A good start to a series which gathers momentum in its final third.
3.5/5 stars.
If you want to know more about this story, inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, skip down to the bottom of this review for the (rather long) blurb.
My take:
The premise is great, the setting and descriptions are wonderful and the plot is sufficiently complex. I didn’t have any issues with pacing and, on the whole, the characters had depth and became increasingly three-dimensional as the book progressed.
Unfortunately, I had to take stars away because the writing style commits a serious crime: it jars you out of the story. Firstly, I found myself turning to the glossary at the back of the book several times (thank you Ashley for mentioning this – it helped!). Secondly, the characters often have conversations referring to several characters we haven’t met yet, discussing them as if we all know who they are and what’s going on. This was very disorientating, not helped by how long the character names tend to be, with formal and familiar variations.
And finally, I assume the writer was attempting to imitate the rhythms and some of the expressions found in Persian literature. Which is fine and an interesting approach to take, particularly if it enriches the narrative and pulls the reader further into the fictional world. However, every time someone “shuttered his/her gaze” – which I presume is unnecessarily fancy for “closed their eyes” – I ground my teeth and sighed.
All that said, I would recommend The Wrath and the Dawn and will read the sequel. I felt the book got into its stride in the final third, setting things up nicely for the next installment. I just hope the characters have learned to simply close their eyes by then.
The blurb: 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?
Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.
I’ve been seeing this beautiful cover all over Instagram, but this is the second review I’ve read here on WordPress that says the contents don’t quite match the perfect front. Still, I may eventually check it out. Thanks for the review!
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It’s so beautiful 🙂
It’s good, just not wonderful. I get the impression it only warm up in the final third and the second book should be better.
Thank you for reading my review!
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It sounds like we had mostly the same problems with this read, although I didn’t find out about the glossary until I finished it. The last part is definitely the most interesting and I will most likely read the sequel as well. It’s such a shame it will recently be published May next year though. Great review!
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Thank you!
I agree about the sequel coming out in the middle of next year. How am I going to remember all the complicated names?! 😉
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Great review! 🙂
Yeah, we definitely had a lot of the same problems with the book.
Hopefully the sequel is even better!
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I hope so. I just hope I haven’t forgotten who everyone is and what’s going on with all the magical shenanigans by the time it comes out 🙂
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So true! OMG! LOL! I hope I haven’t forgotten everyone as well, especially with all those names they have!
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I think one of my friends has recently read this book, though she never got as far as telling me the title (she just says “I read a good book!” then gives very long, detailed summaries of the premise and major characters, lol).
“shuttered his gaze”… ergh. If he closed his eyes, just say so! No need to be fancy!
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The first time the “shuttered her gaze” thing came up I had to stop, go back, and re-read it three times before I was sure I understood what it was referring to. I imagine it’s a direct translation from Arabic/Persian, which is all good and well, but not if it reminds the reader they’re reading!!
It is a good book, but I get the impression the sequel will be better (lots of setting things up in this one).
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