Tapestry Of Fate_2 Hb

“The Tapestry of Fate“ - the second book in the “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi“ trilogy by Shannon Chakraborty picks up where we left off in the first book. It follows the notorious nakhudha Amina al-Sirafi and her crew on their quest to retrieve the remaining transgressions. This time, Amina doesn’t have to deal with a blackmailing grandmother forcing her to find her granddaughter or a power-hungry Frank, who is obsessed with trying to find a foreign magical object. No, this time, the peris send Amina to retrieve a magical spindle that could rewrite one’s fate. What the peris have not mentioned however, is that it is not a common queen from whom Amina and her Marawati crew must steal said spindle. It is none other than Queen Lab, the sorceress from “The Story of Julnar of the Sea and the Marvels of the Sea Encountered by Her“. This quest ends up being challenging for all of them in different ways. But it will especially put the fabric of one friendship to test, that always seemed too thick to be torn apart. Overall, this book, just like the first one, was a very interesting and thrilling read. In book one we had Jamal’s guiding chapters in between Amina’s narration. In The Tapestry of Fate, we have a third narrator that tells another story to the reader, alongside Aminas, in form of interludes. I cannot say in detail who it is because I don’t want to give away any spoilers. What I can say though is, that it adds a whole new tone to the book/ a significant tonal shift to the book. Some of these interlude chapters were really though to get through because of their nature and the story they contained. While the first book had a “lighter“ tone, the second book gets much darker and more serious. This book kept me on my toes until the very end and had me go through a variety of emotions (I’m talking laughing out loud, to cursing and to crying silently in the middle of the night). And oh, some ending that was… As someone who has read the Daevabad trilogy, I was expecting the last few pages of the book to contain unexpected and surprising reveals. That is one of the things that Shannon Chakraborty does excellently in my opinion. And needless to say, I was not disappointed...Let’s just say that whatever happened within the last few pages of this book, has caused me stare ahead in shock at first. After my initial reaction somewhat subsided, I slowly started to realise what it all meant and what kind of implications it has, which made me cry. (thank you for that Shannon…really…) There are a few specific things I’d like to talk about in relation to this book. Firstly, since I just mentioned how this book made me go through a lot of emotions, I like to admit that one of those emotions was frustration. That frustration was primarily invoked by one specific character, or rather, their choices, and actions. I couldn’t wrap my head around as to why that character would do these things that are, at least to the reader, obviously bad choices and mistakes. I am generally someone who gets frustrated easily when it comes to miscommunication between characters. But I think beyond that, what left me a little unsure while reading this book, was the fact that I had placed this character on a high pedestal in my mind for all these years. Witnessing them make a careless mistake like this that leads to a series of questionable choices and action, just did not fit into my mental image of them. So, I ended up being conflicted and subsequently questioning if my frustration was rooted from myself and the way I saw this character or if it was a “too easy and careless of a mistake “situation, that was written to get the story going. Eventually, after letting it all sink in, my frustration subsided and I finally understood why this happened/this character made that mistake…even the most rational, intelligent and careful person can make a mistake so simple and careless. Because in the end, we are all human and none of us are perfect. We all slip up at some point sooner or later, especially if it involves the people that we love dearly. It is how we react and handle the outcome of our mistakes and what we learn from them, that is important in the end. While that aspect of the story had me frustrated at times, there was another aspect that I really liked. That is the way the importance of threads and fabric in our daily lives was highlighted throughout the book. I don’t think that many of us actually take time to think and realise how essential threads and fabric itself is to humans and humanity in general. It isn’t only filled with sentimental and emotional value, it is their constant presence in our lives, from the very first moment we enter this world and get wrapped up into a piece of cloth, to our very last breath, when we get buried within them. The fact that this book highlights this throughout the story is something I thought was very fascinating and thought-provoking. Threads and fabric accompany us even beyond our lifetime actually! Because while reading and thinking about this, I realised, that (as Muslims) our shrouds¹ are the very last worldly thing we have with us after we pass away, until it decomposes alongside our bodies and ceases to exist with us. I know this review is already WAY too long (and I'm very sorry about that. I am genuinely passionate about these books so it’s very hard for me to stop myself at times) but I would love to talk about another aspect as to why this book series and Amina herself is so dear to me and that is due to the Muslim representation depicted in these books. As a Muslim woman who was born and raised to immigrant parents in a Central European country, I sadly did not have many fiction books/book characters I could relate to or see myself represented in growing up. Especially not in the fantasy genre. So, for that alone, these books are a treasure to me. But it goes beyond a simple representation. Growing up in a world post 9/11, Muslim representation was often riddled with harmful propaganda and Islamophobia. The Muslim character was either the bad guy or someone that “needed saving“. With the Amina books, that is not the case. We have a middle-aged Muslim woman as the main character who is far from perfect, and she knows and acknowledges that. Despite that, she doesn't give up and tries her best to be a better Muslim and human and thereby shows wonderfully what Islam is really about: forgiveness. The depiction of Aminas faith and devotion is beautiful, and it makes me so unbelievably happy that a character like her exists. There is a specific moment in the second half of The Tapestry of Fate, where Amina is facing danger and there is a small moment where she displays her devotion to God and her faith in such a beautiful way, that it made me tear up. It might seem insignificant to most readers (which is fine) but to me, moments like this mean a lot. One of my main critiques points I have regarding this book isn’t really about the book itself, but something that I feel like should be included in the future print versions of it. I am talking about a content warning list. This book is much more serious than the first book, that had more light-hearted moments in comparison. Shannon Chakraborty is one of my favourite authors and her Daevabad series and the Amina trilogy (so far) are some of my absolute favourite books and they hold a special place in my heart. I actually ended up reading The Tapestry of Fate twice (once the eARC and the second time I listened to the audiobook after it got released). I tried to let it all sink in before I took to writing this review. I tried my best to give these books justice and I hope I was able to do that with my review. :) Thank you from the bottom of my heart to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, HarperVoyager and Avon for giving me the opportunity to read and review the ARC to this book! :)