The Wrath & The Dawn | Renee AhdiehReleased: May. 12, 2015
Publisher: GPSB for Young Readers
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Pages: 395
Source: Amazon
Rating: Did Not Finish
One Life to One Dawn.
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.
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 received a review copy courtesy of the author/publisher. This does not affect my opinion or views regarding the book whatsoever.
On this chilly rainy day, I'll be discussing my thoughts on one of the most popular hyped books of 2015, The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh. A re-telling of A Thousand And One Nights, I had such high hopes for this coveted novel and was let down tremendously.
If you're a loyal reader of my blog, seeing a DNF review will come as no surprise. I've been pegged as the DNF Queen of the community, most likely due to not only my love of writing negative reviews, but my funny nature of going about them. It's been quite some time since I've actually written one, I've been off in some fairytale land where every book I picked up was pretty damn good, but when the bookish gods come marching into your oasis demanding you to entertain them, you know something sucky is brewing ahead. Here goes their entertainment I guess.
If you're a loyal reader of my blog, seeing a DNF review will come as no surprise. I've been pegged as the DNF Queen of the community, most likely due to not only my love of writing negative reviews, but my funny nature of going about them. It's been quite some time since I've actually written one, I've been off in some fairytale land where every book I picked up was pretty damn good, but when the bookish gods come marching into your oasis demanding you to entertain them, you know something sucky is brewing ahead. Here goes their entertainment I guess.
.
Not liking a main character can ruin everything for me. It never takes me long to determine whether or not I'm going to like, love, or dislike a book. I usually get a visit from a literary ghost around 10% that tells me " okay, so far so good, OMFG this is fucking amazing right, or yeah this shit is definitely not for you. " When I initially picked up The Wrath & The Dawn, so many of my friends excitedly tweeted me, " OMG you're going to love this! It was one of my favorite reads of last year! SO GOOD! This gave me such an adrenaline rush that by the time I started, I had extremely high expectations to the point I just knew I was going to love it. Well, by 6% that ghost sat beside me with a tray of cheesy nachos and whispered, " The main character has you a bit peeved eh? " Yep peeved wasn't even the word.
The biggest issue that I had with the story, was our main character Shahrzad. After her best friend was killed by Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, Shazi volunteers as tribute, (hehe as tribute) in hopes to avenge her bestie's death, (as well as all of the other young girls he has murdered) by killing him. The problem? Not only was she irritating as all hell, her character wasn't believable. Yes, characters have to be believable for me to buy what they're saying. When Shazi's perspective first came into play I thought, " damn she's fierce! " As one feisty sista to the next, this made me excited. But as I crawled deeper into the story, her personality started to feel incredibly forced. Smart alec-y and sassy just didn't fit her at all, which gave such an unnatural air to everything she did and said. Often times, especially during her inner thoughts and dialogue, I felt as if she were rehearsing lines for a role in someone's play, trying to fit the mold of what the real " Shazi " was supposed to be. She was selling me this strong, I-don't-take-anyone's-shit vibe, and I damn sure wasn't buying it. Make no mistakes. I swear I will live to see as many sunsets as it takes. And I will kill you. With my own hands. Oh girl pulease, you ain't bout that life
I'm easily distracted as it is. You know a book has gone to shit when you're supposed to be reading, but in between paragraphs, you're A. Stalking people on twitter B. Liking endless photos on Instagram, especially of books and food. C. Watching Uncharted 4 Gameplay on Youtube. Long sentence short, I was doing any and everything besides reading. When I was dreadfully reading again, I couldn't find anything that interested me enough to keep pushing to the end. I felt incredibly disconnected from the characters. Y'all know I couldn't stand Ms.DoingTheMost, Tariq could've died from thirst in the desert, (I liked Rahim though) and Khalid was just okay. The multiple POV's from each person didn't bother me and were surprisingly seamless despite the fact that they began without notice, but I believe it was the switching of perspectives that took away my chance to become not only fully invested in the characters but with the story itself. Ah and the romance? I wasn't sold on this either. Shazi and Khalid didn't spend a great deal of time together, so when their feelings for each other blossomed, I rolled my eyes and took a 3 hour haitus from the book. No one has time for insta-love. Their dialogue was either Shazi trying too hard to be a boss bitch, or Khalid speaking to her as if he's never seen a girl in his entire life. Oh cliche YA, I adore you.
I tried so hard to like this book, I really did. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. The writing was pretty damn good, but I ended up being incredibly irked that there was virtually NO WORLD BUILDING. While the author could describe the hell out of a feast, sand, or a damn pillow, everything else was non-existent. Getting through the book felt as if I were sludging my way through cement. I was getting nowhere fast, and when I guessed the big " reveal " around 30 something percent, I just knew it was my time to thrown in the towel and call it a day.
Best book of 2015 my ass. Yall owe me big time you scoundrels * shakes fist *
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