A review by whenjessreads
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

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.
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