We Hunt the Flame book review [ARC]

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
on May 14, 2019
Pages: 472
Source: Netgalley
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.

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, We Hunt the Flame is a gripping debut of discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.

Glossary and Pronunciation Guide

We Hunt the Flame was a book that I was really excited to jump into, the characters and the concept sounded really intriguing, definitely giving me Mulan vibes. I will say that I thought everything in this book was a little rushed, with the relationships and the world-building. I got to the end of the book and was still really confused by a number of different things. It was almost as though I was still waiting for an explanation as to why everything had happened and how it happened. I think there was a lot of similarities to the Throne of Glass, but this didn’t hold the same appeal as those books did which was a shame. It almost felt like this book was half done, I was expecting a lot more from the world and the characters. It was definitely an enjoyable read, but just one I was expecting more from.

We Hunt the Flame follows the story of ‘The Hunter” which is the main character Zafira a young girl who has to hide the fact that she’s a woman despite feeding her village with game from the Arz. I didn’t connect with her at all, or any of the characters in this book actually. I think this is why I struggled to understand what was going on because all of the characters fell a little flat. I can’t even talk about how disappointed I was in Nasir and his character, his motivations for doing things swapped and changed so often, and there was so much angst, I would have much preferred if he was just an “evil” character rather than what we got which was extremely whiny.

I think the best bit of We Hunt the Flame was the introduction of the magic system and the different parts of the world. Although they weren’t the most developed areas of the story and some of it left me confused, I think there was definite potential and I enjoyed the basic level we got. I just wished there had been more.

The angst in this book. I can’t even begin to talk about how annoyed it made me. Every couple of paragraphs I felt like slapping most of the characters. I thought that the more important parts of the story were sort of overlooked and then you would have whiplash when they tried to bring the story back to where it was supposed to be heading. I would have loved more of a focus on the other parts of the book, such as feminism for one. I was just disappointed with the way the book turned out in general.

I don’t know whether I would recommend We Hunt the Flame, I did enjoy the story but there were a lot of holes and lack of development in some parts and I wanted a lot more from the story line and the characters. It’s a tough one to call.

Have you read We Hunt the Flame? Were you disappointed? Or did it live up to the hype? Let me know.