Hafsah Faizal is the New York Times bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame and the founder of IceyDesigns, where she creates websites for authors and beauteous goodies for everyone else. When she's not writing, she can be found designing, deciding between Assassin's Creed and Skyrim, or traversing the world. Born in Florida and raised in California, she now resides in Texas with a library of books waiting to be devoured. You can find her at hafsahfaizal.com. You can find more of my reviews of Hafsah's work here.
The battle on Sharr is over. The Arz has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan's Keep, determined to finish the plan Altair set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, finally bringing magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night's return. As the zumra plots to overthrow Arawiya's darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power, to wield it against not only the Lion but his father as well, trapped under the Lion's control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—it hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dares not unleash. In spite of everything, Zafira and Nasir find themselves falling into a love they can't stand to lose . . . But time is running out, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made. Lush and striking, hopeful and devastating, We Free the Stars is the masterful conclusion to the Sands of Arawiya duology by New York Times bestselling author Hafsah Faizal.
*To write what I feel to be the strongest review possible, I will be including spoilers in the review below. This way, I can analyze the entire text. Spoiler moments are not individually marked. Please read at your own risk!*
With the Arz gone, Zafira doesn't consider herself as Huntress as much as she used to, but she has bigger problems now, such as the restoration of the hearts to bring back magic. Zafira didn't struggle with this "Huntress" part of her identity as much as I thought she would, which I thought was a great content choice. Instead, she's obsessed with the Jawarat, and her situation with the book bound to her soul. The moments where she and the Jawarat interact and fight are some of the most heart-racing moments of We Free the Stars. It's hard to watch Zafira battle for the control of herself and her identity that she fought so hard for during We Hunt the Flame, and the stakes of her battle against the Jawarat sometimes seem higher than the stakes in the battle against the Lion of the Night. Faizal does a wonderful job balancing this internal conflict with the external conflict with the Lion. I also enjoyed how Nasir's character development was intimately tied to Zafira. It truly goes to show that what you say and how you treat another person can really truly impact the kind of person they think they can become. That was a super important message of this duology, and I greatly loved the ending with these two. It was incredibly rewarding. And, can I just say, that plot twist in the middle with Zafira getting a serious injury—I have never been more shocked by an almost-character-death than in that moment, I had to put the book down. If that doesn't tell you how much work Faizal does to get readers invested in her characters' stories, then nothing else will!
Altair was by far one of my favorite characters of We Hunt the Flame, and I was beyond excited to see he got some chapters from his point of view in this sequel! He was incredibly wronged by the zumra at the end of We Hunt the Flame, and I was hoping Faizal would explore the intricacies of the betrayal in We Free the Stars. Their betrayal was phrased as an incredibly traumatizing moment for Altair, and I was glad Faizal explored the trauma of that betrayal. Getting the spare chapters from his point of view was a great idea—he didn't get as many chapters as Zafira and Nasir, but the chapters he did get were spaced brilliantly throughout the novel so that readers could see his thoughts, motivations, and connect the dots between Zafira and Nasir to Altair. The two plot twists involving Altair (one at the beginning with his eye, and the other at the end with the crown) are two moments where my jaw dropped. I didn't realize how invested I was in Altair's storyline until those two moments, and I'm so glad Faizal made Altair go down this path. Even if we don't get a lot of him, especially at the beginning, Altair's presence and energy pervades the novel until they are all reunited and work through their mistakes and betrayals.
One of my favorite parts of this finale was the way the antagonists were intricately related to knowledge. The Jawarat, which is in some ways an antagonist, is a book. Faizal truly explores the power of books here, especially magical books. Even if it's a little meta, the fact that this book has so much power over Zafira truly spoke to my soul. Even if the Jawarat started as an antagonist, it's important that Zafira remains linked to the book by the end. At first, I hoped they'd be able to sever the connection. But, all the book stands for is too important to let go, and I think I like that Zafira is able to live with it after all. It means that we have the power to allocate some parts of ourselves to memory and knowledge, without letting us consume us. The Lion, similarly, we learn is greedy for knowledge because it was something taken away from him when he was younger. As part of his quest for vengeance and revenge, he learns as much as he can as a way to get back at the safin that hurt him. Yet, his thirst for knowledge becomes greed for it, an all-consuming thing that makes him lose sight of himself. The fact that his thirst for knowledge is tied into his villain story is incredibly impactful, because it shows us that not all "villains" need bad motivators—the quest for knowledge is usually a pretty noble quest. Until, like with the Lion, it becomes a greed that ruins other people. I enjoyed how both the Lion and the Jawarat were related to knowledge, and how Faizal explores the ways knowledge can become an antagonist.
The zumra are racing against time for the entire novel, with the hearts dying the the Lion having one of them. This makes the book a page-turner, especially Altair's captivity (which you are hoping will end with each turn of the page) and with all the sexual tension between Nasir and Zafira. The way Faizal builds the sexual tension between Nasir and Zafira is excellent, because it's such a slow burn and neither of them will let themselves have what they want. When she separates them early on in the novel, to face their demons, is an unexpected but delightful choice. At that point, you sort of expect them to stay together, or at least for them to depart on good terms. But they aren't on good terms at that point, and the separation was immediate and unexpected, making the reuniting moment sweeter. Faizal actually takes a lot of unexpected choices with this finale, which is another reason it is such a page-turner. You don't expect any of what happens to these characters. My favorite plot twists included Altair losing his eye, the Lion putting the heart in his body, Zafira getting hit in the battle, the heart crumbling two seconds away from being safe, Nasir giving up the crown for Altair, and Zafira leaving Nasir. When I look back on these choices, I can see and understand the reasonings behind them. But in the moment, they are absolutely shocking, jaw-dropping moments that made this finale the page-turner, unputdownable book it was!
This finale was more incredible than I could have imagined, and the book hangover is serious. Luckily for us, Hafsah Faizal is already working on her next project, A Tempest of Tea. If that title isn't enough to interest you, then maybe knowing that it's set in the same world as the Sands of Arawiya will be enough for you to pick up a copy!
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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