Book of a Thousand Days

Shannon Hale

This is told from an interesting perspective of a diary. Even though you know someone must be writing it, and you assume it is Dashti each time, you sometimes think that someone else has taken over, because the events she is writing about are too overwhelming or odd.

The synopsis for this on Goodreads suggests that the conclusion is so romantic that no reader will be left dry-eyed. I was dry-eyed. I didn’t connect with Dashti or Lady Saren enough. I felt quite empty after reading it really, and I didn’t ever feel worry.

I felt frustrated that Dashti didn’t make more of an effort to escape. She just waited until things were desperate. She’d rather stay in the tower than be exposed to men. She has a knife! Why doesn’t she protect herself? Surely she has a song to escape? The songs were good, I did like those.

I also felt frustrated in the end of the evil warlord. Dashti was very brave, but damn she’s stupid! She was doing what was noble. And right, I suppose. But damn! Why does she have to be so loyal to someone who doesn’t deserve her help? I guess she is too good-hearted.

The remote tower is a stolen idea. It was stolen from a Grimm’s fairy tale. There are so many adaptations of fairytales these days, and Hale does a lot of them (such as The Goose Girl). It makes me annoyed that no-one has any new creativity and has to resort to old stories instead of new ideas. Even some of my favourite authors are responsible for that sort of thing.

What can I take away from this story that I couldn’t have gotten out of a regular book? What girls can relate to this story and dream of their own fairytale ending? What if they are all like Lady Saren? Why is she so stupid? Get a spine! Don’t depend on loyalty to get you anywhere or magic to take a hand.

Sometimes I don’t realise how much I didn’t enjoy a book until after I have read it. This is one of those ones. It was a throw-away novel – keep your reading time for something else.