This Woven Kingdom is perfect for a fan of YA fantasy who is beginning the journey of decolonizing their bookshelf, but still wants all the swoon-worthy tropes of the genre.
Full honesty, this is a reread. I read this book at some point last year and remember nothing about it except that I really liked it and was mad I had to wait a year for the next book (which is coming out in February 2023). As I read on, I remembered bits and pieces of the book, but I am truly so glad that I reread it and let it settle a bit deeper into my brain.
This is a fantasy novel written by Tahereh Mafi who you might know as the author of the Shatter Me series. Her prose is truly some of the best on the young adult fantasy scene. She writes clearly and beautifully, creating stunning images and interesting characters.
This Woven Kingdom follows two main characters through alternating 3rd person narratives. Aliszeh is a magical jinn, born of fire and haunted by the devil. She works as a servant to maintain a low profile in a world that isn’t friendly to her kind. Kamran is human, born of clay, and is the crown prince of the empire our story takes place in. The novel follows the general format of a Cinderella story. There is a servant girl, a prince, and a ball, but all of these familiar aspects are placed in an unfamiliar and fascinating world. It is a high fantasy novel. So we have an unfamiliar world and some lovely world building.
One of the first things that I like about this novel is that it isn’t a Eurocentric fantasy. Narratively, it is a European fairytale (Cinderella), but the world building is not limited by that narrative choice. So many fantasy novels are inspired by European mythology, with elves and fairies, but This Woven Kingdom is inspired by pre-islamic Arabian mythology. A few ya fantasies have done similar things in the past years. The ones that come to mind are We Hunt The Flame and The Wrath and the Dawn. I truly love the way these novels make way for more diverse fantasy stories on shelves, but I digress. The use of Arabian mythology brings a unique and beautiful element to this fantasy novel.
Something I didn't love about this book is that Aliszeh isn't the most believable character. One of her key traits is that she cannot trust anyone. She takes a job that allows her to wear a mask. She intentionally separates herself from others. She is so cautious, and then, when the plot asks her to, she throws all of the caution away. She accepts suspicious gifts from an anonymous person, assuming she knows who the person is, even though he doesn't fit the description given to her. This person knows where she is going to be and when in order to drop off these gifts. That alone should be a massive red flag for her. But instead of doing literally anything, she blindly trusts that the magic in the gifts will protect her without ever testing it at all. She just decides that it is trustworthy and goes along with it. I think her character could have benefitted from a little more critical thinking. or more clarity of her desperation to believe that these gifts are safe just because she wants to accept them. There are a lot of things that would have been small changes that would have made Aliszeh much more believable.
With book two coming out in a few months, I have questions and predictions! I want to see if Mafi is going to try a love triangle. I hate a love triangle in general, but Mafi is the only writer who I have complete faith in to get me on board with it because she did it so well in the Shatter Me series. I also want to see more of the devil character in book two. I think it would be interesting to see if his scheming is all because of revenge or if he has more interesting reasons to want Aliszeh in power.
Overall, this book is a comfort read. It is cute and fun and magical. It is a familiar structure with interesting characters and, even though I knew what was going to happen to some extent, I didn't know how it was going to happen. I was pleasantly surprised by the book and it was generally a really solid YA fantasy.
I give it three stars out of five.
Tropes: hidden identity, royalty, cinderella, forbidden romance
Content warning: attempted suicide, violent death
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