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nz_elle's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Dementia and Death of parent
mattyb's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Abandonment
joensign's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Child death, and Kidnapping
kbairbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book gave me strong high fantasy vibes. I spent the first while confused because so many names, nicknames, words, and languages were thrown at me and although I got more used to it as the book went on even by the end I was still confused. That’s on me I’m sure as the reader but I also didn’t enjoy the romance (either of them) or the characters, or the fight scenes.. I dunno this was a dark high fantasy but I didn’t connect to any of it and the constant pov change and many tiny chapters felt exhausting to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
theespressoedition's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm so incredibly glad that I decided to buddy-read this with my go-to buddy-read partner, because we both loved it and had pretty much the exact same thoughts throughout!
The first thing to say about this book is that it is really freaking good... but also super confusing at times. That's the literal only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. I'm still pondering the story and wondering about certain moments, thinking "what the heck actually happened there?" I believe that if I had fully grasped some of the more bizarre parts of the plot, I would have smacked five stars on my rating in a heartbeat.
That being said, it's still an excellent book with so many incredible elements! First and foremost, we've got one totally badass female lead, which is always something that I enjoy in a book. And when I say that she's badass, I don't mean that she literally demolishes anyone in her way to reach her goal. She's willing to work with enemies, really questions what love truly is, deals with mystical powers that she doesn't understand, and learns to accept who she is in a world where very few others are ready to accept her. This is definitely a protagonist that I will be considering a favorite from here on out!
As far as our male lead? I could take or leave him. He's got a lot to work on, which I hope is addressed more in the sequel. His "sidekick," however, that's a different story. Altair stole the spotlight for me. He was, hands down, my favorite part of the entire book and I wish he wasn't taken for granted so many times. Learning more about him throughout the story gave me so much life. I was constantly hoping we would get more tidbits about who he is and what his motives truly are.
There were a lot of "twists" throughout this book, which was so much fun. I was under the impression that it would be very slow-paced throughout the entirety of the story and that wound up not being the case at all. It picked up before the halfway point and flew from there. I had a hard time putting it down because one twist led to another which led to another and I just needed to know how it would all turn out. Naturally, that made me order the sequel from the library immediately following completion because now I HAVE TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS.
The first thing to say about this book is that it is really freaking good... but also super confusing at times. That's the literal only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. I'm still pondering the story and wondering about certain moments, thinking "what the heck actually happened there?" I believe that if I had fully grasped some of the more bizarre parts of the plot, I would have smacked five stars on my rating in a heartbeat.
That being said, it's still an excellent book with so many incredible elements! First and foremost, we've got one totally badass female lead, which is always something that I enjoy in a book. And when I say that she's badass, I don't mean that she literally demolishes anyone in her way to reach her goal. She's willing to work with enemies, really questions what love truly is, deals with mystical powers that she doesn't understand, and learns to accept who she is in a world where very few others are ready to accept her. This is definitely a protagonist that I will be considering a favorite from here on out!
As far as our male lead? I could take or leave him. He's got a lot to work on, which I hope is addressed more in the sequel. His "sidekick," however, that's a different story. Altair stole the spotlight for me. He was, hands down, my favorite part of the entire book and I wish he wasn't taken for granted so many times. Learning more about him throughout the story gave me so much life. I was constantly hoping we would get more tidbits about who he is and what his motives truly are.
There were a lot of "twists" throughout this book, which was so much fun. I was under the impression that it would be very slow-paced throughout the entirety of the story and that wound up not being the case at all. It picked up before the halfway point and flew from there. I had a hard time putting it down because one twist led to another which led to another and I just needed to know how it would all turn out. Naturally, that made me order the sequel from the library immediately following completion because now I HAVE TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship and Murder
Moderate: Death, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: War
knifewifestan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
lunep's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Funny how the two times I've started this book it was in July
Anyway
I remembered this book as a solid 3 ⭐, I liked it but actually didn't understand the hype...but I always wanted to read the second one anyway, and with Hafsah publishing another book recently I recided to re-read this one, read the second one and read her new book, and boy am I glad that I did it. This time around I definitely liked it more!
At first I felt it was a little too trope-y but nothing unbearable and I said to myself "well, arent most debut books a little trope-y anyway? specially with young authors" (specially having re-read the Eragon series this past 6 months lmao) so I decided to try and not to focus on that (tho just to mention, I felt Zafira at the beginning of the book,when she started working with Nasir and Altair to be a little not-like-other-girls) and eventually I stopped feeling that way
Another thing that bothered me a bit was how it didnt make sense to me that only the Ra'ads knew that she was the hunter: 1) they live in a village in a culture that's very much oriented around helping each other and community (Yasmine's wedding comes to mind), so I assume everyone knows everyone, specially because it sounds like it's a small village, 2) everyone knew the Ra'ads were close to the hunter, and Zafira's POV mentions multiple times playing with Yasmine and Deen a lot when children, 3) everyone must have known Zafira's family consisted only of her, her little sister, and their ailing mother, no men 4) Zafira uses the same horse as Zafira and as The Hunter, and 5) the day of the voyage she arrives at the Arz as The Hunter, on the Iskandar's horse, with Lana bint Iskandar and the Ra'ads...like cmon, make it make sense. I will blame it on it being Hafsah's first book that she wrote when she was 19, and it's not like, a HUGE deal, but it was a little hard to suspend my disbelief on that specific thing
However, I really liked the characters, I liked the development of Zafira and Nasir's relationship, and how everyone interacted with one another. I specially liked the female friendships, tho they don't have a lot of page time, I felt Zafira and Yasmine's bond was very sweet (also, I went a little mad in the first 200 pages because I couldnt believe no one had written Zafira/Yasmine fanfiction with THAT goodbye scene), and Zafira and Kifah's bonding was also really nice, I hope we see more of that in the second book. And I enjoyed the story overall, it kept me hooked, and I felt intelligent because I saw a couple of the plot-twists coming lmao (others I didn't, but I really should have, hindsight is 20/20). I remembered very little of it, so it was basically like reading it for the first time
I'm DEVASTATED about Deen's death, at first I wasn't sure if it had been necessary, it felt a little like a "oops, I made my MC who will fall in love with another man promise this man she would marry him after this mission, what to do?" cop-out, but a lot of stuff would have been had to be changed if he hadn't died (am I convinced he HAD to die tho? still not, but I get it would have changed things)
Also absolutely depressed about Altair growing up feeling like second-best, a dirty secret to the whole kingdom, and then feeling like the zumra willingly abandoned him 😭😭 and the fact that it was his own MOTHER who told the zumra not to go back for him?? kill me dead please
And...did Misk, Yasmine and Lana leave Zafira and Lana's mom in the village when they were gassed?? I-- speechless, I imagine if the answer is yes it's because they quickly got a ride with the Caliph's men, barely escaping, but STILL, what the fuck man
Anyway
I remembered this book as a solid 3 ⭐, I liked it but actually didn't understand the hype...but I always wanted to read the second one anyway, and with Hafsah publishing another book recently I recided to re-read this one, read the second one and read her new book, and boy am I glad that I did it. This time around I definitely liked it more!
At first I felt it was a little too trope-y but nothing unbearable and I said to myself "well, arent most debut books a little trope-y anyway? specially with young authors" (specially having re-read the Eragon series this past 6 months lmao) so I decided to try and not to focus on that (tho just to mention, I felt Zafira at the beginning of the book,
Another thing that bothered me a bit was how it didnt make sense to me that only the Ra'ads knew that she was the hunter: 1) they live in a village in a culture that's very much oriented around helping each other and community (Yasmine's wedding comes to mind), so I assume everyone knows everyone, specially because it sounds like it's a small village, 2) everyone knew the Ra'ads were close to the hunter, and Zafira's POV mentions multiple times playing with Yasmine and Deen a lot when children, 3) everyone must have known Zafira's family consisted only of her, her little sister, and their ailing mother, no men 4) Zafira uses the same horse as Zafira and as The Hunter, and 5) the day of the voyage she arrives at the Arz as The Hunter, on the Iskandar's horse, with Lana bint Iskandar and the Ra'ads...like cmon, make it make sense. I will blame it on it being Hafsah's first book that she wrote when she was 19, and it's not like, a HUGE deal, but it was a little hard to suspend my disbelief on that specific thing
However, I really liked the characters, I liked the development of Zafira and Nasir's relationship, and how everyone interacted with one another. I specially liked the female friendships, tho they don't have a lot of page time, I felt Zafira and Yasmine's bond was very sweet (also, I went a little mad in the first 200 pages because I couldnt believe no one had written Zafira/Yasmine fanfiction with THAT goodbye scene), and Zafira and Kifah's bonding was also really nice, I hope we see more of that in the second book. And I enjoyed the story overall, it kept me hooked, and I felt intelligent because I saw a couple of the plot-twists coming lmao (others I didn't, but I really should have, hindsight is 20/20). I remembered very little of it, so it was basically like reading it for the first time
Also absolutely depressed about Altair growing up feeling like second-best, a dirty secret to the whole kingdom, and then feeling like the zumra willingly abandoned him 😭😭 and the fact that it was his own MOTHER who told the zumra not to go back for him?? kill me dead please
And...did Misk, Yasmine and Lana leave Zafira and Lana's mom in the village when they were gassed?? I-- speechless, I imagine if the answer is yes it's because they quickly got a ride with the Caliph's men, barely escaping, but STILL, what the fuck man
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Self harm, and Death of parent
Minor: Cursing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
megloveswords12's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent
thepassivebookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Blood
Minor: Incest and Sexual assault