Today, Fable and The Verbivore have far too much fun discussing the sinister, mystical, and complex world created by author Hafsah Faizal in her debut novel We Hunt the Flame.

We start by talking about the elements that were used by the author to pull the reader into the story – a intriguing epigraph that hints at the direction the story will go and a beautifully crafted map of the world with interesting little details that help inform the story as it unfolds.

In this episode, we discuss the precision that she used in the setup of character and story elements. Specifically - the introductions to the two main characters Zafira and Nasir are used to contrast each other developing tension before they even meet, Zafira and Nasir are also in conflict between themselves and the roles they need to fulfill which helps create tension around their choices, and establishing all of the character relationships early but also showing them in transition as their situations change brings interest and movement to the beginning of the story.  

We also mention that the author makes surprising choices that twists the story line and subverts expectations, creates interest by only giving the reader information from one person’s perspective and then swapping perspectives to fill in the other side of the story, and uses a concise and yet poetic style to keep momentum in the story while also creating something beautiful to read.  

This book was a delight to read and the epilogue sets up some additionally compelling questions going into the conclusion of this duology in We Free the Stars, which is set to release in January, 2021.

We hope that you are staying safe and finding time to practice self-care, whatever that looks like! Keep creating and putting your unique voice out there!

Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

As mentioned by the Verbivore, the second book in Hafsah Faizal’s Sands of Arawiya series is We Free the Stars which is currently set to release on January 19th, 2021.

Books Mentioned:

• We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya) by Hafsah Faizal

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)