We Hunt the Flame boasts strong and conflicted characters. Zafira is headstrong and sarcastic, Nasir is broody and lost, and Altair is a great supporting character that helps to balance out the coming darkness of the Arz. This book is a great adventure with a great new twist on who or what constitutes a villain. Hafsah Faizal has done a great job creating characters that are not entirely good or bad, they're human and relatable. I really enjoyed this adventure and I really hope that there is more to come!

A lush magical dark fantasy set immersed in Arabic culture. I truly enjoyed the characters' journeys, but the pacing did to drag in more spots than I'd like. However, I cared enough about the characters to push forward and in the end, it was totally worth it. The world-building was highly impressive and I appreciated the inclusion of the rich Arabic language. I look forward to seeing more from this debut author.

4/5 stars.

This would be probably be fine with really thorough editing, but without it, it's almost unreadable. I <em>think</em>, underneath everything, there's a unique fantasy setting and a competent YA plot complete with twists. But, I really struggled to finish the advanced reader's copy I received, because it has a Finnegans Wake quality that I don't think was on purpose. Very, very florid descriptions abound, which isn't everyone's cup of tea to start with, but the real problem is that the author uses nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs with no discrimination for which is usually which. I'm no prescriptivist, but it was <em>rough</em>; I felt like I was having to mentally diagram every third sentence to try to squeeze the meaning out of it. It was a lot like like trying to do a magic eye puzzle, and I am terrible at those!

The characters were very well developed, well rounded, and distinct. I really loved the slow burn romance, it was extremely well written. The blending of languages was beautiful. The world building feels real and concise. I loved all the elements of this novel but the plotline itself felt quite slow.

Looking back on my time spent reading this book, the thing that sticks out most to me is how much it dragged. I was intrigued by the story but I think it took too long describing things for me to fully engage myself in the book. I also don't find myself compelled to want to read this series further and see where the characters end up. I'm very sad as I had high hopes after reading the synopsis.

YASSS. MY MOST ANTICIPATED READ!!
Hafsah did so good oh my god. The HYPE was REAL!
The story, the characters, and plot were so on point the whole time. I could not put it down!
I loved this book so much 10/10 would recommend!

I found the plot slow. I have read about 33% of the book and the journey has just started while the two main characters haven't even met yet. There are a lot of words that need more context to derive the meaning. I found the story a bit slow.

'We Hunt the Flame' will take readers on a fun quest inside a fantasy world inspired by ancient Arabia!

One of the toughest elements to conquer in a YA fantasy story is the world-building. There is either not enough information or way too much. In 'We Hunt the Flame' it felt like both. Zafira, along with the mysterious darkened forest called the Arz, are quickly introduced. Both felt as if readers are expected to already know why the Arz is dangerous or why Zafira can survive inside. I immediately felt confused within the first chapter.

There is no doubt that Hafsah Faizal is a brilliant writer. She weaves together words in a poetic way with beautiful descriptions. That being said, I think 'We Hunt the Flame' could have pulled me into the story more if I wasn’t hit with so much world-building all at once. It made it that much harder to connect with the characters.

'We Hunt the Flame' is told through a dual POV of Zafira and Nasir. These two come from different worlds but they have one thing in common. They both must hide a crucial piece of themselves in order to survive. Zafira pretends to be a man and is known as the Hunter, a savior to her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death who is forced to shut out his feelings of compassion and be the most dangerous assassin in the world. Even with characteristics that are common in YA, I enjoyed both of them.

There are awesome secondary characters, too! They dominated the pages once they were introduced to the story. At times they felt more fleshed out than Zafira or Nasir. I’m certain there will be a few fan favorites from this crew!

Once they set off on their shared quest, the story starts to move along quicker. There is a lot more action, magic, and twists to keep readers turning the pages. I wish the entire book was as great as the second half because I’m positive if it was I would have instantly fallen in love with it.

Overall, 'We Hunt the Flame' is a solid read about carving your own path. I had high expectations and was ready to fall head over heels for this book. Sadly it was too info-dump-y for me to fully immerse myself into the characters and this world. After finishing I was left feeling unsatisfied and full of lots of questions. I think 'We Hunt the Flame' will appeal to readers who generally love YA fantasies, and fans of Renee Ahdieh.

We Hunt the Flame follows a rag-tag group of young adults trying to recover a magical artifact from a cursed island which will restore magic to the land. While this is classified as teen, the youngest character is 17 and everyone else is in their 20s and everyone in the story functions as an adult.

This was such a disappointment. I wanted to love this story! For once, I didn't have issues with the plot - I had terrible, terrible issues with the writing. I can appreciate and enjoy lyrical writing, but this is so dense, verbose, and superfluous that it impeded my ability to understand the text.

My second issue with the writing was how many Arabic words were included without a glossary in the ARC. I hope there is one in the final copy, because I was completely stumbling through the first part of the novel until I discovered the glossary on the author's website. The glossary helped but even at the end of the book I was constantly referencing it because I couldn't remember what things meant or who someone was.

My third issue was the constant talk of darkness. Dark or darkness was used 336 times in this ARC, zill and zalaam were each used an additional 8 times, and shadow is used 187 times. It was excessive. Instead of making this feel like the dark fantasy it was trying to be, it felt comical. It was so "emo," so over the top - I couldn't take it seriously.

I had other small issues - Zafira flirting with Nasir less than a day after a close friend dies, the romance that comes out of nowhere, characters telling each other the opposite of what they mean - but those are all YA tropes I can forgive and they wouldn't have prevented me from enjoying the story.

Overall, readers who enjoy lots of purple prose and the more "emo" themes of this book will probably have a better time with this than I did. Fans of Sarah J Maas & The Wrath and the Dawn will probably enjoy this title. I don't think it's an indefensibly bad book, but it is certainly one I don't have patience for, and I cannot see myself continuing the series.

We Hunt the Flame fell a tad flat for me. I loved the setting and the culture/representation though. It was a nice change from the typical YA I find myself reading. The writing was just too descriptive and too slow-paced for my taste. I felt like things needed to progress quicker, like it felt like they were going to happen but then i found myself sitting there waiting for it to occur. There were many times I wanted to DNF this book but overall I'm glad I pushed through it. I will be reading the next book in the series just to see what happens, but I do hope the pace changes and it is able to keep my attention a bit better.

This novel is SO good. We Hunt the Flames is an old Arabia inspired fantasy with hints of Mulan inspiration and a enemies to lovers backdrop. But that's not what makes me obsessed with this book. What makes me in love with this book and in need of having the second one in my hands immediate are the descriptions and the side character relationships. We know that the enemies to lovers trope refers to Zafira & Nasir and while their attraction undercurrent it a pleasant addition to the undercurrent of the story, it's the relationships that these two have with the OTHER characters in the story that make me incredibly happy. I love Nasir & Altair's snarky, almost sibling like relationship and the intensity of Zafira & Yasmin's friendship. This book also has a diverse cast of characters which may surprise Western readers because it's easy to assume that since it is set in an Middle Eastern inspired world that all of the characters would be the same shade of brown. BUT NOPE! Each member of the zumra (the group of main characters) is a beautiful, different shade from Zafira who is incredibly pale due to living in the snow to Kifah's gorgeous dark brown-black skin. I think any reader should read this. It does fall into some of the typical debut author mistakes thus the 4 star over 5 star, mainly just too much description in scenes that don't need it and not enough inner dialogue in areas that need it. But that's something that comes with practice and is really my only complaint.

I adored the characters and world building. This was such a strong and delightful debut. Great tension between the two main characters.

Faizal paints a beautiful and terrifying world of intrigue and excitement. This is going to be one of the top fantasy novels of the year, and I am so excited to share it with everyone I can, and I cannot wait for the sequel. The scorching sun of the desert is tangible the way Faizal describes it, you can feel the heat and see the mirages yourself. The motives of everyone of our main characters are just clear enough to make you root for them but vague enough to keep you holding your breath the whole way through. A fascinating magic system in a totally unique world created by Faizal inspired by ancient Arabia, which is a criminally underused source material. This is a book and a debut author to keep your eyes on for sure. Just be prepared to read the entire thing in one sitting, because you won't be able to pull yourself away from this dazzling world. The risk are real and the rewards possible are greater than anything these characters ever hoped for, so you have to keep reading to see how this will all pan out. The alternating view points between Zafira and Nasir are written with such opposing voices that it draws you in just to see how they could possibly work together and how they will play off of each other. They are both characters you quickly become deeply invested in, for all they have riding on the main quest and all that they are willing to do to achieve it. It makes it impossible to put down, and the exciting story along the way will keep you stuck in Arawiya until you have finished this enchanting novel.

I am so excited to be a part of the blog tour for We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal today. Faizal is one of the latest bloggers turned authors and I AM HERE FOR IT. Personally, I cannot think of a more wonderful person to celebrate. Today we’re looking at all the reasons you should pick up or borrow a copy of We Hunt The Flame, first of the Sands Of Arawiya.

1. WE HUNT THE FLAME IS CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT.
This book is the first book by a Niquabi woman to release to such acclaim in the United States. This is a huge freakin deal, I think. Maybe I am completely wrong and off base here, but I think that is something that is pretty darn important.

2. YOU’LL BE TRANSPORTED TO A WHOLE NEW WORLD.
We Hunt The Flame is a book that has the power to spirit you away. Arawiya, the Arz, and the island of Sharr are the settings of this book. These settings may as well also be characters, we get such a true sense of place.

3. IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO NOT ROOT FOR ZAFIRA.
The main character of We Hunt The Flame is a girl named Zafira. She is one who feels compelled to provide for her people by dressing as a boy and entering the Arz to hunt. In fact, she has a reputation for being the Hunter. Zafira is the only one who can go in and out of the Arz at will. So, anyways, her reputation grows and she’s asked by the Silver Witch to find this book that will bring magic back to Arawiya and lift a curse upon the land. Friends, we ALL want Zafira to win.

4. YOU’LL WANT TO UNRAVEL NASIR’S MOTIVATIONS.
So, the other main point of view character is Nasir, who is the Sultan’s son. Nasir basically follows the orders of his father and goes around killing people. He’s desperate for his dad’s approval. Anyways, Nasir ends up also hunting for the book alongside Zafira and forming an unlikely alliance with Zafira. Reading this, I was like, there’s no way Nasir can be THAT horrible of a person, why is he the way that he is. I just love a good morally ambiguous, complicated character.

5. SPEAKING OF ZAFIRA AND NASIR, YOU’RE TOTALLY GOING TO SHIP THEM.
Okay, so Zafira and Nasir hate each other at first. Obviously, they’re both at odds. Only one can get the special magic book. Also, there’s a certain small matter of Nasir doing something that really genuinely hurts Zafira. BUT YOU GUYS ENEMIES TO LOVERS, yes sir. That’s the trope here and I AM DOWN FOR IT.

6. BUT REALLY, YOU’LL ACTUALLY BE MORE OBSESSED WITH ALTAIR.
General Altair accompanies Nasir on the trip to Sharr. However, it isn’t like they’re friends. In fact, they fight like cats and dogs. Altair, however, brings humor and some lightness. I loved that when he was in danger, he would just crack jokes. Basically, he is my overall favorite.

7. YOU LIKE BIG BOOKS, AND FRIENDS, THIS IS ONE BIG BOOK.
We Hunt The Flame clocks in at 480 pages and from what I understand, the physical book has small-ish print. That means this isn’t just a one night stand book. This is a book long enough to get you invested and caring about Arawiya, the characters, and the quest.

Have you read We Hunt The Flame yet? Let me know your reasons to check this one out!

We Hunt the Flame was a sweeping adventure from page one. First, let's start with what I did not like. I thought that the mythology of the story was not well articulated at all. While there were specific settings that were given tons of detail and backstory, the entire world was not built in a way that made sense to me. I was a little confused by the various caliphates and the threat of the Arz needed more time to resonate with readers. The history of the Sisters was vague and seemed so otherworldly. Since I wasn't grounded to the world to begin with, the mythology did very little to add to my understanding of Arawiya.

Okay, on to what I loved. Nasir is every bit the brooding prince that I was promised, with a dash of Assassin's Creed and a sprinkle of tragic backstory. The band of companions that Zafira meets on Sharr was a little hastily put together and all too convenient, but at least they were each very lovable and dimensional.

The pacing of the book picked up about halfway through when the various plot lines started to converge, and it made for a rollercoaster of an ending. It was filled with action and emotional reveals, and has me extremely excited for the next book.

We Hunt the Flame is a great fantasy debut and an exciting addition to growing number of fantasies set outside European-inspired worlds. Faizal has two POV protagonists: Zafira hunts in the mysterious and magical Arz forest to keep her family and village alive, while Nasir, the son of Arawiya's sultan, is an assassin and kills on his father's command. In many respects they are opposites: Zafira must disguise herself as "The Hunter" while Nasir must openly face the terror he inspires around him.
The kingdom of Arawiya is divided in 5 caliphates, ultimately checked by one sultan, Nasir's father. Magic disappeared from the land nearly a century ago, causing climatic issues and other challenges. When presented with the opportunity to bring magic back to Arawiya, Zafira and Nasir's stories become entangled.
A lot of the marketing of the book focuses on Zafira and Nasir, but the book also includes the zumra or a fellowship of characters sharing the journey and growing along the way. I suspect Altair will be a fan favorite!
At some points the pacing is a bit slow, but overall, the story and character building was incredibly engaging. I guessed a few twists, but some were truly shocking!
As a history and teacher of Islamic and Middle Eastern history, We Hunt the Flame would be a great way to introduce students to elements of both pre-Islamic and the early Islamicate world through fiction. I look forward to the sequel!

Review posting to all links 5/7

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal is one of the most anticipated books of 2019, not just in the Young Adult category but in publishing, across the board. By utilizing the Arabic culture to inspire the setting, story, characters and vernacular from Faizal’s own voice point of view, We Hunt the Flame came into the world with high expectations for not just being an amazing story but a cultural phenomenon for the publishing world, itself.
I want to make this point very clear. I am not of Arabic descent and my opinion in this matter should be taken from an outsider’s point of view. I would not even comment on this piece except that I from everything I read Faizal does not falter on this lofty goal. I can only surmise this to be the case given all that I learned from reading this We Hunt the Flame. What we often lose about fiction is the ability of it to teach. It can teach us about ourselves, about people and take us into to worlds and cultures we would often never experience otherwise.
Utilizing, what I believe to be, authentic vocabulary, the environment in which the characters inhabit and cultural norms in which the characters must navigate, Faizal demonstrates life within the Arabic culture. While this does not replace actual research, discussion and exploration you would gain from discussion and knowing people in your day-to-day life, for those that may never experience it is certainly a beginning to demystifying an often unknown and misunderstood world. For this, Faizal should be commended.
Where We Hunt the Flame, falters is in the story itself. Very well-written banter and few and far between action sequences cannot salvage the story from the painfully slow build and overused tropes.
Pacing suffers throughout the first half of the book due to world-building that is told rather than shows. Despite Faizal’s talent for beautiful prose, it is often self-indulgent in going deep into character thoughts, drawn out walks throughout the desert and little dialogue.
Considering Faizal’s talent for witty banter, the story would have been much better served by replacing the overdone, repetitive straight prose (often found in adult fantasy books- the twenty pages to describe a tree syndrome as I often refer to it) with more dialogue that combined world-building and character building that allowed for more banter among characters. Additionally, more action that evenly spread out, starting earlier in the book would have sucked readers in quicker and gave it more bite.
Later, secrets and revelations galore provide twists and punches to the gut that pick the storyline up and final get things moving. This leaves me wondering why, again, there wasn’t more dialogue that might have hinted at this earlier in the book. Subtleties within conversations that characters quickly backtrack on along with action sequences that characters must quickly find excuses to explain could provide readers with more suspense and interest during the first half of the book.
During the second half of the book, despite the pace and action picking up, there is still an issue that dampers. First, Nasir and Zafir. There is absolutely no reason for this frenemies trope. It one of those that I refuse to chalk up to my being sick of relationships in all Young Adult novels. Not this time. This one is just unnecessary. Not only does it feel forced but there just isn’t that spark between them. Part of that goes back to the first half of that book. Just like the world-building being more tell than show because of the pacing and there being too much show than tell? The character building suffers the same fate.
The characters become very flat and one dimensional, which again is a shame because Faizal demonstrates that she an exemplary writer, but it just isn’t used correctly in We Hunt the Flame. With more dialogue that shows their feelings rather than just repetitious dialogue and prose that tells what they are feeling rather than dialogue that demonstrates their personality traits and feelings, characters become flat and hard to develop connections with. When you can’t connect to characters, you can’t connect to budding relationships.
So even when the story picks up and gains momentum, you want to get excited and bite into the juicy bits, but it is almost too little, too late. Then when a relationship is thrown at you? There is just nothing there to make you care about the why and how they came together in the first place.
I understand that this is the first book in a series and that there is world-building and character building that must take place. It isn’t going to have everything that the next book will have in terms of dialogue, action and the such. Even in saying that, I believe this could have been better. It hurt me to read it and even more to write this review. I was so thrilled to have been granted the ARC and to have a chance to read We Hunt the Flame early. It just didn’t come together how I had hoped. Would I recommend it for the cultural piece, alone? Absolutely. It is a worthy read for many reasons. For some who like a slow burn build, they may love it a lot more than I do. However, for me it just fell flat in character development, world-building and pacing. However, Faizal is exceptionally talented and this is her debut novel. I am definitely here for the next installment in the Sands of Arawiya series to see how it progresses.

I was very excited for this book, once I heard what it was about and learned about the author. Overall, I think the story is a great one and I love the representation and the rich descriptions in the book. I would certainly recommend this book to friends, and to students, because I think we do need more books like this in terms of representation and diverse viewpoints.

Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed the idea of this book, the pacing was definitely off for me. It felt the book was too slow, and to be honest I was not able to finish it because of this. I stopped reading about halfway through, because of the slowness of the book. Often, we hear writing advice that says "Show, don't tell." Sadly, I think the author did a lot of telling in this book and not enough showing for my personal preference.

It felt like every time the action was about to get started, there would be an interruption in the story in which the characters were continuously analyzing the situation or got lost deep in thought, or thinking about the past. A lot of times their thoughts were repetitive, as well. Although this can definitely serve a purpose and it can be important to know what is going on in the minds of the characters, it felt like this was overdone and it interrupted the actual plot too much for me to be able to enjoy it. Thus, I gave this book a fair shot and probably stuck with it longer than I would have stuck with another book, simply because I had been so excited about it.

That being said, I know there are lots of people who loved this book, and I would certainly recommend it to other people who might not care so much about the pacing issues. It just sadly was not for me.

I recieved this eArc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start off by saying that I absolutely loved this book! It was what I was really craving--fantastic worldbuilding, wonderful magic, and great characters.

The book starts off with Zafira venturing into the Arz. The Arz is a dense forest that appeared decades ago after a group of women known as The Sisters sacrificed themselves to protect the lands of their people--Arawiya. Not only did the forest appear, separating most of the lands from each other, but a lot of the areas drastically shifted from their origins. The place in which Zafira was born transformed from a desert to a barren winter wasteland where snow almost constantly falls and nothing grows. Zafira somehow managed to travel into the Arz--which normally leads to insanity or death to all who enter--and return with food for her people. She became an almost mythic figure who was praised for preventing starvation; the only problem is that she is known as <i>The Hunter,</i> a male figure and not a woman because many blame The Sisters (and females as a whole) for the demise of Arawiya. To be caught as a woman in any position of power and authority could mean severe punishment--in some cases, death.

A witch comes to Zafira while she is in the Arz and states that she could save her people from the ever encroaching forest and eventual starvation; she merely has to agree to retrieve an ancient text that contains the way for Arawiya to be restored.

As Zafira starts her journey, she crosses paths with others that are after the text. One of which is Nasir, a lethal assassin who follows the orders of the vicious sultan--who also happens to be his father. His latest mission is to find the ancient text and kill the Hunter.

Will Zafira make it to the text to save her people? Will Nasir make it there first and set up a trap? You'll just have to read and find out.

This is a solid 3 stars for me. I liked it, but it was not love. I had a lot of trouble with the language in the beginning - often words were used that had zero context, so I was left to assume. By about halfway in I noticed that there was more translation. The word would show up, and then in italics the character would think the translation. It was strange. There was also a lot of detail that seemed to be left out. For example, at the end, [when Benyamin whistled for the kaftar to come help in the battle against the Lion, I didn't see where the text actually said they showed up. But then later, when the fighting stopped for a moment, they were mentioned as stopping as well.

The story itself was interesting. We get a different perspective with this Middle Eastern-like setting. There was a bit of a culture adjustment for me, because I couldn't figure out why there was so much emphasis on men going shirtless until I realized that Zafira was uncomfortable around men who were revealing so much skin, not that she was romanticizing their gigantic muscles. There are a lot of twists and turns, which weren't wholly surprising. I could see where things were going well ahead of Zafira, who always seemed to be two steps behind. The adventure was similar to most other fantasy adventures, where someone is "the chosen" to go and retrieve something valuable, meets up with a troupe of people who don't trust each other, they eventually become friends, yadda yadda. The stereotypical handsome joker, the brooding but gorgeous prince, the chattering elf (who didn't chatter as much as you'd expect, but who still seemed to have all the answers), and the random warrior woman all join in with our self-conscious and unsure heroine. That is to say, there was a lot of trope, just in a new setting. But it was at least a good read.

I think that one of my major problems with the book overall is that Deen and Kulsum only existed to provide the possibility that Zafira and Nasir wouldn't fall in love (of course, both of those characters are expendable, and of course Zafira and Nasir fall in love but are way too stubborn to actually embrace it). These two characters are absolutely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Deen and Kulsum have no character development, provide no real impetus for anything, and serve only to provide an excuse for Zafira and Nasir to feel pain. It feels like more should have been done with them to provide them with better character arcs, make them actually have an impact on the story beyond passive actors.

Also, there was a lot of wandering in the desert of Sharr with no direction and no destination in sight. They are literally just wandering, following Zafira, looking for a book, and fighting ifrit and other dangerous characters who pop up now and then. Most of their trip seems uneventful. All they do is argue, wonder whether they can trust each other, will-they-won't-they, etc. Yes, we're building relationships here, but I think that comes a bit at the cost of the story.

So overall, a solid 3/5 stars. I enjoyed it enough to keep reading. I wanted to know what happened to everyone, I wanted to know if Zafira and Nasir would actually admit to loving each other, and whether they would succeed in finding the book and setting things right. We're left with a nice epilogue which sets up well for the next book. I hate cliff hangers and this one was far from it. I was glad that the sultan's plan to destroy the village after Zafira left was addressed instead of just leaving the mention there and not talking about it again. Overall I'm glad that there will be a second book instead of trying to fit everything into this one, because after 91 chapters I was pretty spent. If given the chance, I would be interested in picking up book two when it's released to see how the story ends. If it ends up bleeding into more books, I probably will not keep reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.