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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
A thoroughly two-star book. The premise sounds great: A retelling of 'A Thousand and One Nights' from the perspective of Shahrazad, the princess who must tell a story every night, or else be executed at dawn. The characters are interesting enough, but the writing style is laborious and starts to grate after a while, and the plot is predictable.
I remember reading this book twice and liking it a lot, but I couldn't remember who wrote it or if it was the same one until I scoured the internet to find the cover of the one I read (this one: https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780439540346-us.jpg)
I'm glad I read it when I did, because I would not have been at all interested if the copy I picked up had this romance-novel-looking cover.
I'm glad I read it when I did, because I would not have been at all interested if the copy I picked up had this romance-novel-looking cover.
From http://coffeeandink.dreamwidth.org/746990.html:
I just read two YA novels retelling the story of the Arabian Nights. The biggest problem with a modern version of this story, at least for a YA audience, turns out to be rehabilitation* of Shahrayar, the Sultan who is betrayed by his wife, kills her, and decides to marry a virgin a day, killing each new wife at sunrise so she can't betray him. (She can't bear him any heirs either, but neither of the books goes into that.) Anyway, it's hard to provide a convincing happy ending for modern audiences when the husband is a reformed murderer who started off the marriage by planning to kill his wife. The two books try different solutions to the problem. They ultimately have little in common besides their inspiration, although as you'd expect, both take from the original legend an emphasis on the influence of stories; both Shahrazads explicitly set out to educate their husbands through fiction.
See [b:Shadow Spinner|238460|Shadow Spinner|Susan Fletcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347358771s/238460.jpg|1481934] for the other half of the review. In The Storyteller's Daughter, Dokey has Shahrazad be the first woman Shahrayar marries, which means of course that he doesn't kill anyone. This ought to make him easier to sympathize with, but it deprives the story of nearly all its power instead. The fact that he just threatens to kill her isn't especially endearing. Shahrazad and Shahrayar are married only a week or so, and Shahrazad has to prove her love through saving Shahrayar's life rather than by telling stories for three years. Shahrayar finds out that Shahrazad orchestrated the tale-telling and throws a temper tantrum because she betrayed his trust by trying to save her own life. Earlier, he's appalled that people have gathered in his courtyard the day after his wedding to witness Shahrazad's execution. He feels this displays an uncalled-for ghoulishness.
More than anything else, Shahrayar reminded me of all those horrible mid-eighties romance novels where the hero spends the entire book being an absolute shit to the heroine, but she forgives him because his first wife cheated on him with his best friend and broke his heart, so of course he could never trust another woman, ever, and then when he does, it means more and also he apologizes very prettily. Often, if the book was written by Elizabeth Lowell, with choked and manly tears.
Dokey eventually has Shahrayar deposed and imprisoned so his people can miss him when his successor's a horrible tyrant. Myself, I would have gone with the horrible tyrant who didn't have the rapist/serial killer tendencies.
Why, yes, I have spoiled the ending for you. I cannot bring myself to feel sorry about this.
Oh, the other big change Dokey makes is to have Shahrazad be blind, so there can be a touching scene where she recognizes Shahrayar by her "heart" instead of by sight. It also does allow for a neat bit of magic, where Shahrazad finds her stories in pieces of cloth.
In contrast to the Fletcher, there's so little sense of place that it took an effort for me to visual Arabian palaces instead of European forts. The writing is decent on a sentence-by-sentence level, but repetitive in a way that's probably supposed to represent the ticks of oral storytelling but instead just annoys.
I have another fairy tale novelization by Dokey, which I suppose I'll read sometime, since it's possible that the flaws in this one came from problems adapting the particular legend; but I can't say I'd buy another of her books. In contrast, I'm very much looking forward to finding Fletcher's back list.
(* And it suddenly occurs to me that we discuss Buffy in incorrect and unhelpful terms when we talk of "redemption"; redemption comes from the outside and can be a single act, and Buffy's more concerned with rehabilitation, which is tougher and not nearly as sexy.)
I just read two YA novels retelling the story of the Arabian Nights. The biggest problem with a modern version of this story, at least for a YA audience, turns out to be rehabilitation* of Shahrayar, the Sultan who is betrayed by his wife, kills her, and decides to marry a virgin a day, killing each new wife at sunrise so she can't betray him. (She can't bear him any heirs either, but neither of the books goes into that.) Anyway, it's hard to provide a convincing happy ending for modern audiences when the husband is a reformed murderer who started off the marriage by planning to kill his wife. The two books try different solutions to the problem. They ultimately have little in common besides their inspiration, although as you'd expect, both take from the original legend an emphasis on the influence of stories; both Shahrazads explicitly set out to educate their husbands through fiction.
See [b:Shadow Spinner|238460|Shadow Spinner|Susan Fletcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347358771s/238460.jpg|1481934] for the other half of the review. In The Storyteller's Daughter, Dokey has Shahrazad be the first woman Shahrayar marries, which means of course that he doesn't kill anyone. This ought to make him easier to sympathize with, but it deprives the story of nearly all its power instead. The fact that he just threatens to kill her isn't especially endearing. Shahrazad and Shahrayar are married only a week or so, and Shahrazad has to prove her love through saving Shahrayar's life rather than by telling stories for three years. Shahrayar finds out that Shahrazad orchestrated the tale-telling and throws a temper tantrum because she betrayed his trust by trying to save her own life. Earlier, he's appalled that people have gathered in his courtyard the day after his wedding to witness Shahrazad's execution. He feels this displays an uncalled-for ghoulishness.
More than anything else, Shahrayar reminded me of all those horrible mid-eighties romance novels where the hero spends the entire book being an absolute shit to the heroine, but she forgives him because his first wife cheated on him with his best friend and broke his heart, so of course he could never trust another woman, ever, and then when he does, it means more and also he apologizes very prettily. Often, if the book was written by Elizabeth Lowell, with choked and manly tears.
Dokey eventually has Shahrayar deposed and imprisoned so his people can miss him when his successor's a horrible tyrant. Myself, I would have gone with the horrible tyrant who didn't have the rapist/serial killer tendencies.
Why, yes, I have spoiled the ending for you. I cannot bring myself to feel sorry about this.
Oh, the other big change Dokey makes is to have Shahrazad be blind, so there can be a touching scene where she recognizes Shahrayar by her "heart" instead of by sight. It also does allow for a neat bit of magic, where Shahrazad finds her stories in pieces of cloth.
In contrast to the Fletcher, there's so little sense of place that it took an effort for me to visual Arabian palaces instead of European forts. The writing is decent on a sentence-by-sentence level, but repetitive in a way that's probably supposed to represent the ticks of oral storytelling but instead just annoys.
I have another fairy tale novelization by Dokey, which I suppose I'll read sometime, since it's possible that the flaws in this one came from problems adapting the particular legend; but I can't say I'd buy another of her books. In contrast, I'm very much looking forward to finding Fletcher's back list.
(* And it suddenly occurs to me that we discuss Buffy in incorrect and unhelpful terms when we talk of "redemption"; redemption comes from the outside and can be a single act, and Buffy's more concerned with rehabilitation, which is tougher and not nearly as sexy.)
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Devour The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh and need another Arabian Nights retelling? Try the 2002 release called The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey. The author's writing is absolutely beautiful and truly has a fairytale quality about it. It's a short novel but it has just about everything you could want in a retelling of a classic. I think I need to try more from this author and continue this series of retellings.
This is not a story I see retold very often, and I like the way it was done. The relationships were detailed in a complex way that I wish other YA books would follow. The girl power message was a nice bonus.
This is one of my favourite stories, though I have yet to read the Tales of 1001 Nights. One of the few stories where the princess saves herself.
From teh first page, I couldn't stop reading! I was literally "falling under the storyteller's spell"! It was so exciting and lovely!