I liked that Yasmine had a crudely humorous side to her instead of simply being a more feminine foil to Zafira’s masculinity. Kifah was cool as a badass warrior woman, though I feel we didn’t get to see much of her. There were some things about his situation that I found a bit farfetched, but I was willing to suspend disbelief because it was interesting.Īs for the side characters, Altair seemed like the sassy gay friend type (except not gay? Nasir says he likes women) who added a lot of levity to an otherwise serious story about saving the world from the tyrannical forces of evil. Nasir (the assassin boy) is a little bit more unique and complex. She has plenty of emotional moments, but I didn’t notice much that would differentiate her from a similar strong female character.

I liked the characters, but they felt a little one-note… Zafira (the main character huntress) is very strong and stoic. The short chapters with lots of negative space at the end and beginning of each chapter (at least in the hardcover version) make it feel like you’re making progress and it’s going by faster. Hafsah Faizal is particularly good at writing fight scenes that feel visceral and impactful. That slow beginning is rough, but once the action gets going it becomes much more exciting. Like other fantasy books, it takes a while to establish the characters and setting. The further We Hunt the Flame goes, the better it gets. Then we needed a new book for book club and I suggested it, so that gave me the impetus to buckle down and get through it. I think I picked this up once and tried to read it but didn’t have the motivation and put it down. The first chapter throws a lot of new words at you, both place names and Arabic words.

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I saw that and decided “forget that person, I’m going to buy her book.” I’m not really a fan of YA fantasy, but I love the cover and the concept looked interesting: a romance between a huntress and an assassin set in an Arabia-inspired fantasy world. I first learned about Hafsah Faizal when a Twitter post of hers responding to someone being rude about her niqab went viral.

We hunt the flame author