Book of A Thousand Days

by Shannon Hale 

Dashti finds work her first day in the capitol city.  She is lady's maid to Lady Saren, and starts work now, on the eve of Saren being locked up in a tower for seven years to "reflect on her wrongs" in offending powerful ruler Kahn Tegus by refusing his marriage proposal.  Dashti does her best to serve Saren, but Saren is not able to handle the situation, leaving Dashti to deal with most of the problems without so much as encouragement.  Saren's current betrothed comes to visit, but she is too scared to talk to him, so Dashti speaks in her place.  One night wolves attack the tower, and Saren's fear leaves her wholly unable to cope.  Dashti improvises a solution to save the both of them, praying her strength will be enough to save the both of them.

Audience

This is a pretty faithful adaptation of the Grimm's fairytale The Maid of Maleen and deals with trauma and mental illness. I feel it is wholly inappropriate for children, but wonderful for those who can handle a dark story.  The reading level is a little less than halfway through fifth grade, but I couldn't imagine being ready for it before 7th.  Maybe that's just me.

What I Love About This Book

Dashti is so strong and kind.  Many have criticized her as too perfect, but I felt she was merely naive most of the book.  Saren's character was believable and by the end I was rooting for her.  The romantic hero was one that made me happy, again the kind I as a person could fall in love with.  For a young adult book, I liked the brutally honest treatment of their recover from different ordeals

Cautions

1) It's dark.  No, really, it's the darkest of all the Grimms fairy tales I've ever read and I have read most of the original fairy tales.

2) There is a lot of classism in the story, in fact it's a central plot.  Dashti believes that it is the will of the gods that she is in a lower class, and sees herself as less of a person because of that.

3) The beginning is hard to follow because the narrator is from a completely different culture(medieval Mongolian.)  Terms like Mucker and the way they tell time are left for the reader to infer.