[Review] The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

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?

I don’t know…

I think it was one of the most boring books I’ve ever read. I was in the verge of stop reading every three pages.

Writing Style

To be honest, the book was so well written that left me in shock. There was third person POV and usually I hate it. I think you need to be an excellent author to be able to pull off the third person POV. So I am happy to announce that I am really satisfied. I can’t really explain what is going on in my head but I felt like the writing was aery and pretty! Loved it.

Plot

The plot is well known to all of us. It’s the classic “A thousand and one nights” story, so pretty much I knew what was going on. The thing is that I was expecting something more since it was a retelling but I was completely disappointed. I mean to me it seems that there was no plot at all. Like the author decided to write the story but didn’t know what to write and went with the flow. Nothing makes sense and it was supposed to be awesome.

The thing that actually bored me and brought me so close to dnf the book was the stories. Yes, I get that Shazard was supposed to be a story teller but for crying out loud, I don’t care about other stories. Why invest so many pages to the stories Shazard was telling? Get to the point of the actual story. I skipped so many pages and I felt so bad for doing so. Such a pity…

Characters

Shazard is the type of female character I thoroughly despise. Through the whole book there was this buzz about her and the things she was capable of accomplishing. She was admired and respected by everyone and here I am asking you all, why?

Was she a great story teller? Probably but I skipped the stories; I was bored.

Was she smart? Let’s see… she offered to kill a fearful king without even having a plan. She counted on her stories to stay alive and then what? What if the stories weren’t good enough? Girl… really?

Was she determined? She sure was the first day. A couple of days in the palace and she’s already in love with the killer of her best friend.

Not to mention that she was in love with Tariq since forever and threw that love away like it was nothing… Please!

Overall

Based on most of the reviews the book is thrilling and I was expecting it to be that way. It was not…

Maybe it’s just me but if I really wanted to read the “A thousand and one nights” story I would pick the original. No need for a retelling if it’s almost the same thing (or worse).

[Renee Ahdieh]