Reviews - This Woven Kingdom

6.81k reviews for:

This Woven Kingdom

Tahereh Mafi

3.93 AVERAGE

liesbeth_cpr's review

3.75

adventurous 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: Complicated

fia06's review

3.0

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

asurasantosha's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I felt like this book had a little bit of a slow start but I was fairly into it by the half way mark. I'm not normally a romantasy girlie but this one was pretty enjoyable. I can't quite out my finger on what I enjoyed about it though which is strange.

I didn't feel like any of the characters were incredibly intriguing or captivating to me. The plot was neither riveting nor in any way bad. The prose and pacing seemed good. A lot of it fades into the background, which is a good thing. Some of the prose did stand out, but mostly when characters were speaking or we we deep in their perspective. It seems like that should have improved the characterization, but to me if felt like it helped the world building more than anything.

Speaking of world-building, I liked the Persian elements in this and I wish there was a little bit more of it. It might be the artisocratic language that sometimes made the setting feel a little more European than I wanted but that might be part of my own bias creeping in and making the story seem more English than it's actually portrayed.

Maybe it was the scene work that felt fairly weak to me. Maybe stronger scenes would have brought this up to 5 stars for me.

Oh! There was one thing I really loved and that was the inclusion of class dynamics. I felt that Mafi did a great job showing how someone with a base need, like medicine, who can't get any, or can't get more, can be devasted by situations like that. As in literally, "what will I do, I can't function (work) without it, but I need to be able function(work) in order to get it." And just feeling hopeless and at a loss. And then she contrasted that with the Prince in the next chapter not understanding it: "What's the big deal? It's easily replaceable!" That whole situation, when it happened in the book, I felt it in my bones and I wanted to applaude. So bonus points for that. Do more of that.

Regardless, of all the mixed/ambiguous feelings it was still a good book. I did enjoy it and it was definitely a worthwhile use of my time. I feel suspicious of the next book in the series though so I might not jump into it right away until my expectations/worries are forgotten.

I'd recommend this to romantasy lovers, Cinderella lovers, and people with an interest in Persian mythology and Iranian-inspired settings.

elisiaabbott's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

slow start to the series but i know tahereh’s potential and i KNOW things are going to pick up and get so much better!
(im obsessed with cyrus please let him be the one)