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1.5 stars

"How can I desire him? After he killed Shiva. After he killed so many young girls, without explanation.

What's wrong with me?"

A three-sentence summary of The Wrath and the Dawn:

Shahrzad: I will kill Caliph Khalid to avenge my best friend!
Khalid: *eye smoulder*
Shahrzad: Lol, nah.



That is literally what happens. I'm not joking. The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of the classical One Thousand and One Nights tale. Every day, the Caliph of Khorasan marries a new bride and by dawn, he has her killed. Shahrzad marries him to get revenge for her best friend and within three days, she's putty in his hands.

Three fucking days. Where's the fire? Where's the hate? Where's her brain?

"It's because he's not the monster I thought he was.

There was so much more below the surface, and she had to know what lay at the root of it all."

The book tries so hard to convince readers Shahrzad is Katniss by making her a master archer and spout promises for vengeance. But it'd be nice if she actually carried through with her plan. Her attempts at sniffing out Khalid's weaknesses are poorly thought-out and completely disappear after she falls in insta-love with sunlight-scented Hay Boy. I mean, Khalid.

There's a scene where she directly confronts Khalid on why he kills his wives and he leaves because she has the subtlety of a hippo in a tutu. She then spends the whole day fretting she hurt his feeeeelings and apologizes. Apologizes. For wanting answers. For demanding an open relationship. For understanding why her best friend had to die.



I'm confused to what the intended message is. That if you stick it out long enough in an abusive relationship, you can change him? That violent jerks with short tempers are precious cinnamon rolls with hidden depths?

Keep in mind Shahrzad falls for Khalid before she discovers the real reason behind the murders (in which he's totally blameless because God forbid he's a morally grey character). She is in love with someone who murdered her best friends and hundreds of other girls. At one point, she calls him her "beautiful monster".

Young girls are reading The Wrath and the Dawn and forming their idea of love from it. Do I need to say how dangerous that is? Isn't Fifty Shades of Grey enough?



Speaking of Fifty Shades, let's address the elephant in the room: The Wrath and the Dawn is the Arabian Twilight. There's insta-love like I mentioned and a love triangle with Shahrzad's childhood friend Tariq. Khalid is a gorgeous male specimen who's secretive, hates himself, and a brilliant fighter. He even has amber eyes.



Another thing that bothered me are the rape scenes. Their marriage consummation and the night after was rape, okay? Just like Drogo and Daenerys' marriage was built on rape. Shahrzad didn't want it. She just went ahead with it to earn Khalid's trust. (Edit 29/6/2020: Even if you argue it's technically not rape because she seemed physically willing, it's definitely not fully consensual and thus rapey.)

Later, we discover Khalid had never entered any other bride's bedchamber except hers. Which begs the question: Why? If he loved her from the start, which he does, why would he violate her like that? Why would he perform on her one of the cruelest crimes you do to a person? Or is it supposed to be romantic and special because she's the exception? That's a prize I don't ever want to fucking win.



Then there's the plot itself. Or should I say lack of plot. For a story about murder and mind games, it is surprisingly slow. Nothing really happens until the climax, which abruptly cuts off just when the story ball starts rolling. They cheated me out of a decent climax. Most of the storyline is devoted to the romance, people traveling, and descriptions of clothes.

So. Much. Descriptions.

"She was dressed in wide silk trousers and a fitted top stained a deep violet color, with think straps that banded over each shoulder. The necklace and thin chain at her waist contained amethysts surrounded by tiny, pale pink diamonds. At her ears and along her brow were large teardrops of purple and gold."

I estimate 25% is describing what Shahrzad is wearing at any given time. There are a lot of non-layman terms too that aren't sufficiently contextualized, so they're difficult to understand. Not just for clothes, but weapons and titles and such. Qamis, sirwal, shamshir. I appreciate the research that went into writing this, but there's a point when it gets annoying. It feels like the author is showing off instead of telling us the damn story. The writing itself is overblown and jammed with unnecessary metaphors.



By far the worst YA book I've read in a long time.