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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.
Moderate: Rape and Violence
Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Death of parent