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eliserosereads 's review for:
We Hunt the Flame
by Hafsah Faizal
Unfortunately, I wasn’t as blown away as I wanted to be.
The plot felt like it meandered all the way up to the last 10% of the book, which was absolutely fantastic. I would have loved more focus on the side characters. Sure, I was told a million times that they all had group chemistry, but most of it was off-screen, so to speak. The banter left much to be desired… except Altair—Altair was wonderful.
The writing tiptoed around describing things, which was extremely pretty and extremely frustrating. I wish the author would have tossed in some definite sentences that would actually tell me what was going on. Like… how did Kifah and Benyamin end up part of the quest? I’m always on board for poetic writing, but only if it is used wisely, so I still understand what the author wants me to.
The main characters were fine, I suppose. I fell mildly hard for Nasir in the last (you guessed it) 10% of the book, but I wasn’t a big fan of the Huntress. I’ve heard her described as this kickass inspiring female character, but she seemed basic to me. She didn’t really bother me, but she didn’t have a very interesting personality or add anything new to the YA female protagonist framework.
I appreciated the platonic relationships very much. Again, I wish they had been fleshed out a bit more. I felt like the author spent a lot of time describing things I already understood (like Zafira’s angst about her father, her relationship with Deen), while leaving the things I was confused about to the wayside (like the Silver Witch, pretty much all the side characters, who the Lion is, how magic works, everything about Nasir’s mother, old girlfriend, and several things about his father).
Man, the plot twists were raining down in that last 10%. They almost made up for the slow first 90%, but I’m really just frustrated that the storytelling didn’t match up to my reading style. I have no doubt I would have enjoyed this book much more, if not for the sluggish pace and constantly mystifying writing.
The plot felt like it meandered all the way up to the last 10% of the book, which was absolutely fantastic. I would have loved more focus on the side characters. Sure, I was told a million times that they all had group chemistry, but most of it was off-screen, so to speak. The banter left much to be desired… except Altair—Altair was wonderful.
The writing tiptoed around describing things, which was extremely pretty and extremely frustrating. I wish the author would have tossed in some definite sentences that would actually tell me what was going on. Like… how did Kifah and Benyamin end up part of the quest? I’m always on board for poetic writing, but only if it is used wisely, so I still understand what the author wants me to.
The main characters were fine, I suppose. I fell mildly hard for Nasir in the last (you guessed it) 10% of the book, but I wasn’t a big fan of the Huntress. I’ve heard her described as this kickass inspiring female character, but she seemed basic to me. She didn’t really bother me, but she didn’t have a very interesting personality or add anything new to the YA female protagonist framework.
I appreciated the platonic relationships very much. Again, I wish they had been fleshed out a bit more. I felt like the author spent a lot of time describing things I already understood (like Zafira’s angst about her father, her relationship with Deen), while leaving the things I was confused about to the wayside (like the Silver Witch, pretty much all the side characters, who the Lion is, how magic works, everything about Nasir’s mother, old girlfriend, and several things about his father).
Man, the plot twists were raining down in that last 10%. They almost made up for the slow first 90%, but I’m really just frustrated that the storytelling didn’t match up to my reading style. I have no doubt I would have enjoyed this book much more, if not for the sluggish pace and constantly mystifying writing.