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A review by anaisniz
This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
โ๏ธ Plot: 4.0/10
๐ Setting: 5.0 /10
๐งต Characters: 4.0 /10
โ Writing (style): Good, but so exhaustive.
๐ Would I recommend it? Yes, if you don't mind slow pace.
โI think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.โ
The good things in this book are also the bad things. Weird.
๐ Up's:
1) Strong Premise & Promising Plot
2) Interesting concept and world
3) Mythology inspired
4) Good female protagonist
> 1) 2) & 3)The summary sounds amazing alone and I bet the plot and world will develop in the next books into something bigger. This is only the first one, so there's not much. I enjoyed the whole thing about the Devil and that Kings can make deals with him. The Jinn are also interesting. At the first glace the world looks amazing. I love Mythology and having the opportunity to learn about Persian mythology it's so interesting.
> 4) Despite, Alizeh kicking ass easily, we could say that she's pretty much a "saint", since she's beautiful, kind, innocent-looking and polite - which I liked. Some people may find this kinda of characters annoying, but I didn't and it's rare to find YA protagonists who aren't annoying. I like her.
๐ Down's:
1) Slow pace, repetitive & boring plot
2) Exhaustive writing
3) Lack of Mythology
4) Characters felt flat & lack of secondary characters
5) Weird romance/chemistry
6) Overwhelming ending
> 1) & 3) "This Woven Kingdom" was a hard book to go through. It was criminally slow. And it felt like nothing really happen. I totally understand who gave up on the book. The first 30% of it was so unnecessary, so much could have been said in less pages. The whole Cinderella retelling also felt weird and it didn't blend well with the rest of the story i guess.She gets a magical dress and shoes out of nowhere, what?
Another thing, I didn't really felt the presence of Persian Mythology. Idk. Maybe because there wasn't that much action or magic? It was just Alizeh being a Jinn.The scene at the end with the grandfather was epic tho.
> 2) The writing style has way too many descriptions for my taste, despite that, the writing it's beautiful. Ironically, there are not many descriptions of structures/architecture, I need to completely imagine everything. But there is the main problem: Instead of simply saying something directly, it takes a paragraph to say it with unnecessary fancy words. The book could easily be 300 pages long if not for unnecessary and repetitive information. For example: There is a conversation that seems to last 4 pages in which it is the protagonist telling another girl how beautiful she is. That's literally all it is.
> 4) Alizeh's biggest problem is: her chapters (especially in the begging) are so slow. And they are pretty much all the same; about her lamenting her life, how she has to live in hiding and how hard is it, some flashbacks of her parents, blah blah blah. This is repeated in almost every chapter of hers. Then everything else she does revolves around the same thing. It's not that fascinating.
I was enjoying Kamran's chapters the most until his personality became "Alizeh". The political things happening in his background were interesting and he was moving the plot, but after talking with Alizeh, he just lives for her. Also his "princeling" personality began to get on my nerves.
Alizeh has no friends and Kamran doesn't really like to be with people (he only wants Alizeh, remember?) So, there are very few secondary characters with screen time (page time?). Weirdly, all the female characters (except Alizeh) are portrayed as cruel or stupid. Cyrus was in 5% in this book and it was my fav character.
> 5) Tahereh Mafi said herself that this is a enemies to lovers, but it's not??? Kamran and Alizeh only have a different race, and Kamran fell in love at first sight with Alizeh! There's no rivalry between them. It's just forbidden romance.
And, nope, Kamran and Alizeh had no chemistry. Their relationship feels so awkward whatever they are together. He's so horny for her and I don't understand why (maybe because she's "NoT LikE OThEr GirLS"), their first conversation was so boring. And then, he acts like a dog, going after her, asking her to be with him, dude?? Do you know personal space??
Also why is she so temped with him? I guess it's because he's the king and she can't be rude by just saying "no, fuck off", but she also thinks of him. How. If they were married, they would have such a boring life together.
Cyrus, who appears in the last seven chapters had a better chemistry with Alizeh.
> 6) The ending was like a circus, the author saved all the good, yet messy stuff for the last pages. Literally the last 5 pages it's when the plot starts to happen. And it is also where the magic and fantasy elements happen, what it felt overwhelming because it was so out of the blue. But it was good, because something was finally happening.
โจ Final thoughts:
It feels a bit unfair to me to give this below 3 stars, but while writing this, I just really need to rate it 2 stars :/ It didn't strike me as a lazy or completely absurd book, tho. On the contrary, I felt that the author really cares for this world and had fun. Good for her, slay.
I do want to know how this story finishes and I'm curious to learn more about this world because of that ending, but I'm scared that the other books are also this slow paced and with the same kind of writing...
๐ Setting: 5.0 /10
๐งต Characters: 4.0 /10
โ Writing (style): Good, but so exhaustive.
๐ Would I recommend it? Yes, if you don't mind slow pace.
โI think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.โ
The good things in this book are also the bad things. Weird.
๐ Up's:
1) Strong Premise & Promising Plot
2) Interesting concept and world
3) Mythology inspired
4) Good female protagonist
> 1) 2) & 3)The summary sounds amazing alone and I bet the plot and world will develop in the next books into something bigger. This is only the first one, so there's not much. I enjoyed the whole thing about the Devil and that Kings can make deals with him. The Jinn are also interesting. At the first glace the world looks amazing. I love Mythology and having the opportunity to learn about Persian mythology it's so interesting.
> 4) Despite, Alizeh kicking ass easily, we could say that she's pretty much a "saint", since she's beautiful, kind, innocent-looking and polite - which I liked. Some people may find this kinda of characters annoying, but I didn't and it's rare to find YA protagonists who aren't annoying. I like her.
๐ Down's:
1) Slow pace, repetitive & boring plot
2) Exhaustive writing
3) Lack of Mythology
4) Characters felt flat & lack of secondary characters
5) Weird romance/chemistry
6) Overwhelming ending
> 1) & 3) "This Woven Kingdom" was a hard book to go through. It was criminally slow. And it felt like nothing really happen. I totally understand who gave up on the book. The first 30% of it was so unnecessary, so much could have been said in less pages. The whole Cinderella retelling also felt weird and it didn't blend well with the rest of the story i guess.
Another thing, I didn't really felt the presence of Persian Mythology. Idk. Maybe because there wasn't that much action or magic? It was just Alizeh being a Jinn.
> 2) The writing style has way too many descriptions for my taste, despite that, the writing it's beautiful. Ironically, there are not many descriptions of structures/architecture, I need to completely imagine everything. But there is the main problem: Instead of simply saying something directly, it takes a paragraph to say it with unnecessary fancy words. The book could easily be 300 pages long if not for unnecessary and repetitive information. For example: There is a conversation that seems to last 4 pages in which it is the protagonist telling another girl how beautiful she is. That's literally all it is.
> 4) Alizeh's biggest problem is: her chapters (especially in the begging) are so slow. And they are pretty much all the same; about her lamenting her life, how she has to live in hiding and how hard is it, some flashbacks of her parents, blah blah blah. This is repeated in almost every chapter of hers. Then everything else she does revolves around the same thing. It's not that fascinating.
I was enjoying Kamran's chapters the most until his personality became "Alizeh". The political things happening in his background were interesting and he was moving the plot, but after talking with Alizeh, he just lives for her. Also his "princeling" personality began to get on my nerves.
Alizeh has no friends and Kamran doesn't really like to be with people (he only wants Alizeh, remember?) So, there are very few secondary characters with screen time (page time?). Weirdly, all the female characters (except Alizeh) are portrayed as cruel or stupid. Cyrus was in 5% in this book and it was my fav character.
> 5) Tahereh Mafi said herself that this is a enemies to lovers, but it's not??? Kamran and Alizeh only have a different race, and Kamran fell in love at first sight with Alizeh! There's no rivalry between them. It's just forbidden romance.
And, nope, Kamran and Alizeh had no chemistry. Their relationship feels so awkward whatever they are together. He's so horny for her and I don't understand why (maybe because she's "NoT LikE OThEr GirLS"), their first conversation was so boring. And then, he acts like a dog, going after her, asking her to be with him, dude?? Do you know personal space??
Also why is she so temped with him? I guess it's because he's the king and she can't be rude by just saying "no, fuck off", but she also thinks of him. How. If they were married, they would have such a boring life together.
Cyrus, who appears in the last seven chapters had a better chemistry with Alizeh.
> 6) The ending was like a circus, the author saved all the good, yet messy stuff for the last pages. Literally the last 5 pages it's when the plot starts to happen. And it is also where the magic and fantasy elements happen, what it felt overwhelming because it was so out of the blue. But it was good, because something was finally happening.
โจ Final thoughts:
It feels a bit unfair to me to give this below 3 stars, but while writing this, I just really need to rate it 2 stars :/ It didn't strike me as a lazy or completely absurd book, tho. On the contrary, I felt that the author really cares for this world and had fun. Good for her, slay.
I do want to know how this story finishes and I'm curious to learn more about this world because of that ending, but I'm scared that the other books are also this slow paced and with the same kind of writing...