AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT By Tahereh Mafi

September 18, 2023 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT By Tahereh MafiAn Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi
Published by HarperCollins on 6/1/21
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 256
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down.

She's too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots.

Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her heart—

It’s broken.

Shadi tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering through, saying nothing. She devours her own pain, each day retreating farther and farther inside herself until finally, one day, everything changes.

She explodes.

Short and Sweet Review

Its two years after 9/11 and tensions are running high, but Shadi has other important things to worry about than people looking down on her for being Muslim.

Honestly, I wish this book was better than it was. I thought it would be more about navigating life after 9/11 especially because our main character is Muslim but the plot in this book is so weird. So Shadi has lost her older brother, her father is in the hospital, and her mother is struggling with her mental health, and I would say Shadi is too but she is like checked out to those around her. Her older sister is unimpressed with her lack of emotion and we can see how disconnected Shadi is. We also see Shade reconnect with Ali, her ex best friend Zahra’s brother. Zahra doesn’t want anything to do with Shadi anymore for whatever reason, and every time they interact Zahra comes in hot, which I felt was common for most of the conversations Shadi had with other characters. I’m not sure this book actually had a plot. It was just Shadi navigating her emotions or lack thereof about situations going on around her.

I really wanted to like this book but I was not interested in what was going on or even our main character. It was hard to be invested in a story when the main character wasn’t even interested.

Filed Under: Reviews

THIS WOVEN KINGDOM By Tahereh Mafi

February 2, 2022 by Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

THIS WOVEN KINGDOM By Tahereh MafiThis Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi
Series: This Woven Kingdom #1
Published by HarperCollins on 2/1/22
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Mythology, Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 500
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight.

The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can’t put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom—and the world.

Short and Sweet Review

Alizeh is the heir to the long lost Jinn kingdom but as of now she works as a servant barely making it by. The Jinn people have been forced into hiding and Alizeh is lucky to be alive and have found work. Kamran is the crown prince and he knows that pretty soon his Grandfather will die and the kingdom will be his, but he doesn’t expect that the servant girl would be the one to uproot his kingdom.

I thought this book started off slow, I think this was due to all the world building and learning about the characters. Alizeh just wants to keep her head down and work, she doesn’t even care about being the heir to the Jinn kingdom she just wants to survive in a world where her people have been killed for being different. Jinn’s have abilities that the Clay people don’t which is one of the reasons they were persecuted. Kamran on the other hand I don’t know what his deal is. He would make rash decisions and he was pompous. I would have preferred if it was just Alizeh’s POV because I just couldn’t stand Kamran. When Kamran and Alizeh meet she is trying to avoid him because she doesn’t need unwanted attention but Kamran can’t stop thinking about her.

Kamran’s grandfather the king decides to host a ball so that Kamran can find his future wife. Kamran doesn’t want to get married to just anyone he wants to marry Alizeh and they only had a few encounters so at this point he doesn’t love her he’s just infatuated with her. During this time Alizeh meets a few allies who want her to take her place as the Jinn queen. There’s a lot of twists that occur in the last five chapters and they were pretty surprising.

This was a decent read I liked the story telling and how things picked up in the end but I could have done without Kamran and his childish behavior and instalove.

Filed Under: Reviews