Weekend Pick for July 12, 2024

Weekend Pick for July 12, 2024

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​Welcome Rachelle Savitz, our Weekend Pick contributor.
Dr. Rachelle Savitz is an associate professor of literacy at East Carolina University. In addition to teaching graduate students, she enjoys facilitating trauma-sensitive and culturally sustaining disciplinary literacy professional learning across the country. She loves sharing her passion for using books to connect with and learn about one another’s lived experiences.

Rachelle Savitz

This Woven Kingdom Series by Tahereh Mafi

Tahereh Mafi

Many readers may be familiar with Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series. It invites us on a journey with Alizah and others in a new series, This Woven Kingdom (2022), which has three books currently available and a fourth on its way. This Persian-inspired, Islamic folklore, mythological romance novel depicts a world where humans (Clay people) and Jinn coexist, although what this existence looks like in various parts of the realm varies, with the Clay people often prohibiting the magic and extra strength and abilities of the Jinn.

The reader is quickly introduced to Alizah, an eighteen-year-old who has endured extensive loss in her life, beginning with the deaths of her parents and all those who raised her. She was taught at an early age the true skills of a leader, yet she found herself constantly running for her survival, taking jobs that allowed her to remain unseen while in plain sight. While some question her ability to speak well and her intellect, she appears to all as a servant instead of a Jinn Queen. Readers later discover she is the long-lost Queen of the Jinn people and prophesied to be the downfall of at least one Clay kingdom. Throughout the novel, readers are attuned to her resiliency, agency, power, and ability to understand her traumas but do not let them control who she is or will be, constantly reflecting on what she is grateful for.

Kamran, the crown prince of Ardunia, where Alizah moves around in the shadows, has a life of privilege. He comes off as arrogant and not a man of his people, versus a person born into royalty. However, when he witnesses an attack on Alizah’s life, he steps in, leading those around him to question and scold him when he attempts to help a young servant recently attacked by a street urchin. At this time, and learning of another kingdom to the South, Prince Kamran questions if she is a spy. Unfortunately, for both of them, this curiosity leads to turmoil as Alizah is no longer in the shadows when he questions those who were in contact with her, finding out little until the court minister learns that she is the one prophesized to end his grandfather’s reign. Yet, he relies on his instincts, and they tell him she is not one to be feared but one in danger.

Another unique twist is the impact of Iblees, the devil, who seeks to destroy all Clay people who cast him out. Throughout the series, Iblees’ role grows from an annoyance to Alizah to Iblees fully controlling a third sovereignty, King Cyrus. King Cyrus kidnaps Alizah to be his queen at the request, er, requirement, of Iblees.

The first novel of this series provides extensive world-building, unraveling who Alizah and Kamran are, how the Jinn (those forged by fire) and the Clay (those forged by clay) are forced to live in a society where the Clay people control the Jinn out of fear for their strength, power, and magic, and the questioning of a soon-to-be king’s loyalty toward love, family, and what is right for his kingdom. This series perfectly blends fantasy and forbidden and unrequited love, fire, ice, and magic! As you read, you are prompted to question who we are as individuals and as a society and how we view and treat those around us.

If you are not familiar with Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me series, you may check it out here as well.

Shatter Me Series by Tahereh Mafi