Book of a Thousand Days Reviewed by JG

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rating: ★★★★

As luck would have it, the very day Dashti enters the service of a lady is the very day said lady is bricked into a tower for seven years to learn obedience. Dashti goes along with her to keep her company and take care of her. Between fighting off rats, Lady Saren's torpor, and the unsettling attentions of Saren's two very different suitors, Dashti has her hands full. And that's just the beginning.

I love Dashti. She grows so much in this book! She starts off a simple girl from a simple way of life, unquestioningly following the laws of the land, and she becomes a strong woman, confident in herself and her abilities. The book is really Dashti's diary, so it was interesting to see her thinking and even her writing style change as she grows into herself.

Dashti's is the most obvious transformation, but Lady Saren quietly undergoes some drastic changes. She starts out a weak, irritating, ineffective girl who seems to be nothing but a chain around Dashti's neck, but sometime when you aren't looking she becomes something... more.

This is my first time reading Shannon Hale, and if this is any indication of the rest of her work, it won't be my last. I sat down to get started on this before spending a little time on the computer, and the next thing I knew I was finishing it. Seriously. One sitting. There was one part that started to drag just a little bit, but somehow a book about two girls in a tower became a page turner. I enjoyed how Dashti's "voice" changed as she changed, and I'm very impressed with Hale's skill in pulling that off.

I was thrilled to read a young adult book with a strong female lead and no love triangle in sight! Yay! I know I wrote the bit about two suitors, but believe me, there's no love triangle.

Book of a Thousand Days Reviewed by Elizabeth L.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rating: ★★★★★

Dashti's mother has died on the steppes. Leaving the other muckers behind, she takes refuge in the city of Titor's Garden. Dashti's ability to read and write makes her a valuable servant, not to mention her knowledge of the healing songs of the muckers. She is trained to be a serving maid to Lady Saren, the illiterate daughter of the city's leader. Dashti's first day of work is more than she could ever have bargained for. Arriving at Saren's home, the house is in an uproar. Lady Saren is to be locked up in a tower for her refusal to marry Khasar, the leader of nearby Thoughts of Under. Whence her lady goes, there goes Dashti, even if they just met. The days pass slowly in the tower. But with food for seven years, Dashti feels more secure than she did starving on the steppes wondering where her next meal was to come from.

But her lady is not well. Dashti sings to her and tends to her every need to no avail. Saren is holding onto a dark secret to do with Khasar that nothing can relieve. Their only hope comes one day when Khan Tegus secretly arrives. He is the leader of nearby Song for Evela and Saren's secret fiance. He brings them news from the outside world, even if Saren refuses to talk to him and Dashti must pretend to be her mistress, for which she hopes the Gods won't strike her down. They communicate night after night through the little hole in the base of the tower, till one night, Khasar attacks. They hear no more of Tegus, no more of their guards, and their food supply is in danger. The rats have found them. Which is not so big a worry as Saren's overeating.

Facing a slow death or finding a way out of the tower are the only options left to them. But the outside world has changed. Khasar has started a war with all the eight realms. Titor's Garden is no more. The two girls slowly make their way to Song for Evela, hoping that Khan Tegus can protect them. But once their Saren refuses to make herself known and asks Dashti to once more pretend to be her, despite there being a new fiance from Beloved of Ris. There is more war on the horizon. Dashti is but a mucker faced with hard decisions and a Lady who she is respecting less and less. Could a lowly mucker save all the eight realms and get the prince? Or will evil win?

The fact that our heroine is locked in a tower should be the first hint that this is a tale from the Brothers Grimm. Those brothers sure did like their maidens bricked up in out of the way locales. Shannon Hale writing it is another good sign. Shannon Hale has made her name with her retelling of fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, from The Goose Girl to Rapunzel's Revenge, she has taken the weak, put upon women, and strengthened them and given them new life. The retelling of Fairy Tales is a popular pastime in fiction, especially in young adult fiction. Fairy Tales are the building blocks we all played with as children. They are simple stories to teach us right from wrong. They are stories that, as we age, we see the flaws and the wrongs. But still, they resonate with us. Book of a Thousand Days is based on one of the lesser known stories by the Brothers Grimm, "Maid Maleen." The story of "Maid Maleen," unlike the title suggest, is not about a maid at all. We follow the brave princess locked in the tower who one day escapes and flees to the country of her beloved. Once there, she finds work in the kitchens and as begged by the ugly fiance of the king to pose as her during the wedding ceremony, the rightful princess and the rightful prince are reunited and cue the happily ever after.

Here we see the themes that Hale will employ in her retelling, disguises, imprisonment and resolution of woes. But what of the actual maid? What of "Dashti"? In the original story there is but one mention of the maid being locked into the tower with her mistress. Shannon Hale latched onto this simple line. To be imprisoned for a crime that is not yours, to be locked up with someone you don't know. Someone who is illiterate and woebegone. The day to day life that Dashti narrates, with the good as well as the bad, the growth as well as the set backs are what make this book so wonderful. While it is said that it takes a thousand days to know someone, by reading this book you know Dashti. A simple story about obedience from hundreds of years ago has brought forth a story of one girl's struggles to find herself and her place in the world. And it's totally empowering. Sometimes the old needs to infused with the new to make it relevant in today's world. Retelling a tale is all it takes.

Book of a Thousand Days Reviewed by Misty B.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Rating: ★★★★

This is a retelling of the little known Grimm Brothers tale "Maid Maleen,' but fairly drastically reworked. Dashti was born a mucker girl on the Asian Steppes, but when her mother dies and she has no family left, she finds work as a ladies maid for Lady Saren, daughter of the ruler of Titor's Garden. But when Dashti arrives to begin her work, she learns Lady Saren is to be shut up in a tower for seven years for disobeying her father and refusing to marry Lord Khasar; and Dashti must be shut up with her if she is to fulfill her vows as a ladies maid. What follows is the Dashti's telling (via a diary with brush-and-ink illustrations) of her entombment with Saren, and their adventures there after, from the terror of Lord Khasar to Dashti's healing mucker songs, to Khan Tegus, the nice, funny and out of reach ruler who may hold the keys to the girls' freedom.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. In fact, I stayed up half the night reading it (just one more page-ing myself to death). There was a slight magical realism feel to it. Dashti ia an intersting character, very intelligent and strong, but also very meek and hyper-aware of her "place." It is enjoyable to watch her grow and come into her own. Lady Saren, who is very troubled and somewhat annoying, is also an enjoyable character, even in spite of her "unenjoyableness" because it is equally pleasant to watch her grow and heal as well. Lord Khasar is truly terrifying; so many of the characters are fully realized and engaging, as is the world.

Hale's reworking of the tale is fascinating, and expands beautifully on the original (which I looked up and read when I finished). The changes she makes make sense and add to the story wonderfully.

The only drawbacks for me were:
-- there are times when Dashti's storytelling is too sedate.
-- The Lord Khasar thread is tied up a little too quickly and conveniently. There are things I really liked about it, and I liked what it brought out in Dashti, and the choices she made, but I would have liked a little more build-up and tension in the actual resolution.
-- on a personal note, the names of places sometimes got to me. I don't know if they were traditional or made-up, but the constant repetition was a bit irritating.


Overall, though, I would definitely recommend this to fans of Hale, fairy tale retellings, strong female characters, etc

Breaking Dawn Review by Elizabeth L.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Rating: ★

Thankfully after this pathetic end to the Twilight Saga it will no longer be mentioned with the likes of Harry Potter. What was a mildly fun and slightly different vampire story ended with a saccharine slapped together ending where everyone gets what they want, except the Volturi, and maybe it would have been better if they did.

Bella Book 1: Like some futuristic version of Wide Sargasso Sea, which, given Meyer's liking of the Brontes, is probably not that far a stretch. Bella has h...moreThankfully after this pathetic end to the Twilight Saga it will no longer be mentioned with the likes of Harry Potter. What was a mildly fun and slightly different vampire story ended with a saccharine slapped together ending where everyone gets what they want, except the Volturi, and maybe it would have been better if they did.

Bella Book 1: Like some futuristic version of Wide Sargasso Sea, which, given Meyer's liking of the Brontes, is probably not that far a stretch. Bella has her dream honeymoon and we have hunderds of pages of boring tripe.

Jacob Book 2: Mildly different, thankfully seeing this part of the story through Bella's eyes would have made me gouge mine out so Jacob is a great relief, and personally I like Jacob, but the imprinting, just ewwwwww. Also I feel sorry for Leah, she deserves better.

Bella Book 3: Why does Bella have such an interest in measurements all of a sudden? I mean one more 1/62nd of a second or 1/10th of a second and I would have screamed. And right about page 500 was when I almost gave up, didn't, almost did, and really if I had I wouldn't have missed much.

It's not like I had any expectations for this book, they were just fun reads, but this was just boring. The characters were all too good and everything was too wonderful, like this is some magical happy valley, it was just wrong. The first will always be the best to me, since then they have been going downhill, and this last book just fell off a cliff. Also I lost count at around 50 grammatical errors, that's just not acceptable, what are the editors doing these days?

Breaking Dawn Review by Becky

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
Rating: ★★★

Oh Stephenie... You sure do know how to glue some eyes to your books, don't you? This book is just as addictive as the first three, and just as gut wrenching. I couldn't stop reading, and stayed up MUCH later than my work schedule permits just so that I could finish the story and know what happens. Honestly, I sometimes am really annoyed when books suck me in like these did -- I dream about them, vividly, and can't stop thinking about them. And, we all know that these aren't great literature. Yeah, they might be around in 50 years, with all the teenage mothers handing it down to their daughters to drool over (and that's scary, isn't it?), but these are not classics. But all the same, they hooked me and I didn't even know it until the third book was under my belt.

I knew that Bella was going to get pregnant all along. (Don't think that I have some magical knowledge of things that haven't yet happened or that I'm trying to sound like I called some twist that nobody could have called. I'm saying that this little plot point was spoiled for me thanks to the Never-Ending GR quiz. I don't hold it any grudges though. It's not the quiz's fault that users make up spoilerish questions.) Anyway, I knew it was coming, somewhere in the story, I just didn't know when it would be. Or HOW it would be. And it was intense. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Bella gets married, with no Volturi interruptions, and no Jake storming down the aisle and demanding for her to not make the mistake of her life... I was waiting for that, and so it shocked me even more that it didn't happen than it would have if it did.

So, yeah, the wedding, then the honeymoon, then the pregnancy... then the abrupt switch to Jacob's point of view. What? OK, this worried me. If Bella's no longer telling the story, Bella no longer has to be alive at the end to finish it. I admit it, I skipped ahead. I had to be sure! Shameful, I know.

Oh, I must say that I was concerned about Edward's reaction when he heard that Bella was pregnant. He scared me a little. His abrupt assumption that it must not be something that she wants (even though she had done her best to assure him that having no children would not be an issue that she would have trouble overcoming) concerned me. But I'm a woman, and I know how easy it is to see something that you want once it's in front of you and unavoidable rather than some hypothetical maybe theory wavering all fuzzy in the distant future.

Just a bit more about the pregnancy. It was NOT believable that it should be such a shock to the Cullens that the half-vampire baby would want blood. Really, I had to roll my eyes at that one. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Anyway, moving on. After Bella's change, she felt like a different person to me. Of course I know that this is because she really IS kind of a different person, but it's strange to see someone so insecure and shy and awkward all of a sudden become sure of herself and confident. She was still Bella, still thinking of everyone else first, still trying to make sure that if anyone should suffer, it should be her and her alone, but it's strange to think of her as the strong, confident type.

I loved both Edward and Jacob in this book. They both made enormous sacrifices for Bella, and were willing to go to any length to make sure that she was OK. Edward as a father was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, and imprinted Jacob as protector and devotee was just as sweet.

I wanted to see more of Jasper and Emmett in this book, and I was disappointed that they did not have bigger roles. I also wanted to see the Volturi get their asses handed to them, but that was not to be. But aside from those things, I loved the book, and think it was a wonderful end to the series.

And with that, everyone, I'm ending my time as a Twilight fan-girl. :) Now I'll have to try to find something nearly as addictive to take my mind off of these. Wish me luck.