A review by bisexualwentworth
We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring
  • 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

This book was an incredibly satisfying conclusion to the duology. The stakes were just high enough. The themes of grief and social change and reconciling the past with the future were executed brilliantly. The main characters all got the perfect ending. I especially loved what this book did with Nasir and Altair’s relationship and how it played into the directions they took at the end of the book. 

Zafira and Yasmine’s friendship also went in some heartbreaking and realistic directions. They had to learn to navigate change and betrayal and figure out who they were able to be for each other in the future. It was lovely.

And I love Kifah. Just in general. She’s wonderful. I also think that she comes out as ace/aro in this book, but I had to read the page three times to confirm what was going on, and I’m still not totally sure that’s what was intended.

A lot of side characters also got some very nice bits of development in this book.

I was deeply frustrated by the romantic subplot at a lot of points in this book, mostly for personal taste reasons. They just spend far too much time refusing to communicate with each other, which makes sense for their characters, but I do find it a little bit silly that they both spend so much time thinking about how perfectly they understand each other but they don’t talk to each other for about three hundred pages. When they finally DO communicate, though, the payoff is worth it. I just didn’t feel as invested in their relationship in this book as in We Hunt the Flame even though it was much more of a focus here.

I think my main issue with this book is the pacing. It REALLY drags for a whole long section and then picks up again very gradually, and then the ending is very fast-paced and the climax and resolution happen pretty quickly. 

Overall, I would absolutely recommend this duology to anyone looking for a mature YA fantasy (mature as in characters are older than in most YA and there are some complex themes but the content is very much PG-13) with intricate worldbuilding, a unique take on magic, an extremely compelling found family, and an enemies-to-lovers romance.
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