I could see her daring a cobra to strike, swearing her venom would kill first.
The Wrath and the Dawn
by Renee Ahdieh
Genre: YA Romance
About: In the city of Rey, the King of Kings is marrying again. For the last few months, he's married dozens of girls and executed each of them at dawn. No-one knows why and no-one seems able to stop him. That is until he marries Shazi. Her dawn comes and goes, and she lives through it. She doesn't know why she survived the dawn but she's sure of one thing: she will end this madness and end his monstrous reign.
The Good
The setting is a desert country and the descriptions of the world (the food, the clothing, the palace) sends you into the blistering heat and beauty of such a place. It's very immersive and very lovingly written. And the actual premise of this novel is exciting. You have the mystery of why so many girls have been murdered, and the politics of an unstable reign because of it.
The Bad
The characterisations lack depth and the story as a whole suffers from this. We're told straight away what every character is thinking or feeling, there's no mystery to any of them and every character understands the exact meaning to the slightest eyebrow raised or twitch of a smile. The motivations of every character is hammered into their descriptions. Bad guys have a poisonous laugh or menacing leer, good guys have untold waves of feeling hidden in their gaze or a laugh that bounces off the walls. We're told what to think of each character leaving no surprises and no shades of grey, either. The two main characters are the worst in this sense. Shazi is beyond perfect. Effortlessly so. Every person she interacts with notes how beautiful she is, how witty, how brave and are amazed by her every movement or laugh at her every joke. Khalid, on the other hand, is presented as an irredeemable monster that maybe isn't so monstrous after all. His big secret of why he deserves all the hate he gets ends up being a big let down. Making these two enemies to lovers just didn't read with the tension it should have because of their very obvious characterisations.
The Somewhat Iffy
This is marketed as a YA Fantasy but honestly it's easy to forget there is magic in the world. The story is romance at its core with a slight of hand magic that's sort of a plot point but I think could have been rewritten without the magic and worked (it would have just required Khalid's enemy to be part of the story earlier than 60% into it).
The beginning is very over dramatic on Shazi's part with her determination to kill the king and it sends her into situations which are fairly laughable when you think she's seriously trying to find his weaknesses. It would have made far more sense for her to be trying to solve the mystery of the dead brides, or for her to have at least done some research into the man she marries before throwing herself at his mercy. She puts herself at such a dangerous disadvantage. And Tariq is just as reckless - the idea of him being able to keep his identity unknown in his plans was so ridiculous. The rebel banner may as well have had his name on it.
Also I was never clear on the sex thing. Shazi talks about how Khalid refused to kiss her and that she's glad because that would be more intimate than the other things they'd done (really suggesting sex) and when he embraces her, she feels awkward even that 'they've done it before'. Then her handmaiden comments Khalid never visited his other brides. All the hints made it unclear to me what exactly passed on their wedding night (and all his other wedding nights). Did he consummate each marriage, or only Shazi's? Or none at all? It feels like an important point that was skimmed over. Feeling forced into having sex with your best friend's murderer is an awful point to skim over, but Khalid possibly having sex with her as an exception to his other sacrificial wives because he 'loved' her the moment he saw her, is way, way worse.
Overall
Don't pick this up if you're looking for a fantasy as magic is not at the heart of this novel. Do pick this up if you love a heavy handed romance with lots of back and forth and lingering gazes. The premise felt more interesting to me than the execution, but as a romance, it does the job as long as you don't take the story too seriously.
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