Book review for "The Wrath and the Dawn" by Renee Ahdieh

Summary:

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

MY RATING: 5/5 stars

Genre: Fiction, YA, Fantasy, YA retellings

“Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.”

I think I could just post this line right here and it should be enough to convince everyone to check out this book. The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling (and a really well done one) of One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabic Nights. Khalid is the Caliph of Khorasan who takes a new bride each night and has them killed comes dawn. When Shahrzad's friend falls victim to the Caliph, Shahrzad volunteers to be his next bride so she could exact revenge for her friend's death. Much like Scheherazade in the original tale, Shahrzad tells the Caliph a tale every night, but does not end it, thereby extending her fate. Every night Shahrzad lives through she finds out more about the Caliph and starts to discover he's not the man she thought he was. With each night, their relationship starts to develop and what follows is an angsty tale from begrudging enemies to something more.

This book is probably my saving grace of 2021. Again it's one of those books that back in 2018 I tried to read but quickly DNFed it for unknown reasons (I'm pretty sure I didn't make it past the prologue my first time reading). After that initial read I never picked it up again, until I started getting into and reading retellings and saw this one pop quite a few times in reviews. I decided to give it another try and was pleasantly surprised by how good of a book this was.

What I loved most about this book was the writing. I thought the writing was really beautiful, flowed really nicely and just felt natural. The descriptions of the palace was enchanting, and the atmosphere that was created made it feel as if I was right there with Shahrzad in the palace. It was obvious the author put a lot of thought into how intricately detailed her story was going to be. I also loved the premise. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of retellings (particularly Beauty and the Beast retellings) however One Thousand and One Nights was a pleasant and new tale for me, and I loved what the author did in the retelling. Retellings aren't supposed to be an exact copy of the original tale, and I felt like The Wrath and the Dawn escapulated that aspect of retellings. It stayed loyal to the idea of a bride weaving stories in order to survive, however it adds various new elements to it that allows it to stand on its own.

The romance between Khalid and Shahrzad was so angsty and one of my favorites of this year. I felt the longing, the angst and the emotional turmoil that comes with falling in love with your best friend's killer. While I had reservations at first (I was unsure how the author would weave the story so that the killings were justified), the explanations for why Khalid did what he did erased all that. I felt the guilt Khalid felt, and while I felt like Shahrzad fell in love with him a little faster than I expected, their love story was still well built, and didn't feel extremely rushed.

Plus I can't be mad when reading quotes like this: “My soul sees its equal in you.” “I love you, a thousand times over. And I will never apologize for it.”

I loved Shahrzad's character. I thought she was fierce, cunning, ambitious, cautious, and loyal. She was a great female main character and most of her actions didn't feel naive or done for the sake of love.

Things I wanted more from this book would probably be more of the story within a story aspect. I would have really enjoyed this book even more than I did if the author expanded more on the stories that Shahrzad told the Caliph. Like Khalid, I was really interested in the tales that Shahrzad told and I was a little disappointed when she only told two. I kind of wished the story delved more into that aspect, however, I still loved the book enough that it was just a minor issue for me.

The Wrat and the Dawn was still one of my favourite reads of 2021 and I only have good things to say about this book. It deserves all the praise.

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