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.
Initial thoughts: While The Wrath and the Dawn hasn't become one of my favourites, it has left me yearning for its sequel, The Rose and the Dagger. Listening to the opening chapters, I first noticed the beautiful prose. I loved listening to it especially because of the melodious voice of the narrator. As much as I enjoyed it, I think it occasionally it hampered the story as the expressions bordered on pomposity. The premise was very much rooted in The Arabian Nights with a caliph marrying a woman every night, only to have her executed in the morning. Sharzad volunteered to marry the caliph and was determined to put an end to the murders by telling stories in the hopes of living to see another dawn. What differed however were the motivations and it's how these motivations unfurled that captivated me.
Sharzad meant to put an end to the murders by avenging her dearest and best friend's death. She wasn't the only one who wanted to avenge her. The involvement of others deviated from the The Arabian Nights. This is where I expected the originality to flourish because retellings to me should be reimagined tales — not simply renditions of existing stories with meek alternative possibilities. In the end, I think this originality will be found more in The Rose and the Dagger. That's why I'm so excited for the sequel.
