Book Review: We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal

‘We Hunt The Flame’ is the first of author Hafsah Faizal’s ‘The Sands of Arawiya Duology’. ‘We Hunt The Flame’ was published in 2019, while the sequel, ‘We Free The Stars’, was published in 2021.

The first book was incredibly rich in lore and immersive to read, telling the story of Zafira, a hunter in the fearsome forest, the Arz, who provides for the people of her village, and is sought out to join a quest to retrieve a magical artefact and restore magic to Arawiya, who had been without magic for a hundred years.

However, Zafira wasn’t the only one on this quest, other people seek what only Zafira can find, including the crown prince of Arawiya, and trained assassin, Nasir, Prince of Death, and General Altair al-Badawi.

I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, and although I didn’t necessarily mourn character deaths, when they occurred, though, I did understand why the other characters did, because not only were these deaths meaningful on a personal level, but also on a narrative one. It made sense for the sake of the story’s progression for these characters to die, and the deaths were clever in their own way, one was completely unanticipated, and sad in its own right, because everything seemed to loop back around to that initial loss. Then, the second character death made sense as an exchange. Faizal established from the start that magic was consequences, so for this character to willingly use so much of their magic, and for it to be magic of that calibre, would obviously have dire consequences.

This book was incredibly immersive, and steeps you in lore, and magic, where supernatural elements exist just out of sight. I loved getting to understand the nuances in the magic that had been buried for so long. I look forward to seeing more in the sequel!

But what I absolutely adored was how Faizal introduced the idea of the enemies to lovers dynamic in ‘We Hunt The Flame’, from the get-go, there is that pre-established sense that either Zafira or Nasir won’t come out of this alive if things go the way they’re supposed to. But, at the same time, you wanted to see them kiss was absolutely delightful. It was written so well! I loved watching them let their walls down!

I will argue, if nothing else, that something that did irk me during the story was that many of the plot twists were somewhat predictable. Once one reveal took place, such as the depths of Altair’s relationship with Nasir, the rest could be inferred simply due to what was happening around them. It was disappointing that I could anticipate the twists ahead of time.

It only really took away from the story in the first instance, which was annoying. Mostly because it was arguably the biggest reveal of where I worked out what the shadows that coaxed Zafira and Nasir forward actually were, a good two chapters ahead of Zafira herself.

I do, very much recommend reading this book, and have high hopes for ‘We Free The Stars’. I look forward to getting my hands on it in the future!