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A review by baexlee
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
We Hunt the Flame is spell binding and magical and despite my initial challenges to adjust to Faizal's unique writing style I really enjoyed Zafira's journey. The story is told through Zafira and Nasir's third person limited point of view which allows Faizal to introduce the larger world and Nasir's complex character despite Zafira's rather limited experience beyond her own village and the Arz. Some of the things that I struggled with were related to my own preference with writing style, I just found that the shorter chapters and short sentences made it hard to motivate myself to read when I was picking up and putting it down constantly. If you don't like long winded writing then you will love this book.
Despite my qualms with the style, the overall story is beautifully told and the pacing builds Zafira into a stunning and compassionate heroine that is complex and multifaceted. This is not to say that Nasir falls flat in comparison to her in any way either, as their tale and the adventure the ultimately brings them together takes care to equally develop and pay attention to each of them as it builds. The thing that holds me back from rating this anything higher than four stars is that there were many times where I felt battles, conflicts or other challenges were resolved with a bit too little detail for my taste, some of them felt a bit too non-descript or fade-to-black so to speak. Now my opinion could very well be colored by the fact the last book I read was extremely over detailed in it's battle scene's, so take that with a grain of salt, but I believe my rating to be fair.
Despite my qualms with the style, the overall story is beautifully told and the pacing builds Zafira into a stunning and compassionate heroine that is complex and multifaceted. This is not to say that Nasir falls flat in comparison to her in any way either, as their tale and the adventure the ultimately brings them together takes care to equally develop and pay attention to each of them as it builds. The thing that holds me back from rating this anything higher than four stars is that there were many times where I felt battles, conflicts or other challenges were resolved with a bit too little detail for my taste, some of them felt a bit too non-descript or fade-to-black so to speak. Now my opinion could very well be colored by the fact the last book I read was extremely over detailed in it's battle scene's, so take that with a grain of salt, but I believe my rating to be fair.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Blood