Review: The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
Published: May 12, 2015

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?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

I was super wary about this book. I had my sister read it first and she LOVED it so I knew I’d love it too. There were a lot of elements I didn’t expect and liked, and some I didn’t expect and didn’t really like. I never read A Thousand and One Nights. And I wish I did. I wish I knew it better so I could REALLY pull out the similarities. But other than that, not really much else I wish I knew before diving into this.

I loved Shazi and her hot head and strong personality. I love that she was there for a purpose and that she was just a confident and strong willed woman. It kind of inspired me to put some fire in myself to try and be that ballzy. I thought it was a bit difficult when first picking up the book with how you were kind of bombarded with names and places and characters it was a bit confusing.

I can’t help but say that I swooned left and right with the Shazi/Khalid love. GAH IT WAS PERFECTION. He was such an intense character with so much backstory. It was wonderful. I wish you knew more of Shazi’s past but beggars can’t be choosers. I didn’t care for Tariq. I could’ve done without him and I DEFINITELY could’ve done without the instalove between two certain someone’s.

But the plot of this book and the way Ahdieh wrote this book was wonderful. It took me about 70 pages to really dive in and really get the “HELP HELP I CAN’T PUT THIS DOWN” effect but by golly, she did it!