"I once had a thousand desires,
But in my one desire to know you,
all else melted away."
— Jalal al-Din Rumi
But in my one desire to know you,
all else melted away."
— Jalal al-Din Rumi
As a fan of Arabian Nights, Disney's Aladdin, and mythology in general, I was pretty stoked to discover this one on my Amazon recommendations. In The Wrath & the Dawn, Adhieh reworks several Middle Eastern folktales into a clever teen romance-fantasy-drama that had this twenty-eight-year-old guy very entertained.
The story follows a young king named Khalid, who takes a new wife each day only to have her killed by dawn. Shahrzad, our protagonist, is the first volunteer to join his bed, having secretly sworn revenge for the murder of an earlier queen, her best friend. Shahrzad's plan to survive the first night and find an opportunity to kill the king, is to tell a story.
That is, a series of stories with enticing enough cliff hangers to save herself each night. But something else is threatening to unravel her secrets and stories—something she feels growing inside of her.
Shahrzad is falling in love with the king.
Much like the millennia-old texts that The Wrath & the Dawn draws from, this story is about stories—the role they play in shaping our character and actions—and ultimately their requirement for our survival. [JG]
The story follows a young king named Khalid, who takes a new wife each day only to have her killed by dawn. Shahrzad, our protagonist, is the first volunteer to join his bed, having secretly sworn revenge for the murder of an earlier queen, her best friend. Shahrzad's plan to survive the first night and find an opportunity to kill the king, is to tell a story.
That is, a series of stories with enticing enough cliff hangers to save herself each night. But something else is threatening to unravel her secrets and stories—something she feels growing inside of her.
Shahrzad is falling in love with the king.
Much like the millennia-old texts that The Wrath & the Dawn draws from, this story is about stories—the role they play in shaping our character and actions—and ultimately their requirement for our survival. [JG]
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
| Renée Ahdieh is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her spare time, she likes to dance salsa and collect shoes. She is passionate about all kinds of curry, rescue dogs, and college basketball. The first few years of her life were spent in a high-rise in South Korea; consequently, Renée enjoys having her head in the clouds. She lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband and their tiny overlord of a dog. The Rose & the Dagger is the sequel to her sparkling debut novel, The Wrath & the Dawn. |
"They were not gentle. And why should they be?
After all, they did not expect her to live
past the next morning."
— The Wrath & the Dawn, Renée Ahdieh
After all, they did not expect her to live
past the next morning."
— The Wrath & the Dawn, Renée Ahdieh
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