Germ Reads discussion

Hey, Germ readers!

Welcome to our first check-in for Renée Ahdieh's The Wrath and the Dawn! Today we'll be talking about pages 1-127.



Here are our discussion questions:

1) Despina tells Shahrzad the caliph had been more interested in her than his past wives. Why do you think that is?

2) At the end of this section, Shahrzad notices something is wrong with her tea. With the caliph gone, who do you think might be trying to harm her?

1) I think the caliph sees the fight in Shahrzad, and he might view that as a challenge. She has intrigued him in a way that his other wives -- who may have been more submissive or simply resigned to their ill-fated deaths -- hadn't. I think that fight is also something to which he can relate. In a way, that could humanize Shahrzad and make it more difficult for him to order her execution without a second thought.

2) Though, at this point, we don't know much about anyone within the palace, my first thought went to the general. He has made it clear that he believes Shahrzad is a threat to the caliph and that he will not stand for that. It seems as though he might have the motive to see her killed.

However, my thoughts also went to Despina. She has been straightforward about the fact that she is a spy, but there is no real way for knowing her true intentions. Having served the tea, she would have had plenty of opportunity to have done something with it. At this point, it could be anyone, and I don't know which is most likely.