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A review by thebakersbooks
The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad
4.0
4/5 stars — complex characters, a vivid setting, and a sweet romance
The Candle and the Flame burns like a fire—slow at first, then flashing all at once into a roaring inferno. It's a heavily character-driven story that focuses on a human woman named Fatima with the unique quality of possessing an Ifrit's flame. The flame and the memories that accompany it belonged to an Ifrit named Ghazala. The Candle and the Flame follows Fatima Ghazala as she gains a unique position in Ifrit society and joins forces with the Ifrit army and the human raj to keep her family and city safe.
The beautifully described setting came alive from the first page, drawing me into the story immediately. Food, religion, commerce, and clothing shaped the city of Noor with a hundred sensory descriptions; the city felt as much like a living character as anyone else in the book, which I loved. Nafiza Azad truly has a gift for framing her characters through the way they view and move through the place they live.
That leads me to Fatima Ghazala herself. In many senses, she's a compound being: both the human Fatima and the Ifrit Ghazala. While Ghazala's consciousness is long dead, her memories and her flame live on in Fatima, whose life she saved when Fatima was a child. The moment Fatima becomes aware of Ghazala's remnant is apparent not only in the change in names (Fatima reintroduces herself to friends and family as Fatima Ghazala, with mixed results) but in Fatima Ghazala's changed bearing, thought processes, and outlook on the world. It was a truly unique and wonderful experience to essentially meet the main character a second time partway through a story.
The main change in her personality is one that strikes sparks with her older sister: Fatima Ghazala is more willing to stand her ground in an argument than Fatima. The first half of the book is Fatima Ghazala gaining her footing as someone her sister views as a monster like the ones who killed their family. Fatima Ghazala's life is also disrupted by the death of a surrogate parent and her introduction to the commander of the Ifrit army, a man named Zulfikar. The Candle and the Flame is full of characters with strong and often clashing personalities, and I've never read character interactions quite as subtly tense as those Azad delivered here. (Also, this book is full of female characters of all ages and social classes. They're snarky and loving, gentle and powerful, and everything in between. The way Azad writes women is special.)
The main romance—I hesitate to call it a romantic subplot since it ran parallel to the main plot with equal precedence—was startlingly effective. Fatima Ghazala and Zulfikar grow close because they're working together to protect the city from the ghul and Shayateen, but their chemistry is clear.When they're eventually married (for plot reasons, though they each hope their affection will grow into love), it doesn't feel like instalove despite the relatively short timeline of the story. They're both smart enough to acknowledge that their feelings are admiration and attraction, not actual love, which I appreciate. Finally, Zulfikar is protective of Fatima Ghazala, but she never allows him to guide her actions or shelter her unnecessarily.
My only problem with The Candle and the Flame is a combination of ambiguous plot and slow pacing that causes early parts of the story to drag. I said the book is character-driven; this is true almost to a fault, with large portions of the story occupied by Fatima Ghazala coming to terms with her new self and spending times with friends and family while events that advance the plot happen around her and/or without her knowledge. In some ways, this worked well—for instance, by allowing lots of room for strong friendships and working out family issues—but it also left parts of the novel drifting without clear direction. The tension of the djinn threat remained, but it wasn't always driving the story forward.
Otherwise, I had a lovely time reading Fatima Ghazala's story! All the secondary and minor characters had rich backstories, the romance was healthy and sweet, and there were wonderful female relationships and active calling out of misogyny. The world felt tangible in its beauty and Azad's descriptions of food were so good they made me hungry! I highly recommend this book to fans of S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad series and Holly Black's Folk of the Air series, as well as anyone who enjoys character-focused fantasy.
The Candle and the Flame burns like a fire—slow at first, then flashing all at once into a roaring inferno. It's a heavily character-driven story that focuses on a human woman named Fatima with the unique quality of possessing an Ifrit's flame. The flame and the memories that accompany it belonged to an Ifrit named Ghazala. The Candle and the Flame follows Fatima Ghazala as she gains a unique position in Ifrit society and joins forces with the Ifrit army and the human raj to keep her family and city safe.
The beautifully described setting came alive from the first page, drawing me into the story immediately. Food, religion, commerce, and clothing shaped the city of Noor with a hundred sensory descriptions; the city felt as much like a living character as anyone else in the book, which I loved. Nafiza Azad truly has a gift for framing her characters through the way they view and move through the place they live.
That leads me to Fatima Ghazala herself. In many senses, she's a compound being: both the human Fatima and the Ifrit Ghazala. While Ghazala's consciousness is long dead, her memories and her flame live on in Fatima, whose life she saved when Fatima was a child. The moment Fatima becomes aware of Ghazala's remnant is apparent not only in the change in names (Fatima reintroduces herself to friends and family as Fatima Ghazala, with mixed results) but in Fatima Ghazala's changed bearing, thought processes, and outlook on the world. It was a truly unique and wonderful experience to essentially meet the main character a second time partway through a story.
The main change in her personality is one that strikes sparks with her older sister: Fatima Ghazala is more willing to stand her ground in an argument than Fatima. The first half of the book is Fatima Ghazala gaining her footing as someone her sister views as a monster like the ones who killed their family. Fatima Ghazala's life is also disrupted by the death of a surrogate parent and her introduction to the commander of the Ifrit army, a man named Zulfikar. The Candle and the Flame is full of characters with strong and often clashing personalities, and I've never read character interactions quite as subtly tense as those Azad delivered here. (Also, this book is full of female characters of all ages and social classes. They're snarky and loving, gentle and powerful, and everything in between. The way Azad writes women is special.)
The main romance—I hesitate to call it a romantic subplot since it ran parallel to the main plot with equal precedence—was startlingly effective. Fatima Ghazala and Zulfikar grow close because they're working together to protect the city from the ghul and Shayateen, but their chemistry is clear.
My only problem with The Candle and the Flame is a combination of ambiguous plot and slow pacing that causes early parts of the story to drag. I said the book is character-driven; this is true almost to a fault, with large portions of the story occupied by Fatima Ghazala coming to terms with her new self and spending times with friends and family while events that advance the plot happen around her and/or without her knowledge. In some ways, this worked well—for instance, by allowing lots of room for strong friendships and working out family issues—but it also left parts of the novel drifting without clear direction. The tension of the djinn threat remained, but it wasn't always driving the story forward.
Otherwise, I had a lovely time reading Fatima Ghazala's story! All the secondary and minor characters had rich backstories, the romance was healthy and sweet, and there were wonderful female relationships and active calling out of misogyny. The world felt tangible in its beauty and Azad's descriptions of food were so good they made me hungry! I highly recommend this book to fans of S.A. Chakraborty's Daevabad series and Holly Black's Folk of the Air series, as well as anyone who enjoys character-focused fantasy.