Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Wrath and the Dawn

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

22 reviews

pomegranate_muse's review against another edition

Go to review page

Sadly, despite wanting to really like this book, I did not. It was very dull.

Content Warnings

thekingsan's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.0

Stopped reading as soon as a sixteen year old was forced to have sex. Why is this even a thing to use as a lot starter. Im not even interested in if he becomes a good guy or likeable character, it as a crime represented disrespectfully :(

Content Warnings

cleolindbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

I really wanted to like this book but I had major issues with it by the end. While it is a fantastic premise, I think the execution left a lot to be desired, especially when justifying the relationship and the murder of the women. The general plot is Shahrzad marries Khalid who murdered her best friend in order to kill him. Every day he marries a woman ans every Dawn she is strangled until Shahrzad who, for some reason he lets live. Even before starting the book, it says that there is a reason for these deaths. And despite reasons in the book saying they should be consequences to keeping her alive, there really isn’t. There’s really no explanation for why nothing comes of her being left alive when throughout the story we were told there are ulterior motive’s to why he was killing these women.

In addition, this book has the instant love trope, which I find extremely concerning, and probably one of the biggest issues Shahrzad comes to the Palace and marries him to get revenge for her best friend who he murdered. But before knowing that there was ulterior motive for him killing her, she starts falling in love with him, and is extremely attracted to him. Tariq says at the best in the book, but how could she fall in love with the man who killed her best friend? I think this book would’ve been much better if she didn’t fall in love with him. She goes back-and-forth, whether or not she should Kill him, and even decides to do it. But then immediately after changes her mind again.

I was extremely confused and concerned about was at the beginning of the book it states that he comes to her room twice I believe and they have relations. This is when she has been married to him for a few hours, and still hates his guts. Later in the store, it is even said that he never visited any of the other wives in this way. I did not like that this was included as it really had no bearing to the plot or story. They could’ve easily been taken out and changed nothing but it further is my belief that the relationship is not one that should be shown as romantic.

Also, I believe the main character is not very well developed or comparable to the original main character of 1001 nights. Shahrzad volunteers in order to kill him but it immediately it’s clear to the reader that she has no plan or way to do this. She marries him expecting to die at Dawn the very next day so I thought she would at least have a plan, or ability to kill him. She tells him the story of the very first night and does again on the second night, but they really don’t ever use that again. For a book based on storytelling and survival, there was very little actual storytelling.

I wanted to like this book so much I went into it, expecting to really enjoy it. I am really disappointed with the direction of story took as I loved the premise. At the beginning, there is a lot of name dropping, which leaves you asking who is this person and what is their connection to the people around them. It also felt like there wasn’t much actually happening. Just a lot of back-and-forth without a lot of real development to the story until the very very end.

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve wanted to read this book in forever. This book was gifted to me by my friends for my birthday and I was excited to read it. It took me a while to get into, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.

This book has multiple POVs from this love triangle. There is Khalid, who is an eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. There is Shahrzad, she is sixteen and she has volunteered to marry Khalid. But she does have a clever plan to stay and exact revenge on Khalid for the murder of her best friend and the countless other girls that Khalid has executed. Shazi’s wit and will does get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her friend. She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems, and neither are the death of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. The third POV is Shazi’s best friend named Tariq and he has been in love with Shazi since they were children. He has found out what Shazi is doing and is determined to rescue her and take her home and to kill the king once and for all.

I struggled with this book at first and I think it’s because of the lack of world-building at the beginning or a storyline, it jumped in straight to the action that I sort of had to read ahead to then get what the hell was going on. I didn’t know this was a retelling of Thousand and One Nights and I've never read that book, so I went in completely blind. The world-building did get there eventually but for a fantasy I look for the world-building and how immersed I can get in the world, and it just didn’t happen here.

The thing that saved this book were the characters and the romance that was budding between Khalid and Shazi. It was 1000% enemies-to-lovers, and I was down for it. The tension, the mystery, the conflicting emotions they were both feeling and how they slowly opened to each other. I liked the mystery aspect of it and how you didn’t know who was trying to poison Shazi. I loved how bad-ass Shazi is, like everyone around her is trying to protect her and then she’s like no I can’t protect my damn self. I loved the side characters such as the guards and the maidens and would have loved to have seen more of them.

The storyline managed to keep me hooked but overall felt like it was just missing that extra sparkle that would have made it five stars. But I am looking forward to the next book of the duet.

Content Warnings

truegrit's review against another edition

Go to review page

Really gross set up - like an enemies to lovers situation but he's a murderer and rapist? Could not abide by the story line or characters, really yucky.

Content Warnings

whenjessreads's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This book was beautifully written. The prose was flowery in a good way, the representation of Middle Eastern culture made me want to pack my bags and jump on a plane, and the whole thing was just atmospheric and magical. The plot itself - inspired by 1001 Nights - wasn’t overly complicated and though it has been a long time since I read the original, I thought this was fresh and inventive.

The MC Shahrzad (Shazi) was strong and sharp-tongued (love some acerbic wit in a female character!), with a level of arrogance that I thought was really satisfying - often men written with arrogance are thought of as ‘strong’ or ‘determined’, but it’s nice to see some of these written as positive qualities in a FMC.

Dedicating a paragraph here to the FOOD. Holy hell, after reading this book I was ravenous. I just want a recording of Renée Ahdieh describing various Middle Eastern foods that I can play on repeat and dream about.

On to the things I didn’t like…

I loved the strength of the MC. But she was all talk. No planning, ill judgement, ego… It was so frustrating that her determination wasn’t backed up.

I wasn’t super interested in the secondary POV, Tariq. He annoyed me and I thought he was just unlikeable and unnecessary. SHOO. The third POV, Jahandar, made the storyline confusing and stilted.

There were a couple of weird moral issues with the romance, uncomfortable events that were brushed off and seemed to have no emotional impact. It felt a little like Stockholm’s syndrome, but in… 2 days?

Regardless. I enjoyed it! I will definitely be picking up the sequel, and I’m mad that this is a library book because I want to own it.

Content Warnings

reading_racoon69's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was really a solid 4 stars for me. It was really cool and if you love the enemies to lovers vibe with dystopia and some * chef’s kiss * tension. Uff this is for you ! (Daggers and all 🤩)

Now, why not 5 stars? This is just personally because I didn’t have as much fun reading it as I thought I would even though it was undoubtedly good and SUCH A PAGE TURNER.
At the start it was a little bit boring and I kind of didn’t want to read about tariq and Rahim walking around in the desert… but it was only for a few pages so I guess it’s fine ! Still it kind of took the focus out of the plot line I really liked (and I’m guessing you too)

Anyway, super great read !

Content Warnings

laneyaallen's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is one of my favorite books. it is the only book I have read 3+ times. The writing style is very captivating and keeps you entertained. It's a very hard to put down book and keeps me reading for hours on end.

Content Warnings

lqne's review against another edition

Go to review page

fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

nicoleme1212's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

More...