CBR17 Bingo: Arts – Shaherazade is a storyteller, and her weaving and telling of tales is her chief pleasure and weapon throughout the story.
When Shaherazade anonymously informs the Malik Shahriyar of his wife’s infidelity, she never imagines the madness – and the murders – to follow. Desperate to save the kingdom and Shahriyar himself, she nominates herself to be his bride, gambling her life on her storytelling. But between the ongoing Crusades and political tensions with neighboring kingdoms, Shaherazade may have bitten off more than she can handle.
This is a historical reframing of the world-famous Arabian Nights, placing the storyteller Shaherazade and her murderous husband Shahriyar firmly at the tail end of the 12th century and transforming them into people of that time. As such, while Shaherazade’s stories are threaded through the book, the plot is mainly focused on her efforts to bring the king to his senses and her growing dissillusionment.
Some parts of this book worked really well for me, and others not at all. Shaherazade and Shahriyar are fascinating characters both, the former not at all as noble and self-sacrificing as the framing story has you expect, and the push and pull between them as she wrestles for his soul with her tales – as well as whether her art really can solve all problems and save the day – is dark and fascinating. Ahmed’s prose is lush and the world she brings to life is so rife with details you can almost taste the mouth-watering dishes she described. I also enjoyed Shaherazade’s stories, though the longest one following Jauhera was unfortunately sometimes dull.
However, the plot is a bit meandering – we go to Acre and back, but we hardly engage in the Crusades. And characters besides Shahriyar, Shaherazade, and her family are somewhat thinly sketched, which is an issue considering some of them are quite important. I also found myself extremely frustrated with Atsiz, whose relationship with Shaherazade seems to come out of nowhere and does nothing to cause problems. I understand why it’s needed for the thematic arc of the story, but frankly, he’s dull and Shaherazade’s behavior seems both illogical and – worse – out of character.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.