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A review by _rowantree_
All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I absolutely loved the first book in this series - I found the characters nuanced and engaging and the world refreshing. I still enjoyed the world in this third instalment but everything else is becoming a cliche love triangle romance series. I’m still holding out that the next two books might realise the initial potential but I’m no longer expecting it to.
My main annoyance with this book was what has happened with the characters.
Kamran is the worst example of this. He felt conflicted and surprisingly relatable in the first book but now he feels annoying and shallow. He seems minimally impacted by most of the events and revelations at the end of the first book, which are only a few days ago at the start of this book. I feel like the book is pretending he never cared about Alizeh and trying too hard to set him up with Huda, rather than giving their romantic interaction a convincing ending.
Regarding Huda, I also liked her in the first book but I feel like she now exists only to deliver exposition and antagonise Kamran.
I do still like Alizeh but I worry she is becoming the romantasy heroine who is too powerful and everyone is in love with.
Cyrus is the character I feel most uncomfortable about. The series is setting him up as the mysterious romantic hero, without ever really addressing the fact that he violently kidnapped the main character. We’re supposed to find it romantic that he dreams of her and thinks about her so much, but he doesn’t actually know her. Their relationship feels closer to stalking than romance. The story tries to get around it with some sort of unexplained magical attraction but simultaneously pretends she didn’t previously have that sort of magical attraction to someone else.
I had expected more from this book than unconvincingly delivered genre cliches.
My main annoyance with this book was what has happened with the characters.
Kamran is the worst example of this. He felt conflicted and surprisingly relatable in the first book but now he feels annoying and shallow. He seems minimally impacted by most of the events and revelations at the end of the first book, which are only a few days ago at the start of this book. I feel like the book is pretending he never cared about Alizeh and trying too hard to set him up with Huda, rather than giving their romantic interaction a convincing ending.
Regarding Huda, I also liked her in the first book but I feel like she now exists only to deliver exposition and antagonise Kamran.
I do still like Alizeh but I worry she is becoming the romantasy heroine who is too powerful and everyone is in love with.
Cyrus is the character I feel most uncomfortable about. The series is setting him up as the mysterious romantic hero, without ever really addressing the fact that he violently kidnapped the main character. We’re supposed to find it romantic that he dreams of her and thinks about her so much, but he doesn’t actually know her. Their relationship feels closer to stalking than romance. The story tries to get around it with some sort of unexplained magical attraction but simultaneously pretends she didn’t previously have that sort of magical attraction to someone else.
I had expected more from this book than unconvincingly delivered genre cliches.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Sexual harassment