REVIEW: We Hunt the Flame and Wonderland

These books were gifted to me by the publishers via netgalley so I could review them. Enjoy.

We hunt the Flame:

We enter the world of We Hunt The Flame with one of our main characters, Zafira. Zafira is a hunter who disguises herself as a man in order to help the people of her town; she enters the cursed forest for this reason and this reason only. But if anybody found out who she truly was, all of her achievements would be tossed to the side simply because she was a woman. Women aren’t respected in Arawiya, they are classed as one of the lowest citizens of the kingdom so she risks her life every single day by pretending to be somebody she isn’t, the Demenhune Hunter.

On the other side of our coin, we find ourselves with our second main character, Nasir. Nasir is known as the prince of death, an assassin who kills anybody who goes against and defies his father, the king. He has a brutal past and if he shows any amount of emotion, his father will punish him.

Our two main characters are two sides of a coin, both do not want the legendary status that they have earned but when one is ordered to kill the other, they must choose between what is right, or to follow orders.

Zafira fearing for her people goes on a journey to retrieve an artefact that may restore magic to the world but the king hears of this and sends his best to go after her, Nasir. Nasir being the prince of death will stop at nothing but when mysterious forces come into play, it decides it has other plans for them and that their quest may be different to what they imagined.

Hafsah Faizal’s writing creates a detailed world filled with wonders that takes inspiration from ancient civilisations and myths. The mythology in it is something that will grab a lot of readers that have mostly read Percy Jackson their entire life but adds a twist of what other people besides Rick Riordan can do with different myths. The dual perspective of Zafira and Nasir is another reason to love this book. Their differing view points of the world and how they grew up is exactly what we want from a book such as this as it gives two sides of the story. The characters are complex which makes you love them even more.

4 out of 5 stars.

Wonderland:

Wonderland is set in modern day London, following a transgender Alice with bright blue hair. She lives in a world of the upper rich class filled with privilege and lavishness but she struggles with her mental health and is over come with a lot of issues. When her friend, Bunny, goes missing, Alice makes it her mission to find her. She literally makes it her obsession that we shall note is not healthy for her at all. After spending time with Bunny, Bunny is missing without a trace. Alice finds clues and tries to search for her. These clues lead her to a exclusive party for those in at the top of society, known as wonderland.

Whilst on the hunt for bunny, Alice will come upon many struggles including her mental health and one of the many socialite enemies that she has, Queen Paisley Hart who is determined to ruin Alice with all of the secrets that she has hidden up her sleeve.

This trippy take on Alice in Wonderland is what I loved. I loved that Juno Dawson was not afraid to go there with subjects such as mental health, rape, gender and privilege. She uses her voice as a trans woman to project a mind-altering tale of friendship and betrayal with these issues mixed in which gives a refreshing look at these issues. This engaging book had me gripped to its pages and I’m so glad to have read it.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this as an e-arc. Overall this book is a 3 out of 5 stars.