Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - All This Twisted Glory

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All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi

14 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Representation: Asian characters
Score: Six and a half out of ten.

Is it me or am I enjoying the This Woven Kingdom series less and less? I waited for months to get All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi after enjoying This Woven Kingdom and These Infinite Threads, and I picked it up at a library when they got it. I glanced at the intriguing blurb, but when I closed the final page, it was okay.

It starts (more like continues) with Cyrus and Alizeh living separate lives, as the former is in a torture chamber for most of the narrative and Alizeh in another location, presumably a kingdom full of jinn. Like the previous two instalments, All This Twisted Glory has a slow burn style of pacing, but it is barely below 400 pages, compared to the 500 and above 400 page lengths of the works that came before it. The slow burn only works to advance the existing relationship between Alizeh and Cyrus, but when Mafi only focuses on that, she misses the opportunity to put in more subplots to take a break from the central storyline. I started to disconnect from them because of the minimal character development since they were in the same state as the last part.

Mafi established the worldbuilding already in This Woven Kingdom, so I can't say anything about that, but the world remains the same, with no further expansion. Why is this? I'm not sure. The antagonist, Iblees, is mostly in the background, and I don't see much of the side characters like Prince Kamran until the concluding pages. The pacing only picks up from there as there is a battle scene, resulting in a heartstopping conclusion. That begs the question: when will this series end? Initially, I thought the series was a trilogy, but now the front cover says it's the third book. Now, there's a possibility of a fourth and even a fifth part, which makes me feel it might get boring to read over time if the quality doesn't improve. When does the next one come out?

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milzy_23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Still Team Cyrus

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readingelli's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

3.5

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sandwiiche's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

tahereh mafi is reaalllyyy taking her time with this series 🫠

however i do like where she's going with

kamran and huda if u know what i mean ;)

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manaledi's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think this was my favorite of the books so far. I have a soft spot for tragically misunderstood MMCs and the band of misfits is quite entertaining. I do feel like alizeh is too perfect sometimes but what's a fantasy world without a Cinderella princess. Other nitpick is just how much plot resolves around misunderstanding and miscommunication and bad assumptions.

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kassidyreads's review against another edition

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slow-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? Yes

2.0

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leahegood's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.0

3 stars for story telling.
2 stars for personal preferences on language and romantic content.
1 star for the level of "romantic" content in a book marked, on Amazon, for readers ages 13-17.

Summary
Nothing is as it seems. Alizeh is increasingly suspicous that Cyrus, the young king of Tulan, is not as wicked as he allows people to believe. The potential that a kind heart hides behind his terse exterior only makes her path forward more difficult. Whatever the truth is about Cyrus, his offer to give her his kingdom--and his life--in exchange for her hand in marriage, is her best option to serve her people well. Her people must come before all else.

Matters are further complicated when Prince Kamran storms into Tulan. Kamran is bent on revenge, wants to marry Alizeh, and is completely blind to his perpetual attitude of entitled arrogance. With Kamran comes a gaggle of unlikely allies.

My Thoughts
I'm rather annoyed at this book. The writing style is good. The storytelling is good. There are even really good themes about self-control, sacrifice, and not allowing discomfort to prevent you from fully engaging in life.

The characters are also, in my opinion, compelling. Alizeh is a bit of a Mary Sue, but I still like her. The chemistry between her and the triangulated male leads is even good for what it is. But this book, more than the previous two, is filled with moments where it feels like the story hits pause in order for some steamy, lust-driven attraction, before once again resuming ... including an open-door bedroom dream scene which, though not fully explicit, was much too far for a book targeted at 13-17 year olds in my opinion. I think the story would be better marked as New Adult instead of Young Adult. The hyper-focus on the "romance" also slowed the story down by repeating elements of attraction we've already been hit over the head with repeatedly.

Content
Romance: See my mini rant above. Chemistry is good, but interrupted by lust-driven attraction that often did not, in my opinion, even seem to fit the character development. Also one open-door bedroom scene.
Language: Infrequent but consistent swearing, including a few f-bombs.
Violence: Characters are injured, though descriptions are not overly graphic. Cyrus is tortured by the devil.
Religion: The devil is an infrequent character that strongly impacts the storyline and is portrayed in negative light. The diviners seem to be the positive mirror to the devil.

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lenilinnea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.0

I found myself jumping between feeling extreme ich and swoon over the mail characters thoughts and description of eachother. I listened to some of it on audiobook so maybe the narrator affected it a little. Miss Huds creates a comedic relief and her quarrels with Kamran are entertaining.
The world is also very interesting!

SPOILERS:

I don’t really find the whole reasoning for why the blood pact absolutely HAD to be done plausible as it seems like Alizeh did kind of trust him enough to a point where it was not neccessary to go through with it other than for the drama of it.
Was interesting to learn more or Cyrus background and time at the diviners.

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embersbookventures's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

As usual, I am absolutely blown away. Reading Taherah’s writing is like being transported into the world she’s created - the pacing, the flow, the characters, the mysteries - it all feels so real.
The older I get, the harder it is to find a book that absolutely carries my mind away and makes hours seem like moments, but this was such a book🥹
With each book I adore all the characters more and more. I wish I could read books like this every day. I finished it in four sittings - and only did it take that long because of real life interruptions. *sigh*
Breathtaking. Stunning. Cannot wait for the fourth book😭🤗

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katievallin's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The writing in this series is BEAUTIFUL. Moderate sexual content, though, which I think is inappropriate for YA, but it wasn’t graphic. Alizeh didn’t get a lot of POV time, which was disappointing. Kamran needs to go away, please. I liked finding out more about Cyrus and getting his POV.

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