All This Twisted Glory

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence.

Alizeh, the main protagonist of the novel, combines the archetypes of the romantic heroine, revolutionary, and nurturing Madonna. Described by Kamran and Cyrus as superlatively beautiful, Alizeh is 18 years old and has long, wavy dark hair and eyes that change color from brown to blue to ice-gray. Cyrus notes that Alizeh’s beauty is not merely physical, “but a vessel, physical majesty forged for a soul so tender it defied description” (166). As Cyrus’s description indicates, Alizeh is extraordinarily compassionate. Not only is she tender toward Cyrus, but she is also empathetic toward the Jinn, and her friends like Huda, Hazan, and Omid. In This Woven Kingdom, the first book of the series, a desperate Omid tried to rob and kill Alizeh, yet she forgave and befriended him, changing him and demonstrating The Redemptive Power Love. Alizeh’s parents were murdered by the time she was 13, in what she suspects were attempts to assassinate her. Since Alizeh bears the clear marks of the prophesied liberator of the Jinn: icy eyes, clear blood, and rare, frost magic. She has also always been a mark for enemies.