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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
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:
No
“He came here for one act alone: murder.”
The premise of [b:We Hunt the Flame|36492488|We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1)|Hafsah Faizal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551185822l/36492488._SY75_.jpg|58206540] was a pretty simple one, with our main guy Nasir living a complicated life under the rule of his dangerous father [read: crazy af] and being sent to follow the famed Demenhune Hunter to find the lost Jawarat book. Of course, his orders are to kill, kill, kill! He has a tragic backstory and he wants his father to love and appreciate him...so he lives the life that is dictated of him.
On the other end of the land, or like in a neighbouring land, Zafira lives as the Hunter, who everyone thinks is male. She's a strong woman who hunts animals in the shadow forest where no one else can go and brings them back so her villages can eat. The problem is that shadow forest is getting bigger each day and is literally creeping onto her people's land and they're all going to die if they don't move.
“Tell me, why do you hunt?"
"For my people. To feed them." Zafira said.
"No one can be that pure.”
I'm giving this a 3 out of 5 because it took me over 1/2 the book before it really got going and I was remotely invested in what was happening with the characters. I admired Zafira, especially when she embraced that she was female and was competent and powerful and just as good as the men. I cheered when her friends cheered because that is something to celebrate for sure! On the flip side, we don't really get all that much of the character's thoughts because it flips between their perspectives quickly and because something magic or other would come in & then BAM, a new idea comes in and we miss out on character development.
If you have time to look up words to fully understand context and sentences, it takes much longer than you would usually need to read a book but then everything makes sense! Since it's a different culture than what I'm used to, I was constantly stopping to try and figure out what words meant! If you're impatient as I am, this is less than ideal....
Overall, there are some beautiful elements woven into the storytelling and I really wanted to be more behind the concept that women can do anything that men can and just as well in this particular story, but I wasn't that gung ho about the characters. I totally see what the author wanted to do with her story building and the imagery, it was just the characters I couldn't connect with that well. If there's a sequel, I would read it just to see what ends up happening with the Jawarat and magic but even the ending wasn't too much of a cliffhanger so I am not too rushed to read the next story.
The premise of [b:We Hunt the Flame|36492488|We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1)|Hafsah Faizal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1551185822l/36492488._SY75_.jpg|58206540] was a pretty simple one, with our main guy Nasir living a complicated life under the rule of his dangerous father [read: crazy af] and being sent to follow the famed Demenhune Hunter to find the lost Jawarat book. Of course, his orders are to kill, kill, kill! He has a tragic backstory and he wants his father to love and appreciate him...so he lives the life that is dictated of him.
On the other end of the land, or like in a neighbouring land, Zafira lives as the Hunter, who everyone thinks is male. She's a strong woman who hunts animals in the shadow forest where no one else can go and brings them back so her villages can eat. The problem is that shadow forest is getting bigger each day and is literally creeping onto her people's land and they're all going to die if they don't move.
“Tell me, why do you hunt?"
"For my people. To feed them." Zafira said.
"No one can be that pure.”
I'm giving this a 3 out of 5 because it took me over 1/2 the book before it really got going and I was remotely invested in what was happening with the characters. I admired Zafira, especially when she embraced that she was female and was competent and powerful and just as good as the men. I cheered when her friends cheered because that is something to celebrate for sure! On the flip side, we don't really get all that much of the character's thoughts because it flips between their perspectives quickly and because something magic or other would come in & then BAM, a new idea comes in and we miss out on character development.
If you have time to look up words to fully understand context and sentences, it takes much longer than you would usually need to read a book but then everything makes sense! Since it's a different culture than what I'm used to, I was constantly stopping to try and figure out what words meant! If you're impatient as I am, this is less than ideal....
Overall, there are some beautiful elements woven into the storytelling and I really wanted to be more behind the concept that women can do anything that men can and just as well in this particular story, but I wasn't that gung ho about the characters. I totally see what the author wanted to do with her story building and the imagery, it was just the characters I couldn't connect with that well. If there's a sequel, I would read it just to see what ends up happening with the Jawarat and magic but even the ending wasn't too much of a cliffhanger so I am not too rushed to read the next story.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Ok, the last line did make me gasp, I’ll give this book that. But overall it felt like too much. Too much at stake, too many side quests, too many threads in the web. It was hard to read because every chapter felt like a new revelation, a new twist, a new record scratch moment. The “romance” felt incomplete and frankly I don’t know who’s involved in the romance at this point. Will I continue the duology? Yes. Is it purely because of the last sentence? Also, yes.
Audio
1) Narration: Ummm... I've heard both these narrators before, separate and together, and I LOVE them. (Scorpio Races, anyone?)
2) Story: This was a great story... and a couple times I said, "WHAT?!" out loud, so that's always pretty nice. I love seeing some Arabic words within a novel, because they're familiar (it's spoken within my family) and let me connect a bit more with the story ❤
Faizal did a fantastic job weaving together an interesting and entertaining story, ESPECIALLY as a debut novel (which aren't always this strong). I'm looking forward to reading the next one!
1) Narration: Ummm... I've heard both these narrators before, separate and together, and I LOVE them. (Scorpio Races, anyone?)
2) Story: This was a great story... and a couple times I said, "WHAT?!" out loud, so that's always pretty nice. I love seeing some Arabic words within a novel, because they're familiar (it's spoken within my family) and let me connect a bit more with the story ❤
Faizal did a fantastic job weaving together an interesting and entertaining story, ESPECIALLY as a debut novel (which aren't always this strong). I'm looking forward to reading the next one!
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had a hard time starting this book. It took me forever to get hooked; however, once I did I couldn’t put it down.
Literally.
The beginning was slow for me because it required a great deal of world and culture to be built.
It is Beautiful though.
It is worth it.
Literally.
The beginning was slow for me because it required a great deal of world and culture to be built.
It is Beautiful though.
It is worth it.
yeah ok! a good light one that i read intermittently over a couple months. i think because there were decent chunks of time in between readings i didn’t have a strong connection to the characters. nasir is hot af though so
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Read for r/fantasy 2024 book bingo: Author of Color (hard mode: Must be a debut novel published in the last five years)
3.5 stars, I enjoyed this book! I appreciate fantasy set in non-western-inspired settings, and though I still have questions about the world at large, I’m interested to see what further information is in book two. Aspects of certain characters’ relationships felt more a result of happenstance of being on the same quest at times vs a personal intrigue/connection but as before I want to see where she takes them.
3.5 stars, I enjoyed this book! I appreciate fantasy set in non-western-inspired settings, and though I still have questions about the world at large, I’m interested to see what further information is in book two. Aspects of certain characters’ relationships felt more a result of happenstance of being on the same quest at times vs a personal intrigue/connection but as before I want to see where she takes them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Murder
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-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