This Woven Kingdom: A Persian Cinderella Story
This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi is marketed as a romance inspired by Persian mythology, but I would call it a Persian retelling of Cinderella. Let me rephrase–a masterful Persian retelling of Cinderella that I want to read again and again!
The story follows Alizeh, the long-lost heir to the Jinn kingdom who takes jobs as a servant to evade the people who killed her parents and would now kill her. One day the prince, Kamran, spots Alizeh acting suspicious, so he follows her, tracking down the girl who so intrigued him. When he learns of her true identity and the ramifications that she could have on his family and his kingdom, Kamran struggles between familial duty and his heart. Meanwhile, another has discovered Alizeh’s identity and seeks to help her reach her true potential.
What I Loved
The main characters, especially when they’re on the page together
I loved Alizeh’s determination and perpetual kindness. The traditional Cinderella character is portrayed with few personality traits, but those two–hard work and kindness–are the backbone of the character. My main issue with traditional Cinderella stories (as well as Disney) is that the prince falls in love with her without seeing her two defining characteristics–the things that make her worth falling in love with. In Mafi’s novel, Alizeh shows the prince her character on many occasions. While she is beautiful, it is these qualities that first catch his eye (in fact, she’s wearing a veil the first time he sees her), and these qualities, as well as her brilliance, that hold it.
This Woven Kingdom adds another depth to the Cinderella story by making her a member of a despised race–the Jinn. Her poor treatment at the hands of her overseer is explained by the tense history between the jinn and humans, and these past conflicts lead to some beautiful world building moments.
The character of Prince Charming, who has an actual name in this book (it’s Kamran), is also fully fleshed out as a lone wolf prince who spent the past few years fighting in the army. He comes across as a hard, cynical man, who originally suspects Alizeh of being a spy. His complex family dynamics and interactions with his best friend reveal an internal tension as Kamran is still figuring out who he is supposed to be and who he wants to be.
“Are you some kind of Diviner?”
“No.”
“A monster, then?”
He almost smiled. “Don’t say you’ve been speaking with my mother?”
This Woven Kingdom
The two characters have ample interactions–another thing that’s missing in the classic Cinderella stories. While Kamran and Alizeh naturally fall in love far too fast for my liking (I enjoy a slow-burn romance or, at least, one that takes longer than a week), they do exchange barbed comments, sincere moments, and save each other from harm multiple times within that week. The dialogue, while formal, befits both characters and the book is most fun whenever the two main characters are together. Yet, the novel is not a two man show either. There are several other notable characters that I enjoyed nearly as much, such as a thief boy, a kind apothecary, and the wily king at the very end. However, as the initial suspicion and fear between Alizeh and Kamran slowly unravels into something more, the two characters begin to toy with each other and the dialogue becomes something of a game–word play, witty responses, and serious flirting. The two of them together is the best part of the novel.
The beautiful writing
What first caught my attention–and held it–in this book was the writing. Mafi has always impressed me with her writing style, even in her Shatter Me series (which was set in a difficult dystopian world and told from the POV of an isolated teen) the words she used to describe the world were intricate. But, in this novel, she got to deep dive into playing with words and painting beautiful pictures on the page that were an absolute joy to read. As a Persian-inspired fairytale, the genre is perfectly conducive to the poetic prose and lyrical details that Mafi is so good at.
Above I mentioned the witty dialogue. This, too, was just plain fun to read. The characters speak formally in a precise and beautiful way, with dialogue falling from their lips like miniature poems or looping and circling around each other like two kittens at play. I often found myself grinning as the two interacted. Even the simplest of conversations was highly gratifying because there is nothing simple about how Mafi wrote it.
“What is your name?”
“Of all the non sequiturs. Why do you need to know my name?”
“So that I may hate you more informally.”
“Ah. Well, in that case, you may call me Cyrus.”
This Woven Kingdom
The Persian inspired setting and mythology
The world building is based around Persian mythology, with the humans and the Jinn at war for centuries. This allowed for intricate history and myth to permeate Alizeh and Kamran’s world, lending it a depth that hints at reality and adding a weight of ancient-ness to the story. Mafi’s beautiful descriptions of Persian architecture, clothing, and food added another flavor to the writing that brought the visual surroundings of this love story to life.
What I Disliked
The novel started out slow. The first chapter was particularly difficult to get through from a story perspective. There was no action. Alizeh merely reflected on her circumstances and the history of the jinn–all necessary information, but I hate info dumps, and that’s what it felt like. I much prefer beginnings that start with some sort of action or introduce more than one character. The only thing that happens to Alizeh in the first chapter is that she does some cleaning and has an extremely brief dream-like visit from the devil that left me more confused than intrigued. The second chapter does begin to pick up, but it did take me about thirty to forty pages to really get into the story. It was truly the beautiful writing that interested me at first, then later the story.
However, I am so glad I stuck through the few first chapters because all it took was Kamran and Alizeh’s first meeting for me to be well and truly hooked.
Who will like this book?
Melissa Bashardoust’s Girl, Serpent, Thorn and Girls Made of Snow and Glass have a similar feel to This Woven Kingdom, and not just because Girl, Serpent, Thorn is also based on Persian mythology. Mafi and Bashardoust both employ a similar lyrical and gentle weaving of story. So, if you like beautiful writing and intricately fashioned stories, you will like This Woven Kingdom.
Mafi’s novel also reminded me of Swati Teerdhala’s The Tiger at Midnight series and Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn series because all three books share witty dialogue between brilliant and unique characters and an enemies-to-lovers romance. If you like reading about people who are smarter or wittier than you, or just plain good with words, pick up a copy of this novel.
However, I believe any fan of Cinderella retellings will find this novel to be a powerful, beautiful, and intriguing story, so I also recommend that fans of Cinder (Melissa Meyer), Throne of Glass (Sarah J. Maas), and Ash (Malinda Lo) give this a try. And, if you become obsessed with it like me, there’s good news–it’s going to be a trilogy!
Alizeh was cold. No, she was freezing.
She often wished she were a body with hinges, that she might throw open a door in her chest and fill it’s cavity with coal, then kerosene. Strike a match.
Alas.
This Woven Kingdom
Final Thoughts
Despite it’s slow start, I loved this novel. It’s one I will read again and again because I can’t get enough of the main character’s tension-filled interactions. This Woven Kingdom is a Cinderella retelling done exactly right.
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