I was finally, finally able to read this! I’ve been hyped for this book even before the book was announced.
“People lived because she killed.
People died because he lived.“
I was sold on those two sentences alone. It has an assassin and a hunter. It’s Ancient-Arabia inspired political intrigue with Magic! I didn’t need to read more to know I’ll be reading the book as soon as I could.
The plot is interesting and unique. The story is told in Dual-POV of Zafira-The Hunteress and Nasir-The Prince of Death. The book is divided in three parts and the writing is lovely, it flows smoothly and vividly.
The characters are well written with their own fears and goals. I connected with each character and their interactions with each other felt genuine.
There is a lot of Arabic used in the book. This was a first, since other magical YA Fantasy books make up entirely new magical languages for the world portrayed in those books, I think the use of Arabic added an extra element to WHTF.
However, I felt the flow being broken every time something in Arabic was being said in the narration, even though I know Arabic. The Arabic spoken within the dialogue seemed more natural for the characters to say, but the narration was throwing me off. For those who don’t know the language could either feel more disconnected with the book or just take it as a ‘language set in the world of Arawiya’ but there is no glossary in the book, there is one on Hafsah’s site.
Hafsah is a master at foreshadowing and incorporating plot-twists. Some plot-twists were seen coming, while many others (some even felt forced plot-twists) took me off guard and I yelled into the void while reading.
Over all 4.5 out of 5 stars. Eagerly waiting for book 2.
