By Samantha Pak
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Every Spiral of Fate
By Tahereh Mafi
Storytide, 2025
The wedding of Alizeh and Cyrus has finally arrived. The marriage between the Jinn queen and enigmatic (and possibly evil?) ruler of Tulan takes place in a magical and enchanted ceremony, but Cyrus can’t find anything to celebrate because even though he’s falling deeper in love with Alizeh, she’s also the one person oathbound to kill him.
And for Alizeh, the only way for her to fulfill the prophecy to free her people is to make sure Cyrus dies by her own hand. And to top it all off, Prince Kamran of Ardunia is waiting in the wings to take his place next to Alizeh once Cyrus dies.
As soon as the wedding is over, Alizeh and her friends find themselves in danger. So they immediately set out on a quest for Alizeh to discover her magic—as well as hopefully outrun her enemies.
In this fourth installment of Mafi’s This Woven Kingdom series, revelations will be made and secrets revealed (some more obvious to the reader than the characters). And one character in particular is confronted with their past behavior. For longtime fans of the series, it’s been a long time coming, and as someone who loves a “come to Jesus” moment, it was particularly satisfying for me to see them knocked down a peg or two (if you’ve read my previous reviews of this series, you can probably guess who I’m talking about). Personally, one of my pet peeves is when people are judged or misjudged when we don’t know the whole story, especially when a single conversation could help clear things up. But here, there are very real stakes and consequences, so I’ll let the lack of communication leading up to this slide.
Another thing I really enjoyed about this book, and the series as a whole, is the dynamic among the group—from the older characters looking after former street urchin Omid, to Huda and Kamran’s constant bickering. And we see that on full display as the septet journeys into the mountains.
A Steeping of Blood
By Hafsah Faizal
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025
White Roaring is sharpening its fangs after a deadly night that has left the city in shambles. The press are dead. The public is calling for justice. Vampires are in danger. Children are disappearing.
And Arthie Casimir is out for blood.
In the aftermath of the bloodshed, Arthie has no time to mourn the death of anyone, including her own, or for love, even though it saved her life. Instead, she’s got to reassemble her crew and scrape together what little they have for one last fight. She’ll also have to face the ghosts of her past to do it—in Ceylan, the country she left behind when she was just a young girl.
“A Steeping of Blood” picks up right where “A Tempest of Tea” left off, with Arthie and her crew picking up the pieces of an event that has left their city and home in pieces. Revelations from the first book will have characters questioning whether they can trust those closest to them in an already distrustful world. And for readers, it’s so satisfying to see them do the work with each other to regain that trust, especially when the fate of their city is at stake. It may take them a while to get there, but they don’t shy away from those difficult conversations, which I appreciate (see the review above).
This is also a story about immigration and the consequences of colonialism. And while this story is set in a fantastical world, Faizal does a great job of portraying the very real feelings—of otherness, of loss, of missing a home you may no longer recognize—people with immigrant backgrounds may feel, for one reason or another. And sometimes, it takes a make-believe story for someone to understand something in the real world.
The Stardust Thief
By Chelsea Abdullah
Orbit, 2022
As the Midnight Merchant, Loulie al-Nazari is a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. So when she saves the life of a prince, she unwillingly draws the attention of his father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp with the power to revive the barren land—as well as destroy all jinn.
Loulie has no choice but to go on this quest, or be executed. So she sets out into the desert with the sultan’s oldest son, and one of his legendary 40 thieves, to find and retrieve the artifact. Together, they must survive ghoul attacks, outsmart a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a killer from Loulie’s past. Along the way, Loulie will discover that nothing is what it seems, and she has to decide what that means for her and who she is.
The first in The Sandsea trilogy, “The Stardust Thief” is inspired by stories from “One Thousand and One Nights.” Abdullah does a great job of world building throughout the book and adapting the tales into her own. One thing I really enjoyed was how she interspersed the main story with legends and stories from within the universe to show their relevance to our heroes’ quest. It was also interesting to see the differences between the human versions of the tales and the jinn versions, as the two groups are enemies—with humans hunting jinn—and what they mean in their respective histories.
Told from multiple perspectives, I really enjoyed the interactions among the three main characters: the merchant, the prince, and the thief. Trust among the trio is tenuous, but forced proximity and external circumstances (read: dangers) have them quickly changing their tune, and it’s fun to see that develop throughout the book—even with all the twists and turns Abdullah throws at the readers. But that’s just what makes this such a fun read that will have readers excited for the next book.