A Thousand Nights
By E. K. Johnston
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion (October 6, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1484722272
ISBN-13: 978-1484722275
Approximate
Lexile: 920
Publisher’s
blurb:
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking
for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon she knows he has
arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she
will not let her be next. And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she
believes death will soon follow. But back in their village her sister is
mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle
unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air in its place.
Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate
statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful
garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun sets
and rises, and she is not dead. Night after night Lo-Melkhiin comes to her, and
listens to the stories she tells and day after day she is awoken by the
sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have
tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler.
Something went wrong. The words she speaks to him every night are given strange
life of their own. She makes things appear. Little things, at first: a dress
from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows.
Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if
she can put an end to rule of a monster.
My thoughts:
Based on the tale of Scheherezade, the woman who entertains a king
nightly with her 1001 tales and escapes with her life, this story takes on a
life of its own. In fact, in the end of the story, it talks about how the true
story has already changed with retelling—which makes it into a precursor of
Scheherezade.
Set in an unnamed time and place in the Middle East, only a handful of
characters have names. The demon/king is one, the soldier/stonecarver another.
A Skeptic (scientist) is named Sokath, His Eyes Uncovered, which made me laugh
out loud upon reading it. (Bonus points to anyone who catches the reference. I
wrote to the author to chortle over it, and she admitted it was deliberately
done. Apparently, there are others, but I didn’t catch them.) The rest of the
characters are identified by their occupation or relationship. Some reviewers
have said that this made it difficult to identify with the point-of-view
character, but I disagree. I think it gives her a degree of universality. She
could be anyone who finds the bravery to save a beloved sister, and then her
way of life. It must have been a challenge for the author to find ways for the
characters to refer to one another without overusing pronouns!
I also love how the POV character refers to the father of her
half-sister and herself as “our father,” to their home as “our home.” There was
very little “my” in this story. This emphasized the familial bond for me.
The POV character starts out strong and gets stronger, developing true
power as well as the moral compass to use it carefully. When she fears that her
accidental creation has forced her sister into a marriage that she might not
have wanted, she feels real guilt which rings true to the reader.
Lovely characters and believable plot. This is not a romance, although
love does develop. Instead, it’s a story about finding the strength to do what
needs to be done.
Possible objectionable material:
Hunting and killing of animals. Deaths of people through mystical and human means. A battle near the end. A family member dies in
a flood. Reference to “smallgods” might bother those who believe that reference
to any but one god is sacrilegious, or to those who prefer no reference to gods
at all. The belief in household gods is appropriate to the culture. No
cursewords. A married couple spends nights together, but the marriage is
unconsummated. The POV character’s father has multiple wives (again, culturally
appropriate).
Who would like this book:
It is billed as a children’s book, so probably age 10 and up. Although
the POV character is female, I think boys could enjoy the story. Anyone who
likes familiar tales that take on new life.
Thank you, NetGalley, for the Advanced Reader e-book.
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