Name: Book of a thousand days
Rating: 4.116666666666666 (60 reviews)
ISBN: 1599900513

Shannon Hale

Fifteen-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her sixteen-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, shares Saren's years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids.

Book of a thousand days

Loved this. There were some slow portions, but I just love Hale’s lyrical writing style so much. I especially appreciated the shift in Dashti’s narrating voice from simple to more full and complex; it really showed her growth and development as a girl becoming a young woman, and a “mucker” finally learning she has a place in the world alongside gentry—not beneath them. I would read this again.

Bethany

Book of a Thousand Days [Library]

Sarah Sammis

Told in diary form, Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale follows the life and times of Dashti, ex mucker turned lady in waiting to Lady Saren. It begins with their imprisonment in a sealed tower, through their escape and settlement in Khan Tegus's estate.

The world Dashti lives in is a mixture of western China, Mongolia, Tibet, European, and Native American cultures. The landscape itself seems to be a blend of the steppes and deserts of western China and the mountains and valleys of Utah. It's a fictional realm with its own history and geographic demarcations but it draws the landscape features of those places.

There's a fantasy element to Book of a Thousand Days beyond it's imaginary landscape and mythology. The villain, Lord Khasar, is able to over run cities and armies with some magical help. The how and what he does is a big part of the book. There is also the power of healing power of song, something that Dashti excels at through her mucker upbringing.

As everything is narrated through Dashti's point of view, the strength of the book rests on her voice. In print, her voice is perhaps a bit too earnest in places but is otherwise credible. In the audio done by Full Cast Audio, Dashti's performance is over the top to the point that it cuts into the enjoyment of the book.

The book is a retelling of the Grimms' "Maid Maleen" which I have not read.

Shannon Leigh Williams

I LOVE this book!! :D I thoroughly enjoyed it through and through... Let me explain with some of the key points that make me love it so.
1. This book is WONDERFULLY written. Shannon Hale has been one of my favorite authors since I was only eight, and her writing style is just so witty and clever yet funny and exciting.
2. The plot of this book unfolded quite unpredictably and I enjoyed the plot twists so much!! I was kept on my toes the entire time wondering how it would unfold. I also loved that as readers, we got to know Dashti as a person, without a guy, before we got to know her with a guy.
3. JOURNAL ENTRIES. I am somebody who writes in a journal each day and was pleased to find that the format was epistolary in a journal kind of way.
Overall, this book was just incredible!! I definitely recommend it to anybody who loves royalty, romance, and lots of character development! :)

When a beautiful princess refuses to marry the prince her father has chosen, her father is furious and locks her in a tower. She has seven long years of solitude to think about her insolence. But the princess is not entirely alone - she has her maid, Dashti. Petulant and spoilt, the princess eats the food in their meagre store as if she were still at court, and Dashti soon realises they must either escape or slowly starve. But during their captivity, resourceful Dashti discovers that there is something far more sinister behind her princess's fears of marrying the prince, and when they do break free from the tower, they find a land laid to waste and the kingdom destroyed. They were safe in the tower, now they are at the mercy of the evil prince with a terrible secret. Thrilling, captivating, and a masterful example of storytelling at its best. The princess's maid is a feisty and thoroughly modern heroine, in this wonderfully timeless story.

Book of a thousand days

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