When Shahrzad’s best friend Shiva is one of dozens of young brides murdered by Khorasan’s monstrous boy-king the dawn after their wedding night, Shazi decides to devote her life towards seeking revenge. She volunteers to marry the mad king, leaving behind a promise to her family and first love that she will not only find a way to break the deadly cycle and stay alive, but also discover the caliph’s weakness to finally end his sadistic reign.
What follows is a beautiful, complicated, hauntingly romantic retelling of A Thousand and One Nights. Tormented by his own inner demons, the caliph, Khalid, is more than he seems. He uses his cold cruelty to hide his inner anguish, but in his new bride, Shazi, he might finally have met his match. Role-playing as the enchanting seductress while weaving tales to meet her own ends, Shahrzad’s vibrancy ensnares the young king, even as she finds herself getting caught up in her own game.
‘The Wrath and the Dawn’ review
I fell in love with this Persian Beauty and the Beast retelling from the moment I opened the front flap and found myself staring at a beautiful brown girl on the cover. Diversity in young adult literature has become a hot-button topic as of late with the emergence of organizations like We Need Diverse Books, but while in the past YA books have often been criticized for choosing to white-wash the diversity out of their covers, The Wrath and the Dawn’s fearless dedication to its Arabic roots is the first of many ways in which it proves that it isn’t afraid to be a different, more complicated, and ultimately more exquisite kind of YA tale than what we’re used to.
Because of the fascinating premise, I went into The Wrath and the Dawn with exceedingly high expectations, but even so, once I started reading I was blown away. In this sweeping tale of discovery and heartbreak, the reader is taken on a wild ride of conflicting emotions as we, along with Shahrzad, struggle to differentiate between heroes and villains. Ultimately, the lesson is that it is all about perspective, as we find ourselves accidentally falling in love with the people Shahrzad so desperately wants to hate.
In Shahrzad, The Wrath and the Dawn gives us a fierce, feisty heroine worth rooting for. She’s dynamic and daring — a brave, brilliant girl left with nothing to lose. Shazi’s fears and loss feel so real that her narrative ultimately left me as emotionally conflicted as she was. Do we owe more to our past, or our future? And when does personal growth become a betrayal to the ones left behind?
What I was most grateful for while reading The Wrath and the Dawn was that while the author allows the reader to forgive the characters, excuses are never made for their faults. Everyone is held accountable for their choices, and even amidst a sexy, smoldering romance, the sins of the past create consequences that seem mountainous to overcome.
Keep a lookout for our interview with author Renee Ahdieh, coming next week! The Rose and the Dagger, the second and final book in Shahrzad’s story will be released in 2016.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh is available now. You can add it to your Goodreads list, or purchase it from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or IndieBound.