The Wrath and the Dawn

“Love is a force unto itself sayyidi. For love, people consider the unthinkable.... and often achieve the impossible. I would not sneer at its power.”

I grew up watching Alif Laila on TV. Watched and heard different stories from Arabian Nights like Sindbad, Alibaba, Aladdin etc. What I didn't know initially was that all of them originated from 1001 Nights. And I definitely didn't know that it still fascinated readers after all this time. So, when I heard about this new reimagining of the tale(s) that is so highly rated, I decided to pick it up.

“Give him the love that will enable him to see it for himself. To a lost soul, such a treasure is worth its weight in gold. Worth its weight in dreams.”

This book follows Shahrzad, who volunteered to marry the caliph Khalid to exact revenge for the murder of her best friend Shiva. Shiva's cousin and Shazi's first love Tariq decides to kill the caliph himself to get her back and starts gathering forces from like-minded nobles and supporters. Shazi's father Jalandar turns to dark magic to find the strength to get his daughter back and become powerful. And then the unthinkable happens; Khalid and Shazi fall in love.

“I know Love is fragile. And loving someone like you is near impossible. Like holding something shattered through a raging sandstorm. If you want her to love you, shelter her from that storm. And make certain that storm isn't you.”

I really thought I had outgrown romance novels. Even though this story has some mystery, fantasy and magical elements, it's heart is a love story. So, I didn't expect to really love it. But surprise surprise!!!! I did. I fell in love with both of them – the boy king pretending to be a monster and the girl who can't stop herself from falling for him. Even though she seems vulnerable in love, Shazi is a very strong young girl – equal parts fierce, stubborn, determined and so full of love. Khalid is a ruthless king but also a boy who just needs love – this paradox is captured very well. Jalal and Despina are wonderfully written supporting characters and their flirty and playful natures bring much humor amidst all the angst. But the best part of this book are the words themselves. The writing is beautiful and captivating throughout – the descriptions of the palace, the lavish clothes and jewelry, the smells of the food, Khalid's letters full of his unspoken feelings, Shazi's inner turmoil – all the words are vivid and rich and soulful. I fell in love with the characters because of this exquisite writing. And finally, these same beautiful words broke my heart.....

“For nothing, not the sun, not the rain, not even the brightest star in the darkest sky, could begin to compare to the wonder of you.”

4.5 Stars

I need more of Shahrzad and Khalid and now I have to wait until May 2016 to find out what happens and to read more of their incredible story. This was an amazing debut filled with beautiful writing, breathtaking scenery, and strong, determined characters.

This book was beyond hyped when it came out and I contemplated buying it many times in May and June, but I held off and I have to say I'm really glad I waited for the hype to wind down. I still went into this book with high expectations, but I did not go into it with the insane amount of people furiously reading it at the same time.

Right from the beginning, I was pulled into this story. The writing is stunning and entices you right away. This book is a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights which I'm not really familiar with so I cannot say much on how it matches up or how it compares as a retelling, but I can say that I loved this story. I also really loved the scenery throughout this book. I always knew exactly what was going on throughout the book and could easily picture the setting and that is a credit to Renee Ahdieh's amazing skills.

My only issue with this book was two-fold. At the beginning of the book, there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary eye descriptions. I'm not really sure why I picked up on this, but I feel like a lot of the descriptions related to eyes and it was a bit unnerving. And I know that is weird to say when I loved how descriptive this book was, but there was something about the eye descriptions at the beginning that did not sit with me.

Second, I know we all love the villain (or bad-boy) love story, but I felt like Khalid was not your full villain that he was made out to be. While he seemed like a villain at first, he really was just a tortured soul. I cannot really complain too much because I still loved his characterization but I think labeling him the villain is wrong.

Finally, the last thing I want to say is Thank You, Renne Ahdieh for making this a duology. Way too many YA books think they need to be a trilogy and this can cause series to be drawn out and have way too much filler. And secondly, thank you for not adding a needless love triangle to this duology. You definitely had the opportunity to but, I applaud the lack of executing it!

So as you can tell, I loved this book and it is definitely one of the best I've read this year! I cannot wait for The Rose and the Dagger to come out so I can find out the conclusion to Shahrzad and Khalid's epic story.

7.31.2021 Update: I wrote a really cheesy review about this book back when I was freshly 18 and you can read that below but ohmyfucking God this book is even better than I remember. Someone please run me over bc I will never find love.

Original Review:

10/5 stars

“My soul sees it's equal in you.”
How the hell do I review a book like this? How am I suppose to give it just five stars, when it deserves all the stars in the night sky? How do I search through the language I've spoken since birth to find a string of words that could possibly describe my love for this novel?

I'm not good at writing reviews, I am the first to admit that, but I see myself growing better with every book I do take the time to review. I can easily put together a few casual words to place my feelings before me, let others know what I like and what I disliked about what I just read. Yet, with the Wrath & the Dawn, I am speechless. I don't know how to process everything I just read and put my emotions and thoughts into words. I don't know how to take the words I do somehow create and place them into paragraphs that together will somehow make sense. I just don't know.

I finished this book yesterday, and my mind, my body, my soul still aches for the story even as I trudge non-stop through the sequel. The characters seemed so real, every time I forced my eyes away from the whimsical writing, I could see Shahrzad and Khalid in front of me, talking, kissing, smiling. I felt Shahrzad next to me and her hatred of Khalid evolving into love. Never in all my years of reading has it ever been so easy to imagine the characters, to feel as if I already knew them.

These characters quickly became my friends. I rooted for them throughout their adventure together. As they slowly fell in love, I rooted for their romance. When they finally came together, when they found something in each other that no one else could see, when they perfected each other in a way no one else could, I rejoiced for them, celebrated their love as if it was my own.

I went to sleep, and thought about this book. I let my mind wander through slumber, and it dreamt about this book. I woke up and yearned to read just a word from this book.

Everything about The Wrath & The Dawn was perfect.

More then perfect. It was impeccable. Flawless.

It was a read I'll never forget.

Tenho sentimentos MUITO misturados quanto a essa leitura. E como acabei de terminar, preciso de um tempo para me “recompor”.
Apenas digo que passou do favoritado para sempre, para a aversão completa, para novamente favoritado, e esse looping de sentimentos ainda permanece em meu ser.
Embora as muitas pontas soltas deixadas para o segundo livro, não estou com siricutico para ler a continuação...
Tentarei formular pensamentos mais coerentes em breve.

From the recommendations of OverDrive, I put a hold on this book and promptly forgot about it. It didn't really seem my type of story, but I was lacking things to read at the moment, so I thought, “What the heck?”

What the heck indeed! This story is so captivating, the characters so riveting, the romance so endearing... I need to file a complaint with Renee Ahdieh for being the root of my exhaustion from sleepless nights spent reading this fantastic story! Ahdieh subtly weaves you into a world that combines elements of romance, mystery, and magic with such expertise, you don't even realize you're caught in her trap until it's too late–you're caught. All I can tell you is to stop whatever you're doing–even if it's sleeping–and read this book!

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.

The Wrath and the Dawn sounded like one of those millions of other “A Thousand and One Nights” re-tellings. But this was not the case. It is a beautiful book filled with passion and torn-up regrets and overwhelming emotions. It is a book that deserves to be read a thousand and one times.
I didn't expect anything from this book other than “oh it's Young Adult- how fun.” I was definitely blown out-of-the-water. Khalid and Shahi were two beautifully, flawed characters who deserve the world but believed that they deserved nothing. One wanted revenge and the other just wanted the past to be rectified. Tariq can go kiss someone else's ass for his own inflated ego because he needs to stop.
I can't wait for the next book. I'm dying for it.

When I was young I always loved the fairy tale Aladdin because the setting of the Far Eastern world seemed so exotic and colourful and full of life. I loved the Disney adaptation and think that to this day it remains one of my favourite Disney musicals of all time. To find a book set in this wonderful fairy tale setting is exciting and to then find it is loosely based on the tales of Scheherezade's A Thousand And One Nights is even more so.

The Wrath And The Dawn is the first book in Renee Ahdieh's Wrath & The Dawn duology and follows Shaharzad, a 16-year-old girl who chooses to marry the King. Under normal circumstances, this would be every young girl's dream but this King has been taking a new bride every night and his brides always meet the same fate, killed as the dawn rises the day after their marriage. Shahrazad's best friend Shiva is one of the brides that Khalid has killed and Shazi marries him for one reason, to kill him and gain her revenge for the death of her friend.

Shazi begins to realise that this King whom everyone hates is hiding a secret, the real reason why he is killing these young women and as she begins to get to know him she finds herself doing the unthinkable and falling in love with the man she had set out to kill. There begins a love that encompasses them both but which could put their whole kingdom in jeopardy.

This book was just wonderful right from the outset. There are lots of new words and descriptions for the old Eastern weapons and dress but once you become familiar with them you are transported to this beautiful world full of spice and colour and beauty. Ahdieh manages to bring this to life and really pulls you into the atmosphere of the novel and it feels like true escapism. If I put the book down I couldn't wait to get back to it so I could enjoy being in that world for a while instead of Scotland in what has been a cold, wet, windy summer.

We meet a wonderful cast of characters, Jalal the cousin of Khalid and Captain of his Guard, Despina the handmaiden of Shazi who is initially sent to spy on her but who becomes her close friend and confidante. Tariq, the childhood friend and love of Shazi who sets out to rescue her from the palace the fate that has befallen all the other brides of the Caliph. Ahdieh spins a wonderful tale, we know that Khalid hides a secret but we aren't given this too early on in the novel so this means that the relationship built between Shazi and Khalid feels built upon their real feelings for each other despite the uncertainty Shazi faces about her future.

The ending leaves things wide open as we don't arrive at a neat conclusion but instead we have a cliffhanger that will lead us into book 2, The Rose & The Dagger which I cannot wait to read. I find duologies are often really nice as 2 books is a good number that means you get to spend a good long time with characters that you love without having to commit to lots and lots of novels. I am excited to add this to my completed duology list of 2017.

This is absolutely one of my 5 star reads this month as it's a book that was entierly different in setting from lots of books available and a unique take on old fairy tales.

To rate this one is a struggle. It's somewhere around 3.75 for me, but I'll go with a 4 just because 3 seems too low.
It was a buddy read and we agreed that the rhythm of the book was a bit slow yet well orchestrated with some eventful parts. I'll definitely pick up the second to see how the story goes on and if the pacing will suit me better

Loved this! The writing was so alive and descriptive that I felt like I was actually there. I could see everything so clearly in my mind, I could smell the food at the feast, I could almost hear the characters. The whole story felt really, just, alive.

Okay, yeah, there's kind of a little insta-romance here, but I didn't mind it??? I've read much worse instalove than this! And Shahrzad was a brilliant main character and it felt very justified when you read her thoughts about it all. I'd love to hang out with her for one day. I think that'd be awesome.

(PS: am I the only one who kept imagining Shahrzad as a black-haired Daenerys Targaryen? I just couldn't get rid of that image!)

(PPS: the narrator of the audible audiobook did an AMAZING job, you have to listen to it)

2,5 sterretjes

Dit was de eerste keer dat ik een boek las geïnspireerd door de sprookjes van 1001 nacht en dat feit alleen vond ik verfrissend om te lezen. Toch laat dit boek wat dubbele gevoelens na.

Ten eerste vraag ik mij af of ik het uitgangspunt begrepen zou hebben als ik op voorhand al niet de achterflap had gelezen. Het verhaal begint direct met het huwelijk van Shahrzad met de caliph en naast een paar vage referenties is niet echt duidelijk beschreven wat er gaande is. Dus ik vraag mij oprecht af of iemand die dit boek begint te lezen zonder enige voorkennis nog wel kan volgen.

Daarnaast stoorde ik mij wel een beetje aan de instant liefde.
Shahrzad is zo woedend en zo gebeten op wraak, maar één gesprek met de caliph en ze wil opeens niet meer. Ze probeert zelfs niet één keer om hem te vermoorden. Niet één keer! Op geen enkel moment begreep ik waarom ze opeens haar wraak niet meer wilde uitvoeren. Omdat hij schoon ogen heeft? Mjah. De auteur had beter deze shift wat meer uitgewerkt om het realistischer te maken Sjah... Dat maakte het voor mij nogal slordig en ongeloofwaardig.

Verder was het boek enorm vlot geschreven en het bevatte genoeg intrigerende elementen om het verhaal verfrissend en spannend te houden. Uiteraard tal van typische YA tropen, zoals de instant liefde en de driehoeksverhouding, maar bon. Geen hoogvlieger, maar niet slechter dan de duizenden andere YA fantasy boeken.

OMG OMG OMG, love the book sooooo much. I mean, you marry a stranger with hidden agenda, but you unexpectedly fall in love with him, how romantic is that? Duh. when obligation becomes need, and no matter how much is never enough. aww this chills me to the bone, make me blush every scene khalid & shazi together (especially if the venue is at shazi's room lol).