Renée Ahdieh: The rose and the dagger

Renée Ahdieh jatkaa romaanissa The Wrath & the Dawn käynnistynyttä tarinaa teoksella The rose and the dagger (Penguin Young Readers Group, 2016; ISBN 978-0-698-18590-6).



Parhaimmillaan Ahdieh pyörittää saturomaaniaan mallikkaasti, mutta kovin paljon on myös samojen juonikuvioiden toistoa, eikä tarina kanna yhtä lailla omaperäisenä kuin ensimmäisessa romaanissa. Sen verran päähenkilöiden kohtalo kuitenkin kiinnosti, että romaani tuli luettua loppuun asti, ja tarina sai päätöksensä.

I am surrounded on all sides by a desert. A guest, in a prison of sand and sun. My family is here. And I do not know whom I can trust.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once believed him a monster, but his secrets revealed a man tormented by guilt and a powerful curse—one that might keep them apart forever. Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with enemies of Khalid, and Tariq, her childhood sweetheart, she should be happy. But Tariq now commands forces set on destroying Khalid's empire. Shahrzad is almost a prisoner caught between loyalties to people she loves. But she refuses to be a pawn and devises a plan.

While her father, Jahandar, continues to play with magical forces he doesn't yet understand, Shahrzad tries to uncover powers that may lie dormant within her. With the help of a tattered old carpet and a tempestuous but sage young man, Shahrzad will attempt to break the curse and reunite with her one true love.

Renée Ahdieh: The wrath and the dawn

Renée Ahdiehin fantasiaromaani polveilee moneen suuntaan, ja sisältää lukuisia pieniä tarinoita, samaan tapaan kuin Tuhannen ja yhden yön tarinoissa luodaan uusia maailmoja: The wrath and the dawn (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2015; ISBN 978-0-399-17665-4).



Kirja tuntui paikoitellen keskeneräiseltä, katkonaiselta, mutta toisaalta tarinan kehyskertomus pysyy kuitenkin jotakuinkin kasassa, ja omaperäisyyttä kerronnassa on sen verran ettei romaani tunnu aiempien tarinoiden uudelleen kierrätykseltä.

Sen verran tarina tarrasi kiinni, että varasin saman tien luettavaksi romaanin jatko-osan The Rose and the Dagger.

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

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.