We Hunt The Flame (Hafsah Faizal) - ★★☆☆☆

I recently re-read this. It was (the plot and characters, at least) better than I remembered, and would've gotten four stars except for one gigantic issue that's deeply personal for me. Most people probably wouldn't care, but it really angers me to see authors misrepresent this. And it's even worse when no reviews talk about or even notice this issue at all.

Apparently, Nasir's abusive dad, the Sultan, was possessed all along by the Big Bad (whose name I will not mention to avoid spoilers). The evil/abusive dad who happens to be a king is a trope I've seen several times in YA fantasy, the most prominent example of which is Dorian's dad, the king of Adarlan (from Throne of Glass). In addition, our heroes arrived at the conclusion of possession by Big Bad because the Sultan had occasional moments of humanity. So, by this reasoning, all abusers are pure cartoonish evil and if they do show some kind of humanity it's because they managed to temporarily break free of possession???!!!!!

If Nasir's abuse storyline HAD to happen, Faizal could've done it a lot better. Nasir was clearly shown to want his dad's approval regardless of the abuse, which is realistic. Many people, especially children of abusers, are desperate to believe in the goodness of their parents, regardless of reality. So maybe Nasir could've rationalized his dad forcing him to kill by convincing himself that it's for the greater good, or that his dad knows best, or something like that.

And what's with the whole empathy thing? Nasir had literally been conditioned from birth to kill people not to care about anyone, and yet he somehow got attatched to every poor soul in sight. I got the whole Kulsum thing - he was in a really bad place, she was there for him, one feeling led to another. But you'd think he would've learned his lesson from that. And for a killer, he was certainly very soft-hearted.

Ana Lal Din, a similar author whose book I will love until I die, did this much better in The Descent of the Drowned (another book with Arab-inspired mythology and, incidentally, a male lead with an abusive dad who forced him to be an assasin). Leviathan was a purported stone-cold killer who actually was one AND found ways to quietly and strategically defy his evil dad, unlike Nasir who didn't have the guts to kill without feeling super torn up and guilty and somehow managed to get caught every single time he did anything merciful. You'd think Nasir would eventually become numb to suffering like Leviathan, or at least learn to hide his weaknesses better.

The portrayal of abuse in this book was clearly unrealistic and could be offensive to anyone with personal experience with psychological and/or physical abuse (I can't speak for everyone, but at least for me it was).

Btw: I hope I didn't rant too much or make it all about me. I really tried to write this review impartially.