One of my 2025 reading goals is to read more older books that have been on my TBR for ages. One of these is Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn. I’m actually cheating a bit, because I tried to start this book twice but failed miserably. I kept falling asleep. I still wanted to give this book a fair chance as I strongly believed this would be up my alley. However, my expectations were a bit diminished because of both my previous experiences with this book as well as with another book by this author. This was The Beautiful and I ended up not liking it at all. Did Ahdieh succeed in convincing me this time? Spoiler alert: no.

About the book

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers on May 12, 2015
Pages: 404
ISBN: 9780399171611
Genres: Fantasy, Young adult
Rating: ⭐⭐

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

My review

In this book we follow Sharzad who is grieving the loss of her best friend. To avenge her death, she decides to marry Khalid, the kalif of Korazan. She knows that she most likely wouldn’t see another sunrise, as he is notorious for killing his brides before dawn. But Sharzad is determined to become the exception to the rule.

I wish I could say that I was fully intrigued by every aspect of the book: characters, writing and plot. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. In truth, I can’t remember anything about Sharzad anymore. I know she decides to avenge the death of her best friend and that she loves to tell stories, but that’s it. She knows how to wield a weapon and wouldn’t back down for a fight. However, I didn’t like her persona. This was actually lacking and not showing any growth at all. It has been several weeks after reading this book and although I was already confused whilst reading, I still can’t recall anything Sharzad did or did not do.

On the other hand, we have Khalid. It takes a while before he gets his own POV. Even though he gets one, it’s hard to get to know him as well. He has an interesting backstory, but I wasn’t too intrigued by it. Even though it explains a lot of his actions. This was probably due to the fact Sharzad was really uninteresting as well and that I zoned out a lot. I still find it really unbelievable how these characters could turn around 180 degrees in a matter of chapters.

Ahdieh’s writing is flowery. Maybe a bit too flowery, because it couldn’t suck me into the story at all. It was a continuous battle for me to understand what was happening. Besides this, there was not too much action at all. The plot was pretty predictable and therefore absolutely not intriguing. I was lost all the time, and I didn’t wonder why I fell asleep on this book twice. In fact, the plot is pretty forgettable.

The only positive element of this book for me was the setting. Oh, the setting! It was really descriptive and therefore I was able to imagine myself in an Arabic setting. The food, the soukh’s, it’s all there. This book is loosely inspired by the 1001 Nights fairytale and that shows.

Unfortunately, I have to conclude that Renée Ahdieh’s books and I aren’t a match. I already could have known this after finishing The Beautiful years ago, but I still wanted to give The Wrath and the Dawn a try. It’s all so boring and so forgettable. It has been weeks since I finished this story, and I can’t remember a thing except for the setting. This was therefore the most positive element of the book for me. I also remember wanting to finish this book ASAP and move on. I own The Rose and the Dagger, but needless to say that I won’t be reading it. Luckily both books were just €0.99 each.