second one is better
Hoping the second one is better
I believe this book was pretty incredible. I really enjoyed the story and I LOVED Altair. I did not really like the romance between Zafira and Nasir in the beginning of the book. It seemed very rushed and forced. I did not think they should necessarily have a romance, but that is just my opinion. I think I would have loved the book more if I knew they will be best friends.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
NFKDKSNDNNDE so good
could not put it down and nasir is my new book crush <3
could not put it down and nasir is my new book crush <3
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Painfully mediocre.
Extremely predictable unfortunately. Took away all the impact the author hoped the twists would have.
Extremely predictable unfortunately. Took away all the impact the author hoped the twists would have.
This is the Owlcrate pick for May. As always, I go for honest as well as being spoiler-free. I'm rounding my rating again from a 2.5 down.
I don' really know that much about Arab culture aside from some of the creatures featured in their stories, so I can't comment on that part. Instead, what affected my rating was the writing style, the characters, the plot, and of course the romance.
I know I pick on YA romances every single time I do reviews, but that's only because it feels like they're all written in exactly the same way. This one feels even more cliche than usual because they get into some cliche situations: girl sees boy with his shirt off and discovers he has scars, girl lands on top of boy and their limbs tangle together, boy finds girl attractive because she's assertive (or something). Zafira has this weird thing about love, too. She says something about it being for children, and another character points out how she showed love for her father and for her people. Because guess what: love can mean more than just romantic love! And she couldn't feel romantic love for Deen, which is fine, but then in a matter of days she's thinking of Nasir as someone she loves? When she won't even acknowledge she did things out of love for her father and her people? Uhh okay.
Yeah, the writing style can turn out some pretty language, but my God does it slow things down a TON. It sometimes takes several sentences to convey one feeling/thought/whatever. It honestly left me exhausted and I needed breaks a lot while I was reading. It's also really repetitive. For example, Zafira mentally calls Nasir and Altair murderers, and then a few pages later is surprised Pikachu face when she finds out they're... murderers. And if you thought the Kingdom Hearts series talks about the darkness a lot, just wait until you read this book. Sometimes the style was a little weird, too. Here's an example that made me go WUT: "She needed to lie down. What was she, an old man? She did not need to lie down." Every now and then it got extra poetic by having dramatic sentences
that read
like this.
I get what the author was going for but it just felt like the style wasn't sticking to one thing.
I actually like travel stories, character studies, and atmospheric plots. So I don't know if it's because the poetic language got in the way of me ever getting the feel for the atmosphere or made it feel like the actual traveling took forever to get anywhere. And speaking of the characters, for all the time the narrative dwells in their heads, I still didn't connect with them. Altair was the only one I liked, but maybe that's because he didn't take himself too seriously and his chill attitude lightened up the mood.
Zafira reminded me a lot of Katniss and her dressing as a man has little impact on the story. I understand culturally why she felt she had to do this, but story-wise nothing really happens when it's revealed she's a woman. If you're going to build up that there might be consequences, follow all the way through. Nasir was a pretty boring assassin. A terrible one too, apparently, since in a fight Zafira beat him even though he's been training for years and has killed lots of people. He was giving off a bit of a Zuko vibe but he was just angsting way too much or too fixated on Zafira. He clearly had a lot of other shit going on and didn't need a romance subplot (or sexual desire subplot), so why was one written in?
But it does introduce readers to some Arabian creatures. Ifrits play quite a large role in the story, and it also makes references to rocs, dandans, djinns and so forth. There are also some Arabic words used left undefined for a while so the reader has to figure out what they mean through context. I liked that and it did make me want to learn more about Arabian stories and legends.
I would still recommend reading this. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean others won't enjoy it. Just be prepared for a very slow plot.
I don' really know that much about Arab culture aside from some of the creatures featured in their stories, so I can't comment on that part. Instead, what affected my rating was the writing style, the characters, the plot, and of course the romance.
I know I pick on YA romances every single time I do reviews, but that's only because it feels like they're all written in exactly the same way. This one feels even more cliche than usual because they get into some cliche situations: girl sees boy with his shirt off and discovers he has scars, girl lands on top of boy and their limbs tangle together, boy finds girl attractive because she's assertive (or something). Zafira has this weird thing about love, too. She says something about it being for children, and another character points out how she showed love for her father and for her people. Because guess what: love can mean more than just romantic love! And she couldn't feel romantic love for Deen, which is fine, but then in a matter of days she's thinking of Nasir as someone she loves? When she won't even acknowledge she did things out of love for her father and her people? Uhh okay.
Yeah, the writing style can turn out some pretty language, but my God does it slow things down a TON. It sometimes takes several sentences to convey one feeling/thought/whatever. It honestly left me exhausted and I needed breaks a lot while I was reading. It's also really repetitive. For example, Zafira mentally calls Nasir and Altair murderers, and then a few pages later is surprised Pikachu face when she finds out they're... murderers. And if you thought the Kingdom Hearts series talks about the darkness a lot, just wait until you read this book. Sometimes the style was a little weird, too. Here's an example that made me go WUT: "She needed to lie down. What was she, an old man? She did not need to lie down." Every now and then it got extra poetic by having dramatic sentences
that read
like this.
I get what the author was going for but it just felt like the style wasn't sticking to one thing.
I actually like travel stories, character studies, and atmospheric plots. So I don't know if it's because the poetic language got in the way of me ever getting the feel for the atmosphere or made it feel like the actual traveling took forever to get anywhere. And speaking of the characters, for all the time the narrative dwells in their heads, I still didn't connect with them. Altair was the only one I liked, but maybe that's because he didn't take himself too seriously and his chill attitude lightened up the mood.
Zafira reminded me a lot of Katniss and her dressing as a man has little impact on the story. I understand culturally why she felt she had to do this, but story-wise nothing really happens when it's revealed she's a woman. If you're going to build up that there might be consequences, follow all the way through. Nasir was a pretty boring assassin. A terrible one too, apparently, since in a fight Zafira beat him even though he's been training for years and has killed lots of people. He was giving off a bit of a Zuko vibe but he was just angsting way too much or too fixated on Zafira. He clearly had a lot of other shit going on and didn't need a romance subplot (or sexual desire subplot), so why was one written in?
But it does introduce readers to some Arabian creatures. Ifrits play quite a large role in the story, and it also makes references to rocs, dandans, djinns and so forth. There are also some Arabic words used left undefined for a while so the reader has to figure out what they mean through context. I liked that and it did make me want to learn more about Arabian stories and legends.
I would still recommend reading this. Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean others won't enjoy it. Just be prepared for a very slow plot.