Rating: 5/5 stars

Author: Hafsah Faizal

Stand-alone or series: series (book #1)

Page Number: 469

NON-SPOILER SECTION

We Hunt the Flame is one of my most anticipated books of the year. When I first read the synopsis, I was hooked. And as the days counted down to the release day, I got more and more excited for it. I mean, an ancient Arabia story that isn’t an Aladdin or A Thousand and One Night retelling? I never thought I’d live to see the day.

There are also so many tropes that caught my eye. Found family, friend squad, enemies to lovers, Prince of Death, assassins (or hashashins as known in the book), magic, and more that just gripped me and didn’t let me go. Oh, and also, sultans. I love stories with sultans.

So it’s been about a week since I finished reading it, and I wanted some time to let everything marinate in my brain so I can try and attempt a coherent review. Let’s see if I succeed.

SPOILERS BEYOND THE QUOTE//READ THE BOOK SO YOU CAN READ THIS PART

Maybe the tiny lions were merely ornaments, a display of pride for the victory over a man who defied men, only to be slain by women.

Let’s start with me saying that I’ve never felt represented in a book before. The closest I got was when my birth city was fleetingly mentioned in a book, years ago. I’ve tried and tried to read books with Muslim rep to see myself in it, but to no avail. However, We Hunt the Flame gave me what I was missing—representation.

I feel incredibly privileged to have found the book that represents me the best. I believe that each person should have at least one book like this, and I’m glad I found it. It was getting a bit hopeless there before We Hunt the Flame, if we’re being honest.

Okay, so onto the book itself.

We start off with an amazing parallel quote in the first two chapters. The quotes that have been promoted with the book.

It’s something else when you read these words in context versus promotional. It made it all the more real!

We then meet Yasmine, and I’ve instantly fell in love with her and Zafira’s dynamic. Their friendship is literally goals, and I wish to have a friendship like this in my life. It’s truly more than friendship—it’s a sisterhood.

Also, Yasmine and Misk are so cute together and even though we had like two and a half scenes of them together, I am in LOVE. I can’t wait to see their relationship hopefully develop in the second book.

After some more luscious writing and swoon-worthy prose, Zafira embarks on her trip to Sharr, the prison island that literally means “evil.”

Side note: I just loved being able to understand all the “foreign” words in the book without having to consult a glossary or google.

There, we lose Deen. I liked him, but he didn’t feel important enough. His death will probably launch Yasmine into a darker path, especially with her whole revenge fantasy that we saw at the end of the book. PS. I’m super excited to see more of Yasmine in the second book!

The romance in this novel is s l o w b u r n. And I loved it. It was so well done. I loved the thoughts that went through Zafira’s and Nasir’s head as they tried to push down their feelings for each other. When they gave in and kissed?

Someone call the fire department, it’s HOT in here.

Sorry, that’s cringey I know.

MOVING ON.

Let me talk a little bit about the zumra. I love found family, friend groups trope. The zumra has solidified itself as one of my most favourite bookish squads.

Zafira:

Zafira is the kind of girl who thinks marriage takes away from the independence of a woman. I don’t blame her for thinking that—her caliphate certainly makes it hard not to. There’s a lot to unpack there, and the way she treated the way Yasmine marrying as dying . . . there’s issues there. It’s a complicated conversation and I’ve not yet fully fleshed it out. But it was certainly something that ran through my head as I was reading.

Zafira was a joy of a main character. I loved her wit, her anger and ferocity, her heart and bravery, and basically everything and anything about her. She has gone through so much, and will probably will for awhile yet. But hopefully by the end of it she’ll get a happy ending? Maybe? No? Okay, I’ll dream.

Also, Zafira is the definition of a morally grey character. None of that bullshit thats out there. You haven’t read a morally grey character until you’ve read Zafira.

The darkness calls out to her, wants her to do stuff, be something, and she’s fighting it because of what she thinks is right. The two sides of her (light and dark) war with each other, creating the complexity of her grey character.

Nasir:

Prince of Death, crown prince, future sultan, hashashin, and a blubbering mess of emotions behind his dark, emotionless expression.

Also, Nasir “that was a mistake” Ghameq.

I wanted to shake some sense into him when he said that, omg.

Nasir was also a joy of a main character and I really enjoyed his character. His chapters were great, and being in his head was a true experience.

I felt really bad for him, especially with the way his father treats him. And that twist in the end? I can’t wait to see how his relationship with his mother will evolve!

Altair aka my favourite:

Okay, they’re all my favourite but Altair is just special. Every time he was on page, I would laugh out loud. He added mischief and humour to tense situations. He’s big and hard on the outside, but a total softie on the inside.

His friendship with Zafira, with Benyamin (😭😭), even Nasir . . . I love it. Also, his obsessions with qahwa is everything.

He’s literally the light in the darkness, the flame we hunt. I don’t want to see that light extinguished or dimmed in the next book, but I have a feeling we might see a darker side of Altair, at least in the beginning.

His insecurities and feeling of being dismissible broke my heart.

And that ending? Holy shit.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT??

Kifah:

My Queen!! Badass, sword wielding, Queen!!

I love Kifah and I absolutely can’t wait for the next book, when we hopefully get to see more of her. There’s so much potential, so much of Kifah that we would be so lucky to read.

Kifah feels like her sword is mightier than her pen, and she wields it so well. Reading the fight scenes in the book is always so entertaining and I can vividly picture every arc of the sword, every duck, and jab.

My favourite thing with Kifah is her wanting magic to come back just so she can rub it in her father’s face. I live for this. I really hope she gets to do that, because that asshole deserves so much more than that.

Benyamin:

Benyamin is such a mom friend but our mom is now dead 😭 Who will pull out poisons and facts, wield knowledge like a sword, and sigh irritably at the rest of the zumra? Who will keep the zumra together?

Benyamin dying is so sad, and when Altair held him, crying “brother, brother” I didn’t need my heart. No, why would you think I do?

I’ll miss Benyamin in the next book. He sacrificed his life for the zumra, for Arawiya, for magic. I hope they do him proud.

I don’t know if I can ever do this book justice and review it well, but here’s basically a brain dump of all my feelings and thoughts about this book. I’ll be rereading if, annotating it, and all that in the future, so defiantly look out for an updated review or something similar.

Reminder that We Hunt the Flame is a NYT bestselling book and is out in the UK August 8th from Pan Macmillan and My Kinda Book!

Have you read We Hunt the Flame? What did you think? Let’s discuss in the comments!

If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? Please read it!

Thank you for reading and see you next time ❤