And I shall take from you these lives, a thousandfold.
The Wrath & the Dawn is a breath of fresh air, in spite of how dark the actual story gets.
The premise: An evil "boy-king," Khalid, takes a new bride each night and murders her by the next morning. When Shahrzad's best friend Shiva is the latest murdered bride, Shahrzad (Shazi) volunteers as Khalid's next bride.
This novel has elements of fantasy, fairy tale, and romance, and I ate it up! I kept reading (at first) because I was dying to know the secret/reason behind all of the murders, but then I just couldn't stop shipping Khalid and Shazi. (#teamShalid)
What I also appreciated is that although there is an element of a love triangle with her childhood sweetheart Tariq, Shazi very clearly makes her choice, and we know that we don't have to endure much indecision with her.
Ahdieh also writes beautifully. She explains her character's motivations and actions at times so that her YA readers don't miss out, but she doesn't dumb down her language; she uses words like "delineated" and "reticence." Vocabulary! Yes!
Ahdieh also has non-white characters in a fantasy novel, which is something I always have a hard time finding. Furthermore, she doesn't have a white character coming in from the "logical west" to discover all that the "magical and mystical east" has to offer; this just IS the world in which the characters live, and there is magic because it's part fantasy novel!
I'm looking forward to the sequel (already got on Audible), but I'm hoping it still has the excitement and charm that this one had; I've been let down by sequels and series in the past few years.
Rating: *****
Recommended: 8th grade and high school readers, fantasy and romance readers
Diversity: Yes! I loved the Arabic names and characters.
If you liked: The Raven Boys series, Red Queen, the Lunar Chronicles
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