Reviews

All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi

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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?

Content Warnings

roxlastewka's review

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adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

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

2.75

toriwright's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

angelinafxrs's review

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3.0

I feel betrayed.
I thought this was a TRILOGY.
So more books…?
Come ON. And I need it now.

This was really goooooood except Huda and the other characters, except Cyrus and Alizeh most of the time, are so annoying that I found myself just skimming most of those parts.
They talk over and never listen to Alizeh anyways I truly don’t see what they bring to the story other than feelings of frustration for the reader.
And some long inner monologues I also found myself skimming through.
But omg, CYRUS. I just know he’s endgame. On par with Warner. I’m 100000% continuing.
Even though I feel betrayed by being led to believe this was a trilogy. I think they could’ve combined the 2nd book and this one into one last time, and then published the 4th as the 3rd.
Truly feels like chopping up a long book that could’ve been one instead of two short.
Anyways.
As I said.
CYRUS

billies_not_so_secret_diary's review

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slow-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

2.0

All This Twisted Glory

by Tahereh Mafi

This Woven Kingdom #3

Fantasy Romance

Everand (Scribd) Audio

Ages: 18+

Now that Cyrus has asked her to marry him, offering his kingdom as a gift, Alizeh is not sure if she should accept, at least not until she knows more about him; about his deal with the devil and how dark his soul really is. But she is also having feelings for him.

Cyrus is tormented by a dream made real, Alizeh, and just by being near her, his soul is fracturing, a pain even worse than the devil's torments.

With revenge in his heart, Prince Kamran, and four unwanted interlopers, are coming for Cyrus.

Book three picks up from where the previous one left off, but it wasn't that impressive, it was slow. There were a lot of things repeated, and then there were those not explained. Sure the banter between Hooda and Kamran is entertaining, but it, along with a lot of their interactions, also comes across as immature. While the characters, except one, are supposed to be adults, they all act like tweens.

However, some of the immaturity could be due to the narrator. Her voice sounds too 'old' for the characters so when she tries to express frustration, especially the male MCs', it sounds wrong for characters who are supposed to be under the age of forty. A 'younger' sounding voice could change the feel, thus identifying more with the intended age group of twenty-somethings.

Three books in, and yeah, I am curious if my guesses on what is going to happen comes to pass, but I'm pretty sure they will, so I don't know if I'll pick up the next book(s).

Because there are 'adult' scenes in this book, (and I don't remember anything this bad in the previous books) this series is now not suitable for readers under eighteen.

It's not a bad story, but it couldn't reach the next star.

2 Stars

undercovertidalwave's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

colby_law's review

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4.5

I THOUGHT THIS WAS A TRILOGY.

legallyhot's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

dhani572's review

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hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book felt more like an in-between boom. Likr it was written just to setup for the next book. I felt like the book was long but nothing really happened. But I like the characters, more information was revealed, and it made me excited for the next book...so good enough

allisonblair's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-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

4.25

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