Hi booklovers
Today I want to review The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. This is a very hard book to review. Up until page 342 this was a mèh - okayish book and I could understand the mixed reviews it was getting. The last 40 pages however turned this from a 2.75 stars read into a 3.75 stars read and all it took was a little confession. I read this for the #OWBookclub for March - the theme was Fairytale Retellings - but I didn’t finish it before the end of March.
Title: The Wrath and the Dawn
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Genre: YA, fantasy, retellings
Format: paperback
*Story:
Every night the Caliph of Khorasan – Khalid – takes a new bride and every morning the girl is found dead. Shahrzad’s best friend is one of the victims and she seeks revenge. She volunteers to be Khalid’s next bride so she can end his reign of terror. Through her storytelling she manages to stay alive, but she soon finds out there is more to Khalids actions than meets the eye.
Every night the Caliph of Khorasan – Khalid – takes a new bride and every morning the girl is found dead. Shahrzad’s best friend is one of the victims and she seeks revenge. She volunteers to be Khalid’s next bride so she can end his reign of terror. Through her storytelling she manages to stay alive, but she soon finds out there is more to Khalids actions than meets the eye.
*Characters:
-Shahrzad: This is a hard character to ‘rate’: on the one hand she is strong and determined to go through with her plan but on the other hand she is also very fickle and indecisive. Sometimes she was quirky and smart-tongued but at other times she was just downright childish.
SPOILER:
I also found it very unconvincing that she changed her mind about Khalid almost overnight.
SPOILER:
I also found it very unconvincing that she changed her mind about Khalid almost overnight.
-Khalid: He is a very ‘hard to read’ character. The moment he finally opened up to Shazi and told her why he has to kill these young women was the moment the story finally grabbed me. Unfortunately, there were only about 40 pages of the book left by that time :-s
-Jalal: He is both arrogant and very honest – well, most of the time anyway.
-Tariq: I didn’t like him at all.
SPOILER:
Shazi specifically said she’s nobody’s possession, but I found Tariq to be very possessive – even more so than Khalid - and I didn't like that!
SPOILER:
Shazi specifically said she’s nobody’s possession, but I found Tariq to be very possessive – even more so than Khalid - and I didn't like that!
-Despira: A quirky character who wears her heart on her sleeve.
*Plot/worldbuilding/overall rating:
Like I said it took the story 342 out of the 388 pages to fully grab my attention, which is a pretty long time. I am, however, glad I didn’t DNF the book because the cliffhanger ending made me curious enough to want to pick up the sequel. I do sincerely hope that story grabs me from the start.
Like I said it took the story 342 out of the 388 pages to fully grab my attention, which is a pretty long time. I am, however, glad I didn’t DNF the book because the cliffhanger ending made me curious enough to want to pick up the sequel. I do sincerely hope that story grabs me from the start.
3.75 stars
Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.
Bye for now
Annelies
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