Book Review: We Hunt the Flame
Book Title: We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya #1)
Author: Hafsah Faizal
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:
People lived because she killed.
People died because he lived.
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.
Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.
War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
This book is going to be hard to review! I was so annoyed with We Hunt the Flame at first. I actually would’ve put the book down if I hadn’t already planned on reviewing it. I’m glad I stuck with it though, because by the end, my feelings completely changed. I waffled between three and four stars for a long time, before compromising with a three-and-a-half-star rating.
The overall problem is this book is too long and incredibly slow to start. The action didn’t really get going until 170 pages in. I read about one page a minute, so that’s a little over two and a half hours for me. Add to that the time I spent rereading whole paragraphs after losing myself in long descriptions. The near-final nail in the coffin was the abundance of three-page-long chapters. Not only do the half-blank final pages of the chapter inflate the length of the book, but switching POVs so suddenly and so often is pretty jarring. I was ready to quit, but I kept telling myself that once the treasure hunt actually began, I’d be more entertained. You can even see what I mean in these brief quotes:
People lived because she killed.
Okaaaay. That’s a pretty roundabout way to explain that Zafira’s a hunter who brings back food for her village.
People died because he lived.
That sentence is pretty misleading. People die by Nasir’s hand, but if he didn’t do it, someone else would. Finally, take the summary:
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.
And that’s the part we spend those first 170 pages exploring, even though it was pretty succinctly explained in that single paragraph. Look, I’m all for characterization — it’s probably my favorite aspect of any story. And I don’t mind exposition — I’ll stick with a book for awhile if we’re committing to some serious world-building. But the initial exposition Faizal includes doesn’t drive the plot forward. It’s so frustrating because we understand the plot so early on — a quest for an artifact that will restore magic to the land — and yet it takes so long to actually get started that we’re left in this anticipatory purgatory.
But then the quest does finally start and it’s like a switch is flipped. Suddenly we’re traveling at record speed while still incorporating the poetic prose. From page 170 onward, the rest of the book is pretty perfect. I can’t stop thinking about it — the characters populated my dreams the night I finished reading.
While the plot is fairly straight-forward, Faizal’s characters are so rich, nuanced, and unpredictable. I don’t even know who my favorite is — they’re all so charming and interesting! Zafira is fascinating; she’s so good-natured, but she doesn’t let her good heart make her weak. She develops these deep, loving relationships with those around her, a beautiful process to watch unfold. She also stands up for herself at every turn and doesn’t allow anyone to take away her agency. She and Altair — the wise-cracking General with a quick smile — are my top two characters.
Then we have Nasir, who’s lost himself to his father’s abuse. Altair is the closest thing he has to a friend even though the two seem to despise each other. All Nasir has known is violence and hatred for so long, yet his heart is coaxed open when he finds himself on the receiving end of actual trust and compassion. Kifah and Benyamin round out the Quest Crew, the former a badass warrior and the latter a magical guardian. These five unlikely companions form deep bonds throughout the course of the quest; they help each other recover and grow. As a reader, tagging along for this adventure is so fun — there are laugh-out-loud moments and heart-pounding moments and everything in between.
I actually really enjoy Faizal’s writing style once the plot starts moving. We Hunt the Flame is full of lyrical prose. She depicts lush landscapes, rich cultures, and a unique twist on magic. The dialogue is so witty and realistic, I felt like the characters jumped right off the page. The plot itself is nothing new, but that doesn’t really bother me as a fantasy enthusiast, and I found the reimagined Arabian setting super interesting.
All things considered, it’s difficult for me to recommend a book that requires so much patience to get into. I always hate when friends recommend TV shows and then tell me to skip the first season, so I’m loathe to put someone else in that position. That being said, I’ll give the second book in the series a try when it’s released. If the sequel is just as slow, I’ll likely abandon it. But there is wiggle-room for Faizal to redeem herself there and position Sands of Arawiya as a beloved fantasy series.
