Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - We Hunt the Flame

Okay. This book has the heart and soul necessary for a good YA novel/novel in general; however, it was simply confusing. The first third of the book is completely dedicated to characters who either die or become increasingly unimportant. In making the first section so long, the author lost something important. She overemphasized how important these people were to Zafira instead of showing it. I wanted to see what Deen meant to her, what her sister meant, what Yasmine meant. The dialogue is amazing, but there was too much showing. Specifically with the Deen timeline: what? why was he there? what did he prove? what did the book gain from him being there and then going with Zafira? It didn't add anything to either character. The journey to Sharr was also like one page. I wanted it to be longer. I was confused at how much time was spent establishing the norm for Zafira and then how little that actually mattered. Three-four days were spent in her home town and it did almost nothing to further the plot. It isn't like Deen motivated Zafira in any way. She made a half-hearted promise to him but like overall his inclusion was just... unnecessary in my opinion. And then there was the whole thing with Zafira's mother. It would have been so much more impactful had it been written, described, understood differently. As a reader I had no attachment to the character before she started laying down trauma and recovering from it. I had no emotional stake for her and her mother's relationship.
Also in terms of plot introduction, sometimes the chapter would just start. And things would be different in a weird unexplained way and I would fully go back a couple of pages to make sure that I didn't miss something. Like one time they're j chillin on Sharr and the next chapter they can't find Zafira? There's no explanation for her being gone. There's not like we went to sleep and then woke up and now we can't find her. She just is somewhere else. Same with the darkness subplot. There was a lot that could have been done with that. The foreshadowing. The ~energy~ was there but it wasn't enough. I was just confused. What do these power mean? What are the stakes
I think the biggest issue I had with this novel were things a good editor should have caught. There were a couple of character inconsistencies. The chapter openings were often unexplained. The subplots were not explained, foreshadowed, or developed enough. The lore was absolutely beautiful but the author expected the reader to just know it. It needed to be presented in a better way for the minute detail aspects. It seems like the biggest issue in terms of plot had to do with transitions. Whenever there was a lull, BAM weird chapter where something happens that is important!!! But it was unexplained. It was out of pocket. I think the author just needed to listen more to her story. To focus on how someone who didn't know the world would see it.
Things I loved: the characters. They are all incredibly distinct. They are the reason i kept reading. The writing!!! Is beautiful. This author describes characters in such a clear, precise, and beautiful way. The metaphors hit so hard. Just wow. I think that this author is incredibly talented. She clearly had a vision, knew her characters, and crafted a beautiful world, but some things just fell short. They didn't work quite the way they should have. I would love to return to this author once she has written more and really honed the novel crafting and transition aspects of writing.

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lunep's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

3.5

- WE HUNT THE FLAME has a beautifully built world and is full of descriptions that make you feel like you are there.
- The pacing was a bit slow - a lot of sitting/walking around and talking, though that may have just been misguided expectations on my part.
- Strangely, Zafira felt like the least-developed character. Everybody else on the quest had a distinct personality and backstory, but she didn't have much beyond being The Huntress (and the fact that she was obviously in love with her best friend Yasmine, why were we wasting so much time on the boys?)

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