I decided to read this book on a complete whim, and I couldn’t be more glad that I did. We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal is a riveting read, filled with beautifully descriptive, poetic writing, complex, multilayered characters, an ancient land under a curse, a dangerous quest, and looming darkness.

Seventeen-year-old Zafira is known far and wide as the fearless Hunter who ventures daily into the Arz, a dark, cursed forest that moves threateningly closer by the day. Hidden under her father’s cloak, she goes into the forest that many never return from every day to hunt in order to feed her people. 

One day, she is sent a mysterious invitation to go on a dangerous quest to the island of Sharr, which lies beyond the trees of the Arz and the waters of the Baransea, and retrieve something that can help to bring back the magic that once thrived in Arawiya and has since been gone for hundreds of years. After thinking it over, she bravely decides to embark on the journey, despite knowing she may never return.

Along with Zafira, the story is also told from the perspective of Nasir, the son of the cold-hearted sultan. Twenty-year-old Nasir is a skilled assassin, carrying out murderings left and right by order of his father, and has, as a result, been deemed “The Prince of Death” by all those who know of his blood-stained reputation. 

So when Nasir learns that the sultan wants him to go on a mission and kill the well-renown Hunter as well as take the magic-promising artifact back to his father, he has no other choice but to obey and sets out on his journey to the deadly island of Sharr.

Filled with darkness, magic, love, and sacrifice, this book is a worthwhile read. I also loved how nearly every chapter, the perspective would be changed from either Zafira’s or Nasir’s point of view, adding more depth and nuance to the story. 

This book is absolutely enchanting; I highly recommend it!