The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

Well, on my way home to visit family for Christmas last year, I sat down on my plane, and after asking the opinion of some of my beloved Witchlanders settled on reading my copy of The Wrath & the Dawn.

This book is full of secrets,and it seems everyone holds some. They’re hidden in looks full of meaning, dressed in beautiful silks, bargained and wagered for, and attempted to be stolen in the dead of night. The story itself has this slow burning intensity. It layer upon layer is delicately added to the story. Until my breath was stuck, waiting in anticipation and my eyes were brimming with tears.

The Wrath & the Dawn was nothing I was expecting. This re-imagined Arabian Nights is woven with mystery and plot. I adored Shahrzad the petite protagonist who makes the world bend around her, her sorrow and rage so true in world where we don’t know what might be coming next. I loved watching her as she turned the Caliphate on their heads, as her dynamic with Khalid made them both question all that surrounded them. Indeed all Ahdieh’s characters were so well formed they seemed to be trading their barbs back and forth in the room with you.

Perhaps that is part of what makes this story captivating. It is easily one of the most visceral books I have read this year. Of course I have to begin with the food, which truly needs it’s own cook book to accompany TW&tD so I know how to make all those savory dishes (most importantly that chutney!). However, the lavish descriptions don’t end with the food, but are present in all of the colors, the fabrics, the evocative storytelling, and the scents of flowers that seemed to drift through the pages. This truly is a book that will sweep you off your feet and into the palaces gardens, where roses, lilacs, and citrus blooms weave through the air to you.

My heart is still a little shell-shocked by what it read. I sat down and was swept away by Ahdieh’s beautiful descriptions, compelling characters, and beguiling narrative of how we face the world when all isn’t as it seems.