BRAND NEW YA ROMANCE SET IN ANCIENT ARABIA, BASED ON ARABIAN NIGHTS.

Confession: I am an absolute er for YA novels, and I am an absolute er for novels based on myths/legends/folklore, especially the kind that comes from outside the typical Western sphere. Renee Ahdieh combines my two favorites in this first volume of of what looks to be a promising series, The Wrath and the Dawn. 

A lot of you might be familiar with the story of Aladdin and the Lamp, a story which comes from a collection of tales known as 1,001 Arabian Nights or simply The Arabian Nights. This collection of stories actually comes with a frame narrative that explains the origin of the tales. The story goes that there was once a king who, suffering from the pain of a broken heart and the sting of betrayal, takes a new wife every night and kills her at dawn. Determined to put a stop to the bloodshed, a brave main, Scheherazade, volunteers to marry the king and comes up with a plan. So each night, she tells him a story and because he’s so excited to hear how it ends, he keeps her alive, and it goes on like this for 1,001 nights, at the end of which, he’s fallen in love with her and no longer wants to kill her.

This story is actually one of my favorites, and I’ve always wanted to write a k-pop fan fic based on this story, too. It looks like Miss Ahdieh has beaten me to it, however, but I confess that this version is way better than anything I could have come up with. I like this tale a lot because it’s about the power of storytelling. I talk about writing a lot and have written a few how-to posts about word choice, how to get started, where to find ideas, etc. But I think it’s almost important to remember that writing isn’t just about stringing up fancy-sounding sentences; it’s about sharing stories.

The Wrath and the Dawn is a re-imagining of this story of Scheherazade. The king in the story is now the 18-year-old caliph of Khorasan, Khalid ibn al Rashid, who is feared and hated by his subjects because he takes a new bride each night and executes her at dawn, and one of those girls happens to be Shahrzad’s best friend. To get revenge, Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid, charm him with some stories and then kill him. But the more time she spends in the palace, the more she senses that not all is as it seems, and Khalid’s actions are more than senseless murders. Oh, and she’s falling in love with him.

For the sake of this review, I’ll break down the items I liked and didn’t like individually. Let’s start with the main character, Shahrzad. Gotta say, she was a bit different from what I expected. In the folktale of Scheherazade, the titular character is characterized as being clever and intelligent, very caring of her family, beautiful, etc. In The Wrath and the Dawn, Shahrzad is indeed clever and beautiful, but she’s also feisty, has a bit of a temper, quick-witted, and can certainly hold her own in combat, both physically and verbally.

The only thing I wish she had more of was perhaps some backstory or a something to show her sensitive side. She was a well-rounded character, but sometimes I felt like the author was desperate to make sure she wasn’t a Mary-Sue, damsel-in-distress type that she forgot to give her a solid personality. Don’t get me wrong, Shahrzad is definitely not a boring character, but compared to Khalid…

Let’s talk about Khalid, shall we? The dreamy, smoldering, tormented, tsundere male-lead of the novel. Let me start by saying that I am a little bit in love with him. He starts out as an emotionless, complicated wreck that doesn’t seem very interesting, but the more you read of him, the more attached you get to the enigmatic boy-king. And the further you get into the book, the more frustrated you get the iron-grip he keeps on his secrets.

But what really got me was, while reading the book, getting to see his stone-cold facade fall apart bit by the bit the more he falls for his equally frustrating bride. The little things he does for her, the subtle changes in his behavior, his reactions when he thinks she might come to harm, I died. It probably didn’t help that I was thinking about Avan Jogia the entire time, too.

But of course, no YA romance novel is complete without a love-triangle. Completing our Shahrzad-Khalid triangle is her childhood friend and first-love, Tariq Imran al Ziyad, who is also a sympathetic character, being all cool-guy with his silvery eyes and white hunting falcon. There’s also the charismatic captain of the guard, Jalal, and Shazi’s other childhood friend, the grumbling but low-key hilarious Rahim, and Shahrzad’s handmaiden, the lively Theban, Despina. Really amazing cast of solid characters that you’re going to love.

The only thing I could complain about is probably the confusion I had over the plot. It seems like there is so much going on all at once: Khorasan citizens rioting, Khalid’s problems, Shahrzad’s feeling torn, Tariq is jealous and wants to kill Khalid, some tribes planning a coup, Khalid’s uncle planning to oust him, and Shahrzad’s father turning into a dark sorcerer. It leaves me wondering just what the hell is supposed to be happening. But I guess I could attribute this confusion to the fact that it’s only the first book in many, and the job of the first book is usually to set up for the next few. Hopefully Book 2 will clear things up. In the meantime, I definitely suggest you go pick up a copy of The Wrath and the Dawn, and I hope you like it as much as I do :)

Click here to buy it on Amazon!