Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is a gentle, slow-moving story that is loosely based on the fairy tale “Maid Maleen.” It is set in a fictional land somewhat reminiscent of Mongolia. Lady Saren, the daughter of the leader of one of what seems to be a loose confederation of lands, is a terrified girl betrothed to an evil ruler of another land, but also secretly betrothed to the kind ruler of yet another land. She refuses to marry the evil man and so her father locks her and her maid, Dashti, up in a tower for seven years. On many occasions Saren orders Dashti to pretend to be the Lady which leads to quite a mess when the truth comes out.
The book is written in diary form (Dashti’s writings) and so is told both in a kind of a past tense and real time mix. Dashti’s feelings and views on things are interwoven throughout. The ending is everything one could wish for in a story like it. The mythology/religion of the lands is a little complicated to keep straight. I enjoyed Book of a Thousand Days.
4 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2014: 69
Pages Read in 2014: 14,103
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