Monday, May 19, 2008

Bool of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

This is one of her new books! She also has another book coming out near the end of the summer! I can't wait! (she wrote Goose Girl and Princess Academy if you can't remember who she is.)

This book is another coming of age story of a young maid and a princess but with a twist. I was surprised that the story was not about the princess but about the servant girl instead. I really liked this book after I got through the first quarter, that part was dragging but I realized later it was on purpose. Then right before the middle it started getting very interesting and finally came together.

Hale wrote it in a very unique style, every chapter is a journal entry. She also took the story from a Grimm Brother's fairy tale and researched Medieval Mongolia. It had a kind of Genghis Khan feel to parts of it. Since I am not familiar with this area of the world in Asia or its folklore I found the story very intriguing and inspiring. There was adventure, romance, drama and mystery. A very unpredictable ending but of course a happier ever after kiss was on the last page, that was where the fairy tale comes back in.

The two girls get locked in a tower. They almost go completely mad. They don't stay there for the whole story but 1000 days is a long long time to be in a tower. I won't say anything more or I will give away some of the suspense in the story. They also really hate rats, which live in the tower with them eating all their food. The story has some violent parts and quite a few heroic parts. There is a very evil man and a young dreamy prince. I would read it again and think it was a really fun book!

Whole Book, Healing Book

1 comment:

bug girl said...

I thought it had a slow start, but towards the middle I was hooked. I wasn't familiar with this fairy tale so I didn't know what to expect (except that it was a fairy tale and that means there is a happy ending with a boy and a girl getting together).