The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - spoiler-free review.

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.

*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.

 
-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!
 

-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.

3.75 stars

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments.

Bye for now

Annelies

Fairest by Marissa Meyer - non-spoiler review.

Hi booklovers

Continuing with my reviews of the Lunar Chronicles, today I'll be reviewing Fairest, book 3.5 in the series. Because this is a novella, this review will be rather short.
 

Title: Fairest

Author: Marissa Meyer

Genre: YA, sci-fi, fairy-tale retelling

Format: paperback

*Story:
This is the story of how queen Levana came to be the evil person that we know from the other books in the series. We get to see Levana from her childhood through her teenage years and early adulthood.

*Plot/overall rating:
I went into this book not expecting to like Levana better/more afterwards and I didn't by the end of the book. I did, however, understand better why she is such a bitch, but that didn't make me sympathise with her. On the contrary, I disliked her even more. Granted, she hasn't had an easy childhood and her sister Channery is so cruel to her, but that doesn't justify the things Levana has done.
SPOILERS:
I can't believe how she manipulated her husband into loving her and then in the end killing him because of her plans to rule Earth. The way she held him prisoner for ten years, not even giving him time to mourn the loss of his wife is just so cruel.
The way she planned to kill princess Selene so she could be the true queen of Luna and she thinks she's being merciful by letting Selene die - something Channery didn't do for her - is so twisted.
 

Is this a necessary read: not really, but it does give you a great insight into Levana's character. It didn't make me sympathize with her, on the contrary, it made me hate her even more. This, to me is testament of the great and wonderful writing style of Marissa Meyer.

3.75 stars to be precise

Have you read this novella? What did you think of it?
 

Bye for now
 

Annelies