Hello dear reader,
I’ve realized that, after a while writing articles about books, I have never actually shared who my favorite author is. After reading this article title you might have guessed that, yes, in fact, my favorite author is the Queen herself: Tahereh Mafi.
Tahereh Mafi is most commonly known for writing the “Shatter Me” Series, which is a dystopian series that revolves around Julliete Ferrars–a seventeen year old girl who kills whoever she makes physical contact with. After the main series conclusion with the last novella “Believe Me,” in 2021, the next year, 2022, Mafi released her new project of a new genre, a fantasy book series called “This Woven Kingdom.” With the newest book, “Every Spiral of Fate,” just having been released through any major book seller in the United States on September 30th this year (2025).
The “This Woven Kingdom” series is inspired by a mixture of Persian mythology, Persian folklore, and a retelling of “Cinderella.” The magic system is inspired by the stories of the Jinn and the Clay.
In Persian mythology, the Jinn were the beings created by God from smoke and fire. They supposedly live anywhere that humans do not and can take the form of many things, the most obvious being humans and animals, but also other beings like rocks, trees, fire, etc…
Originally, the Jinn are neutral beings and can choose to be good or evil, but they are known to punish human beings and are blamed for many of the natural disasters of the world. The Jinn are mentioned in Folklore, the Quran, and popular literature like “The Thousand and One Nights.”
This is the original origin, but how do these elements influence the story told by Mafi?
In the “This Woven Kingdom” universe, the separation of beings through Jinn and Clay (or common folk) is a major plot point as the mixing of these two worlds is the catalyst for the main character’s, Alizeh’s, journey.
Furthermore, the dark figure Iblees—known as the devil of the Quran—is present in the story. He is used to help further the plot and give context to some of the misdeeds in the story.
Knowing a lot about Persian mythology is not necessary at all to read these books, but after reading them it did interest me to learn more about the story behind these books, and I’ve loved catching all the mythological easter eggs.
Now, if you have not read this series yet but are interested in doing so, I urge you to stop reading. But if you need a refresher before reading the newest book, “Every Spiral of Fate,” proceed with caution.
As the first book of the series,“This Woven Kingdom,” it is only natural that there would be a large amount of exposition, just as many other fantasy books. The story itself begins with Alizeh, a woman who works as a servant to disguise herself because she is Jinn. And since servants wear face coverings, she cannot be seen.
The story really begins when Alizeh has her first encounter with Kamran.
Kamran, the prince of Ardunia, is on the hunt for Jinn because there has been a long awaited prophecy that the King of Ardunia, Kamran’s grandfather, would be murdered by a Jinn. A big part of Kamran’s character is the fact that he is covered by magical gold markings all over his body that make him look like a broken pot fixed by “kintsugi.”
It is important to note that for a long time, Alizeh has been hearing this riddle from Iblees, which is prophesying what would happen later in the book. So when she meets Kamran, the riddle begins to make sense because Kamran witnesses Alizeh’s special powers and begins to obsess over her because she represents part of his prophecy.
Initially, Kamran wants Alizeh dead because her living means that she might be the one to kill his grandfather, but the longer they are together, the more the duo begins to fall in love. All the while, Kamran is still convinced that Alizeh is a killer.
The story begins to reach its climax during an extravagant ball when Kamran’s grandfather, King Zaal, is revealed to be the true villain of the story. He is exposed serving Iblees in a contract by sacrificing children off the streets for the demon to consume—dark stuff.
This exposure is done by Cyrus, King of the neighboring kingdom, the Kingdom of Tulan. In the first book of this series, Cyrus is still considered a villainous character and is basically known to be the guy who killed his own father for the throne and couldn’t be less bothered about it.
The story ends with Cyrus whisking Alizeh away from the ball, which she attended while wearing a magical gown that kept her invisible to anyone who wanted to cause her harm, yet Kamram was able to see her, signifying his falling in love with her.
Alizeh is teleported to the top of a dragon with Cyrus when she suddenly throws herself off the dragon and begins to freefall. Then the story ends.
I hope that was enough information to remind you what this story is all about because we have two more books to get into, so all the details aren’t that important, since we have a lot to get through. Most of what you need to remember are in the books to come anyway.
Book Two, “These Infinite Threads,” begins right where we were left off. Except now Alizeh is still under the watch of Cyrus, who she learns is in cahoots with the devil, meaning that she is absolutely not interested in anything he has to say.
The book is also told through the perspective of Kamran this time around, but getting a view through the eyes of Kamran is not all what it seems to be. Because then, we as the audience get a taste for how much of a red flag Kamran is, at least in my opinion.
In this book Kamran becomes the actual worst human being—it is not even funny. Now, do I have the evidence on why he’s such a red flag? No, I read this book in 2023. So even retelling these plots to you is quite difficult. But just remembering hating a character is enough for me.
Since Kamran’s grandfather is dead and Kamran is a very young prince with hardly any experience, he is being betrayed left and right by his court and that is mostly what the reader deals with while reading his point of view.
Alizeh on the other hand truly begins to understand what being the Jinn Queen means and how she must get enough power to be able to lead her people.
This is the most boring book so far in my opinion. It is a lot of building bridges from the first book to the third and not much plot in it of itself, but still a fun read considering overall.
Then we reach “All This Twisted Glory,” where after much strife and fighting, Alizeh and Cyrus reach an agreement: to get married as a means to an end for both. The catch: Cyrus is falling deeper and deeper in love with Alizeh, but if she marries him, she will have to kill him because of the agreement between Cyrus and Iblees.
By this time, Alizeh has already been revealed to be the Jinn Queen, and if she marries Cyrus she can use Tulan as the kingdom to rule over her discarded people. But she is beginning to care for Cyrus, shown by the fact that she throws herself in front of an arrow shot by Kamran in aim for Cyrus to save his life.
Kamran proposes, Alizeh says no. He is revealed to be even a bigger jerk than what everyone initially thought and the book ends with the fact that Alizeh accepts the marriage proposal given by Cyrus and has to go through with the ritual binding Cyrus to his master—Iblees—meaning she needs to torture him aggressively and that’s how the book ends.
Now that all readers are stuck in that cliff hanger, the audience gets to enjoy “Every Spiral of Fate” and see how Cyrus gets killed. How… exciting.
I’m intrigued to see what happens next and am really scared that Kamran is going to come back to show how much more of a red flag he can be.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this rushed and weird recap. I’m going to get reading, and I hope you do, too. If I missed anything major please let me know, but for now I’m going to dive back into the world of “This Woven Kingdom.”
XOXO
Maya
