Maryam Jamali

I like 1001 Nights. The problematic themes are problematic, yes but I do enjoy a good retelling. The Wrath and the Dawn was not good, even calling it disappointing would be an understatement.

Where do I even begin? From the plot holes re: Shazi and Shiva's friendship, to why the heck everyone worshipped Shahrzad so much. Even her and Khalid's romance was underdone. He was cursed for God's sake, and he just let her live because she told him stories which by the way were not even close the how the original Shahrzad so delicately spun them in A 1001 Nights.

Shazi was a character who lacked substance. She gave up on killing the guy after 3 days for the sake of her fluttering heart, bear in mind the guy is still her best friend's murderer. Maybe she had a heart, but if she repeats this, and then goes back to being all chummy chummy then it's not even my fault:

I will live to see tomorrow's sunset. Make no mistake. I swear I will live to see
as many sunsets as it takes.
And I will kill you.
With my own hands.

I mean come on Shahrzad! You go from vengeance to butterflies in less time than it takes to read the goddamned title.

Ms. Ahdieh was very keen on including some “culture” in her retelling. This was quite evident in her use of terms such tikka sash, sirwal, and qamis thrown around in every single paragraph. Some words not even culturally relevant to Arab dominated Khorasan. She also ended up reducing a Rajput warrior to simply “the Rajput” a silent bodyguard who was the King's brother in arms. Bear in mind that they were determined warriors in India managing to thwart any and every invader. Even historical fiction should at the very least not ignore that they weren't mere bodyguards.

And then of course if you're using the Arab/Middle Eastern (including Iran) World as your cultural reference for everything from clothing to names then at least do it properly. Now I'm not saying she should've made the characters Muslim, that's her choice and as a reader I don't even care. But the VERY LEAST she could've done was not do this:

“Holy Hera,” Shahrzad moaned.
With grim resignation, he reached for his shamshir.

In the Arab world, or even if you want to base it in Ancient Persia, people have never worshipped Greek Gods and Goddesses nor has Greek culture had any impact beyond the scholarly world in subjects such as Medicine or Philosophy. The Arab word for God is Allah. No Arab or Persian would say Holy Hera. Heck if the word Allah would've offended your white readers, just use God. The cultural insensitivity is appalling.