This Woven Kingdom #2: These Infinite Threads by Tahereh Mafi

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*
If you plan to read this book, do not read this post.

The day after finishing Book 1, I read this across the course of the day. I couldn’t put it down. Overall, this book is also fun and fast paced.. But (as you can also see on goodreads)… nothing really happens. YET A LOT HAPPENS. But also spoiler alert… This book takes course in a matter of days.. Like 3 days?? I’m not sure if this is on both parts… But it’s less than a week for sure. Like the inside flap cover even says, Kamran knows that he must go to Tulan, and hope that Alizeh is waiting for him.. But.. He doesn’t even get to Tulan yet in this book. ——-HAHAHA I was just googling to see how many books in this series, and I found this reddit thread of people saying the same exact thing. Like even though there’s no hugeee plot advancement, it’s NOT BORING.

So here is where I start to feel more similarities with Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses. But it’s still rather different, just big plot tropes are the same.. This book alternates between both main characters’ current stories. It leaves off right where the previous book ends, which is great if there was time between reading the books. Often, I don’t like it when there are other characters’ POV (whether told from 1st or 3rd person) because I just wanted to follow the MAIIINest character xD. But because I like Kamran, I also appreciated his POV part.. Actually the first book is also told like this.. but now Alizeh and Kamran are really far apart.. so I feel like one of the things pushing this book were the fact that you want him to hurry up and get to Tulan.

But he doesn’t get there yet, because he’s forced to deal with his injuries, picking up pieces of the castle after the king was murdered in front of everyone, with his atrocities shown. The people on the counsel who served the king don’t like Kamran, and Kamran doesn’t like them because they’re dumb. The Diviners that helped take care of Omid, and also the royal family and the city in general were killed by Cyrus too, so he feels that he’s left by himself. His mother disappeared, Hazan betrayed him, Alizeh is… ???

There’s something curious—the bit of magic that is accepted by the royal family is a mark on the bodies of the ruler from the Diviners. The weird thing is that Kamran’s mark (seems like a tattoo almost?) has mutated, changed shape and spread… So we get a hint from Hazan later that it seems like it all happened upon meeting Alizeh. There’s also a weird hint from Alizeh in the previous book… Not in the form of a hint, but Alizeh mentions that his discomfort with his clothes/skin must do with a sensitivity to gold which is woven into the silk fabric.. I’m not sure what this is playing at.. because also gold is the color of his mark.. But we don’t know anything about the Jinn x gold, I don’t think.. We just know that Alizeh’s blood is made of ice, she’s fireproof and heals quickly.

So anyhow, on Kamran’s side, he thinks Hazan betrayed him, but later discovers that he ISN’T working with the Tulanian king, although he feels betrayed that Hazan hid the fact that he’s Jinn from him. They end up working together, with Kamran still not fully convinced about all of the interactions he had with Alizeh were genuine. But later, upon hearing from the people who Alizeh encountered (including Deen and Miss Huda), he starts to realize that Alizeh is maybe everything he thought she was during the encounters.. The one thing that he can’t let go of is the fact that Alizeh and Cyrus are betrothed and that Alizeh DIDN’T know Cyrus beforehand… But he’ll go to Tulan and find out. On the night he and Hazan were to sneak out, he gets captured by the junk defense minister who wants to overthrow his position and the Diviners.. But turns out the Diviners were actually helping him. He gets help from a mythical bird who raised his grandfather. The rest of the odd group join him and Hazan to go to Tulan. This is how the book ends.

But let’s talk about what’s happening over on Alizeh’s end. This, again, is where I feel the similarities with ACOTAR book 2 really shone. Because the main characters are separated (although I haven’t even finished book 2 of ACOTAR yet, and I feel really disappointed in the main character because he was basically taking away MFL’s freedom. But okay let’s stay on the right book here..) and the captor’s feelings and actions are examined.. Basically Cyrus is just as main of a character now… And I was slow in accepting this.. But it’s really interesting that it seems that the masses LIKE Cyrus moreso than Kamran… But the thing that also bothers me is instalove.. But it turns out that even though this side of the story occurs across 3 days? If even… that Cyrus has been having dreams of Alizeh prior to them actually meeting.. But also turns out that it was Iblees implanting these dreams of Alizeh in his head.

So let’s start back at the beginning.. Alizeh is captured and taken to Tulan to marry Hazan. She later makes a deal with Sarra, his mother, to try to kill him, and then she’d be freed. She has the glowing nosta, the lie detector that Hazan gave her in book one, to see everyone’s words are genuine… So Sarra is scarred by Cyrus’s actions.. killing his father, her husband.. and every other atrocity he’s committed. She says that she fears him, as he takes no responsibility, merely attributing his actions to his deal with the devil.

Upon learning all of this, Alizeh reluctantly agrees, but in her attempts to get on Cyrus’s good side (Sarra’s strategy was to “kill him with kindness” until he drops his guard), she learns more about him. There’s always been some type of physical attraction between these two it seems.. Which made me feel sad for Kamran HAHAH. But yeah.. Cyrus also knew about the deal Alizeh made with her mother, and makes her a counter deal: if she marries him, she helps him sate Iblees.. and then she can kill him and take over and rule Tulan and the Jinn…

She doesn’t agree to this completely yet.. But they also banter a lot and there this weird idea of marrying only by title.. They have some intimate moments between trying to stay away from each other and trying to kill each other (not completely actually)… BUT WHAT ABOUT KAMRAN?? And then one of the days, Cyrus brings her out to Tulan to see his kingdom, and she’s spotted by Jinn citizens who are in disbelief. This encounter motivates Alizeh to want to rule more. To protect her from the mob, Cyrus whisks Alizeh away (with magic). During this time, we see Alizeh watch him be tortured by Iblees and she can do nothing but hold him and comfort him to the most of her abilities. So here, I need to make the comment that with all of this physical tension and this scene, even though nothing ACTUALLY happened, the nuances of everything felt borderline out of YA, into NA.. Like I wouldn’t really want a high schooler to read this lolol.

We later find out about Cyrus’s dreams about Alizeh. When he was touching her, he thought he was dreaming, that she was an angel. This is when we find out that these were implanted dreams. Even though it’s undeniable that they have some sort of connection, and Alizeh is starting to truly care for Iblees… She can’t accept him because she doesn’t want Iblees to win.

BUT WHAT ABOUT KAMRAN?

But I see that Cyrus’s character is complex and we do feel sorry for him. He’s also not allowed to say what the deal he made with Iblees is or else… But the fact that the whole second book, HE’s the one with Alizeh, not Kamran.. really spotlights him as a main character.. So like.. What about Kamran??

I read a little maybe-spoiler too.. Someone said, never expect the first guy to be the main guy (at least that’s a spoiler for Shatter Me I guess)… But ughh.. I want Cyrus to be alltheway good, and then I want both guys to be happy and for Alizeh to rule and be happy… It’s so hard xD.

And guess what. I have book 3 in my hands (house) now too.. When should I read it XDDD.

Did I cry? no, same as last time! still so good @ emotions
Should you read it? Still YES.. But also I hesitate at recommending it to younger readers (precollege xD)

-huay