Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed is a debut historical literary reimagining of One Thousand and One Nights (3.75/5 stars)

Every Rising Sun by Jamila Ahmed is a debut historical literary reimagining of One Thousand and One Nights. The audiobook is narrated by Sulin Hasso. We follow our main character with a first-person point-of-view.

Shaherazade is a brilliant young woman, using her wit and political machinations to survive a mad Malik and the perils of the Third Crusade in twelfth century Persia. After accidentally finding the Malik’s beloved wife in flagrante delicto with a lover, she accidentally starts a domino effect that may ruin the Seljuk Empire.

This book was masterfully researched. If you’re not interested in history, especially the medieval Islamic world, you might not like this book. I, for one, love history, so this was right up my alley. The world-building here is layered and detailed thanks to the author’s decade plus of research.

I also am a fan of nestled storytelling, and this novel is indeed a story within a story, sometimes further within a story. We get Shaherazade’s personal story, the stories she tells, and the tapestry made from the socio-political aspects of the world at that time.

I liked the stories she told the best out of the three as they span so many different genres. Sometimes, however, they took me out of the main plot since they very literally pause the main storyline in order to be told.

The story also leans a bit YA, which makes some sense since Shaherazade is only eighteen or nineteen during the course of the book. She doesn’t have a major growth arc either. I think the story could have been tightened up a bit in the “real world” side of things. The ending felt rushed.

The audiobook narrator does an amazing job, and I highly recommend reading the book that way, or in tandem with a physical copy (which is how I read this). Tandem reading helped me keep where we were in the narrative straight.

CW: murder, infidelity, war, loss of parent, misogyny

I received a copy of this book to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

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