Hello everyone!
I am back with another book review, We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. Thanks so much to Raincoast Books for sending me an ARC of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
This story follows Zafira and Nasir. Zafira is a girl who disguises herself as a man to hunt and provide for her village under the control of a hateful ruler. She must keep her identity a secret to ensure that her people survive. Nasir is the Prince of Death, killing those who dare to go against his evil father, the Sultan's wishes. Any betrayal could lead to the demise of those most important to Nasir. With war brewing, the two set out on separate missions to find a lost book that could bring magic back to the world - and might just be powerful enough to stop the Sultan, and the evil forces driving him.
The book is broken up into three parts, the majority of the first one sets up the backstory for each of the characters. I thought this component was important to the story overall, it gave a good basis for understanding their decisions, but I found myself wanting to get to the action already. I don't necessarily think the book didn't need such a lengthy section, I just think it could have been worked in a little better, maybe deeper into the story.
I loved both Zafira and Nasir's characters equally. I think it's pretty clear early on that there would be some sort of romantic relationship between the two of them - at this point, it's sort of a given in most stories to have a romance between the main characters and this one gives us a nice slow burning, enemies to (sort of) lovers story. I won't say too much more about this because while I think it is a given, it's nice to watch the relationship develop over the course of the movie.
I also loved the gang of friends (or at least, acquaintances) that were found along the journey. I loved the comradery that developed over the course of the book and the jabs and witty banter between the characters, I look forward to that developing in the next book.
Overall, I was really impressed by this one and cannot wait for the sequel, especially after that ending!