Renée Ahdieh's lush debut novel is a suspenseful and beautiful reimagining of The Arabian Nights, with an edge--the young bride not only survives her death sentence with captivating tales, but uses these extra days to plot the death of her king.
Sixteen-year-old Shahrzad is targeting the murderous boy-king responsible for her closest confidante's death. Khalid, the 18-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, weds and beds a new bride every night, then sentences each to be hung the following dawn. Shahrzad bravely volunteers to be Khalid's latest bride in the hopes she'll survive long enough to avenge her friend's death and protect other young women from the same fate. After Shahrzad and Khalid have sex for the first time (graphic details withheld), she captures Khalid's attention with the promise of a tale. Shahrzad's storytelling is so captivating that when she abruptly ends her story on a cliffhanger, Khalid grants her an extra night to live. Shahrzad is the only queen to survive sunrise, throwing the city into speculation: Does the caliph love his new bride? Meanwhile, Shahrzad befriends others within the castle with the intent of learning more about Khalid ("And I need to learn his weakness, so that I may destroy him with it"); surprisingly, she discovers the boy-king isn't as heartless as he would like his country to believe. After soldiers attempt to hang Shahrzad, Khalid promises she'll be safe from execution, but someone else in the castle wants to eliminate the threat she poses.
Ahdieh reveals the complexities of her characters through their numerous trials, especially Khalid, struggling to be a ruler and to manage the expectations of a father who has raised his son to be suspicious of women after Khalid's mother was caught having an affair with a guard, leading to her death. Secondary characters add further intrigue to the plot: handmaiden Despina is rooting for Shahrzad to succeed; captain of the guard Jalal wants Shahrzad to fix "the broken creature" Khalid has become; Tariq wants to save Shahrzad, whom he loves, before it's too late. The pace remains swift throughout, thanks to exciting swordplay, the chemistry between Shahrzad and the king she wishes to kill, and great tension as the structure within the country begins to collapse.
Much like her heroine on her first evening in the castle, Ahdieh teases readers with an enticing cliffhanger that will surely hook them for the second and final installment, The Rose and the Dagger, due out in 2016. --Adam Silvera, reviewer and former children's bookseller
Shelf Talker: In this grand nod to The Arabian Nights, a 16-year-old heroine tries to avenge her best friend's death and finds herself falling in love with her target.