The Wrath & the Dawn
In the kingdom of Khorasan, the young Caliph Khalid takes a new bride each night and has her executed at dawn. When her dearest friend becomes one of his victims, eighteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry the boy-king, determined to survive where the others did not and to avenge the girls he has murdered.
Clever and defiant, Shahrzad keeps herself alive by weaving spellbinding stories that she leaves unfinished at daybreak, buying herself one more sunrise at a time. But as the nights pass, the monster she came to kill proves to be something far more complicated: a haunted young man bound by a terrible secret. Against every intention, Shahrzad finds herself falling for the very person she swore to destroy.
The first book in Renée Ahdieh's lush duology, The Wrath and the Dawn reimagines One Thousand and One Nights as a sweeping young adult fantasy of romance, vengeance, and dangerous magic, rich with sensory detail and simmering tension.
A clever, defiant young woman who marries the murderous Caliph to avenge her friend.
The young Caliph of Khorasan, bound by a terrible secret behind his brides' deaths.
Shahrzad's childhood friend and presumed betrothed, an archer determined to save her from the Caliph.
Shahrzad's murdered best friend, whose death at Khalid's hands sets the story's revenge plot in motion.
Captain of the Guard and Khalid's cousin, a loyal, lighter presence in the palace.
Yes. It's the first book in Renée Ahdieh's YA fantasy duology The Wrath and the Dawn, followed by The Rose & the Dagger (2016).
It's a reimagining of the framing story of One Thousand and One Nights (Scheherazade and the sultan), set in a fantasy kingdom, Khorasan, inspired by medieval Persia.
It was a #1 New York Times bestseller and a 2015 Goodreads Choice Award finalist for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, though it has not won a juried book prize.
Film rights were optioned by Imagine Entertainment in 2017, but no film or TV adaptation has been released. A Webtoon comic adaptation ran from 2019 to 2022.