A book that has made me anxious to buy the sequel.
The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh is a retelling/adaptation of A Thousand and One Nights.
In this version, as with the original, there is a king who marries a girl each night and then has her killed at dawn.
Countless girls die this way until one does the unthinkable and volunteers.
Enter Shahrazad.
Shahrazad has no plans of dying when dawn comes.
She plans to win.
And it all starts with the story without end…
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I’ll be 100% honest, I really wasn’t sure about this one after I picked it up as an impulse buy during a slightly financially irresponsible period (oops).
But I am glad to say that my uncertainty was completely unwarranted and the money was well spent.
It is such a fabulous book and a riveting read.
It is particularly good when you consider that a good chunk of the plot is a story within a story, as Shahrazad weaves an intricate tale in an effort to win what has become a very dangerous game. There is always the danger that storytelling within a narrative itself can become dull, or cause people to skip a page or two until the action starts once more.
However, Shazi (as she is known to her friends) and by extension Renée Ahdieh, tell such fascinating fables, stories within stories and narratives without end, that I challenge not to be at the least, impressed and most probably hooked as I was.
It may sound cliché, but I am of the firm opinion that if you forget that you’re reading while you do so, the book is better than most. It’s that cheesy reference to “escapism” in the written word but when it actually happens, you cannot deny it.
And you certainly can’t deny the talent of the author. Miss Ahdieh, I do doth my imaginary cap to you.
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Shahrazad is a wonderfully written character. She gives as good as she gets, driving her new husband to distraction in a very short space of time. Her motives for volunteering for the one-night marriage, show the good heart at her core but her ability to learn and adapt those values and motivations when new information is learned, makes me like her even more.
She doesn’t just cling to righteous vengeance. When new information makes itself known, she lets her mind be changed while her heart stays true.
But as tough, brave and bold as she is, Shahrazad is still just a young girl.
A young girl who does not want to die when the morning comes.
So, as we storytellers do, she puts her faith in words and hopes that will see her through. As dawn creeps closer, Shahrazad begins to tell her new husband a story.
A story of magic and thieves, sailors and lost loves, and a rather pesky genie.
As the words flow forth and the sky begins to lighten, all we and Shazi can do is hope that the story is allowed to continue past the rising of the sun…
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