For She Is Wrath

Gr 9 Up–A Pakistani reimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo perfect for fans of Hafsah Faizal’s We Hunt the Flame and Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass. Dania was framed by Mazin, the boy she loved, and has spent a year in prison—each of those days spent planning and preparing for how she will get her revenge. Dania escapes with the help of a fellow prisoner and gains a djinn treasure that will help her get close to those who betrayed her family, including her old flame and the evil emperor. With a new identity and dark magic that changes her appearance, Dania can infiltrate court—but magic has a price, and the longer her plans take, the more she risks losing herself. Varga utilizes dual time lines to deliver backstory to readers and keep the momentum rolling. Secondary characters feel underdeveloped as they fit agreeably into plot points throughout the novel, possibly because this is a 1000+ page classic adapted into a single volume. Dania does not have the original hero’s single-minded focus on revenge but gets pulled in many directions—especially when Mazin reenters the picture—as more obstacles are thrown in her path. The lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers romance will thrill readers, as what Dania wants tangles with what she must do. Varga crafts excellent action sequences that propel the plot to even higher stakes.