Tahereh Mafi: This Woven Kingdom (2022, HarperCollins Publishers)
English language
Published Oct. 8, 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Between a 4 and 4.5, I loved the writing style, the dual POV worked in making me care for both main characters and they felt developed, it makes me think of Laini Taylor's writing a bit, can't wait to read the sequel next month when it comes out !
This book was a retelling of Cinderella. That became clear pretty quickly. Alizeh is an orphan, working in a noble house in Setar, the capital of Ardunia. She is scrubbing the house by day, until her hands are literally in shreds, and by night she is working as a seamstress to try to make enough money to get herself out of her servitude.
Not a bad premise so far. There are a million retellings of Cinderella though.
Alizeh is also a Jinn, which means that she's got powers that humans (the Clay) don't have. But Alizeh is special. While most Jinn are "forged from fire" whatever that means, she has ice in her veins. Which means she's literally freezing all the time (...I feel like I can relate lol). She can literally sit in a fire, all of her clothes will burn away, but she won't burn. Plus she can …
This book was a retelling of Cinderella. That became clear pretty quickly. Alizeh is an orphan, working in a noble house in Setar, the capital of Ardunia. She is scrubbing the house by day, until her hands are literally in shreds, and by night she is working as a seamstress to try to make enough money to get herself out of her servitude.
Not a bad premise so far. There are a million retellings of Cinderella though.
Alizeh is also a Jinn, which means that she's got powers that humans (the Clay) don't have. But Alizeh is special. While most Jinn are "forged from fire" whatever that means, she has ice in her veins. Which means she's literally freezing all the time (...I feel like I can relate lol). She can literally sit in a fire, all of her clothes will burn away, but she won't burn. Plus she can heal super well but apparently despite her servitude for the last several years, only realizes it halfway through the book... AND Alizeh is haunted by the devil, Iblees. He whispers riddles to her, which causes her to fall into a state of terror for some reason. AND she's afraid of the dark. She's extra special.
Kamran is a prince. A whiny, spoiled, angry, judgemental heir-to-the-throne-that-he-doesn't-want. He's recently returned to Setar from fighting in a war against Tulan, even though apparently they aren't actually at war so I'm not really sure what he's been up to. His grandfather Zaal is currently the King. Kamran's father died 7 years prior.
But the time is coming where Kamran is going to have to choose a bride and provide an heir! Which of course he doesn't want to do because all women are boring ugly sycophants.
UNTIL he meets Alizeh.
The whole romance was pretty insta-love. They've literally only met three times before they're making out (and the first time they're in the same scene together, they don't even meet so it doesn't even count).
Honestly the whole book was so rushed. Everything is very surface-level. The author never really digs in deep to the world-building (which could have been really interesting!), or any of the characters. She just rushes plot point after plot point. And at the end the villain reveals the answers to all of the mysteries. None of which were remotely hinted at in the rest of the book. It's just Alizeh being sad and cold and broken and poor. And Kamran being angry and handsome.
