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joni_smits's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Child death, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Cannibalism and War
dancing_on_ur_muml0l's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent, Murder, and Physical abuse
snowwhitehatesapples's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
As someone who loves mythology and retellings, I was very excited for This Woven kingdom as it’s marketed as “Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—bestselling author Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology”. But, boy oh boy, the clashing empires and Persian mythology aspects? Misleading AF because the reality is that the empires aren’t clashing yet but they will start after 400+ pages. And, the Persian mythology part? Why, it’s only the presence of Iblees (also known as Iblis, a well-known supernatural entity found the Quran and a few other manuscripts) and jinn, and that’s it. Everything else in this book is a Cinderella story all over again.
And, I’m sorry, but it’s not even a good Cinderella story. Alizeh, our female protagonist is destined to be Queen, a jinn and hiding as a servant for her own safety. But, despite the hardships she has faced, Alizeh has little common sense and is poorly developed as a character. She runs her mouth the moment she feels a little comfortable (for which, she can be declared enemy of the empire because those comments are treacherous). She, as educated as she is and as much as she was raised to be the rightful Queen, doesn’t even know how to observe quietly before voicing out her opinions.
Kamran, on the other hand, is just as poorly developed, if not worse. He’s a ball of anger issues, misogyny, thinks he’s better and smarter than most, and loves to complain about the fine clothes he has to wear. Most of this, I can close an eye to because he’s the crown prince and allergic to the gold in his clothes, but the paragraphs detailing his anger and complaints concerning everything else is a chore to read.
Admittedly, I knew what I was going into when I saw the forbidden romance tag on this book so I wasn’t bothered by the insta-love, the typical romance plot and how Alizeh and Kamran couldn’t stop pining over each other. But, I’m also going to come out and say that all of the romance could’ve been better had the characters not been so flat. (Out of all the relationships here, I think that the best written one is the one between Kamran and his grandfather—and they aren’t exactly on the best of terms with each other too.)
Moreover, the narrative for This Woven Kingdom is so rich in purple prose that those moments of longing become ridiculous. In fact, the deeply rich purple prose eclipsed the plot, the characters and the romance. On one hand, I appreciated the strong imagery. On the other, I couldn’t lose myself in the typicality of forbidden romance because the purple prose was just very strong, much long-winded, so wow. I got so bored and basically skimmed all the dialogue-less paragraphs after the halfway mark.
Anyway, I did like that the action picked up in the final quarter of the book and that the betrayals and revelations were written well. I could do without the majority of the waffling but then again, it’s not like I didn’t just skip those parts while reading. Everything considered, This Woven Kingdom is an alright read. Nothing new or fresh, though as long as you don’t expect too much, it’s not bad. I look forward to the sequel and seeing what happens next after the cliffhanger here.
As someone who loves mythology and retellings, I was very excited for This Woven kingdom as it’s marketed as “Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—bestselling author Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology”. But, boy oh boy, the clashing empires and Persian mythology aspects? Misleading AF because the reality is that the empires aren’t clashing yet but they will start after 400+ pages. And, the Persian mythology part? Why, it’s only the presence of Iblees (also known as Iblis, a well-known supernatural entity found the Quran and a few other manuscripts) and jinn, and that’s it. Everything else in this book is a Cinderella story all over again.
And, I’m sorry, but it’s not even a good Cinderella story. Alizeh, our female protagonist is destined to be Queen, a jinn and hiding as a servant for her own safety. But, despite the hardships she has faced, Alizeh has little common sense and is poorly developed as a character. She runs her mouth the moment she feels a little comfortable (for which, she can be declared enemy of the empire because those comments are treacherous). She, as educated as she is and as much as she was raised to be the rightful Queen, doesn’t even know how to observe quietly before voicing out her opinions.
Kamran, on the other hand, is just as poorly developed, if not worse. He’s a ball of anger issues, misogyny, thinks he’s better and smarter than most, and loves to complain about the fine clothes he has to wear. Most of this, I can close an eye to because he’s the crown prince and allergic to the gold in his clothes, but the paragraphs detailing his anger and complaints concerning everything else is a chore to read.
Admittedly, I knew what I was going into when I saw the forbidden romance tag on this book so I wasn’t bothered by the insta-love, the typical romance plot and how Alizeh and Kamran couldn’t stop pining over each other. But, I’m also going to come out and say that all of the romance could’ve been better had the characters not been so flat. (Out of all the relationships here, I think that the best written one is the one between Kamran and his grandfather—and they aren’t exactly on the best of terms with each other too.)
Moreover, the narrative for This Woven Kingdom is so rich in purple prose that those moments of longing become ridiculous. In fact, the deeply rich purple prose eclipsed the plot, the characters and the romance. On one hand, I appreciated the strong imagery. On the other, I couldn’t lose myself in the typicality of forbidden romance because the purple prose was just very strong, much long-winded, so wow. I got so bored and basically skimmed all the dialogue-less paragraphs after the halfway mark.
Anyway, I did like that the action picked up in the final quarter of the book and that the betrayals and revelations were written well. I could do without the majority of the waffling but then again, it’s not like I didn’t just skip those parts while reading. Everything considered, This Woven Kingdom is an alright read. Nothing new or fresh, though as long as you don’t expect too much, it’s not bad. I look forward to the sequel and seeing what happens next after the cliffhanger here.
Thank you so much Pansing for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi is available at all good bookstores.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, and Misogyny
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Racism, Classism, Eating disorder, and Trafficking
lunalorenne's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I found the male lead to be a bit boring in characterization. His only two traits anger and idolization for the female MC. Hopefully he gets more development in the second book. Overall the descriptions were lush and the cultural mythology interesting even if the pace was pretty slow.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Abandonment and Slavery
mypatronusisajedi's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Slavery
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
vicktorea's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
city of brass meets cinderella(ish) vibes!!!
ok I really enjoyed this!
Here’s what I loved:
- The writing; it was lush, the imagery was vivid and the plot was adventurous! I never could quite put my finger on what would happen next!
- The characters! Alizheh (our FMC) is smart, resourceful and a badass fighter when she needs to be! Moody, broody, melancholy Kamran (our MMC) oozed angst and tension and I’m still wondering what’s up with two other characters (who shall remain nameless as I don’t want to add any spoilers)!
- the Persian Lore/Mythology; I loved this! This was what reminded me of City of Brass and it lent such an interesting spin on the plot and magic system! There also seemed to be some elements of Cinderella in this and I loved that incorporation!
My criticisms:
-the magic system. I actually liked it, but I didn’t quite understand it; however, I think this is because the character (that we know of) with magic, Alizheh, didn’t quite understand how her magic worked and I hope as the story continues and Alizheh discovers more about herself, the reader will too.
-the romance / pacing. I’m grouping these together because, at times, both felt a little disjointed. The beginning of the book did start out slow and it picked up towards the second half of the book, as expected with most books. But the development and pacing of the romance itself coincided with this. Alizheh and Kamran had met once and afterwards the reader gets his reaction to her, but not so much her reaction to him. By the time they meet again, we know he’s into her but we don’t know what she makes of him so her strong reaction to him during that second meeting felt like it came out of nowhere. Then by the their third meeting, it felt like those feelings just…fizzled? We don’t hear her dialogue of how drawn she is to him like we did during their second meeting and that kind of threw me off - I expected a stronger reaction from her.
These criticisms didn’t take away from the story, I just wish they’d been more fleshed out, but this is a trilogy, so I’m hoping (expecting) we’ll get more in the next book…..
especially bc WHAT TF WAS THAT ENDING???!! 😭 and whose team am i on???? I think I might actually like—you know what lemme not say anything except I need book two asap and I’m so glad I took the plunge and ordered that Bookish Box special edition!
Big thank you to HarperCollins for the ARC!
ok I really enjoyed this!
Here’s what I loved:
- The writing; it was lush, the imagery was vivid and the plot was adventurous! I never could quite put my finger on what would happen next!
- The characters! Alizheh (our FMC) is smart, resourceful and a badass fighter when she needs to be! Moody, broody, melancholy Kamran (our MMC) oozed angst and tension and I’m still wondering what’s up with two other characters (who shall remain nameless as I don’t want to add any spoilers)!
- the Persian Lore/Mythology; I loved this! This was what reminded me of City of Brass and it lent such an interesting spin on the plot and magic system! There also seemed to be some elements of Cinderella in this and I loved that incorporation!
My criticisms:
-the magic system. I actually liked it, but I didn’t quite understand it; however, I think this is because the character (that we know of) with magic, Alizheh, didn’t quite understand how her magic worked and I hope as the story continues and Alizheh discovers more about herself, the reader will too.
-the romance / pacing. I’m grouping these together because, at times, both felt a little disjointed. The beginning of the book did start out slow and it picked up towards the second half of the book, as expected with most books. But the development and pacing of the romance itself coincided with this. Alizheh and Kamran had met once and afterwards the reader gets his reaction to her, but not so much her reaction to him. By the time they meet again, we know he’s into her but we don’t know what she makes of him so her strong reaction to him during that second meeting felt like it came out of nowhere. Then by the their third meeting, it felt like those feelings just…fizzled? We don’t hear her dialogue of how drawn she is to him like we did during their second meeting and that kind of threw me off - I expected a stronger reaction from her.
These criticisms didn’t take away from the story, I just wish they’d been more fleshed out, but this is a trilogy, so I’m hoping (expecting) we’ll get more in the next book…..
especially bc WHAT TF WAS THAT ENDING???!! 😭 and whose team am i on???? I think I might actually like—you know what lemme not say anything except I need book two asap and I’m so glad I took the plunge and ordered that Bookish Box special edition!
Big thank you to HarperCollins for the ARC!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Violence, and Slavery
Minor: Death of parent
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