Bookish Mixtapes: The Wrath And The Dawn

This might be one of my favorite playlists as well as one of my favorite books. It is the story of a fierce girl who is out to get revenge for the death of her best friend by killing the Caliph who killed her. There are indeed spoilers in this playlist, but I hope you enjoy it!

Click here to listen to the playlist

SONG (Artist): Explanation

ARABIAN NIGHTS (Bruce Adler): The Wrath And The Dawn is a retelling of the story Arabian Nights and takes place in (you guessed it) Arabia long ago. I thought this song from Aladin (which is also from Arabian Nights) would be good to set the stage.

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN (The Animals): Every day when the sun rises, Khalid kills his bride from the night before. Making the sun’s arrival deadly much grimmer than the joyous arrival of a new day.

KNOW YOUR ENEMY (Green Day): Shahrzad offers herself up to be Khalid’s wife with the plan of killing him before he can kill her. Once she meets him though, she begins to doubt that he is the monster known to have murdered her best friend.

DAYLIGHT (Maroon 5): When the daylight comes, you would expect that it take Shahrzad with it. However, on this day she is spared by Khalid until the next night.

AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH (Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell): Everynight Shahrzad tells the Caliph a story, extending one after another until morning light so that she is unable to finish it until the following night. One of her stories is about the Mountain Adamant which can not help but attract metals to itself. Later on, Khalid describes Shahrzad as his own Mountain Adamant, he can’t resist loving her.

LOVE RUNS OUT (OneRepublic): But love does have its limits. One morning Shahrzad is awoken and brought into the courtyard where she is to be strangled with a silk cord. At what seems to be the last minute Khalid rushes in to stop the execution.

STORY OF MY LIFE (Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox): As Shahrzad is healing from her near-death experience a rift forms between her husband and herself. The only way Khalid can think of to fix it is to tell the truth of what is happening.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Rolling Stones): And yeah she might begin to feel bad for him.

ANDANTE, ANDANTE (Lily James): And she might begin to think she truly loves him as she reads the letter he was preparing to write to her family about their deceased daughter.

EX’S AND OH’S (Elle King): But she might also still feel for her childhood crush who is coming to her rescue.

YOU’VE HAUNTED ME ALL MY LIFE (Death Cab For Cutie): Khalid is haunted not only by the woman whose death caused the curse plaguing him today but he is also haunted by all of the girls he has killed. He has a closet full of bodies and it’s just about to spill open.

SOUL OF A MAN (Stark Sands: Khalid doesn’t know what to do. He can’t kill Shahrzad, he just can’t, but he can’t let the curse come to be either. And he is not old enough to have to deal with this.

I’LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU (Imagine Dragons): And this is Khalid’s last attempt to heal his relationship with Shahrzad. He leaves her a beautiful rose and his dagger.

CITIES ON FLAME WITH ROCK AND ROLL (Blue Oyster Cult): In attempts to save his daughter, Shahrzad’s father calls forth impossible magic which wreaks havoc in the city. The palace burns and Shahrzad is forced to evacuate without the Caliph.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox): Shahrzad’s lifelong friend and ally has come to rescue her, but at this point, it’s a little more like a kidnapping. The scene just reminds me of Gaston coming to rescue Belle when in truth, she doesn’t leave and there’s a possibility that the “hero” is no better than the “monster”.

SET FIRE TO THE RAIN (Adele): Rain pours down on the burning kingdom. The prophetic curse has come to pass.