{Review} A Thousand Nights by E.K Johnston

Posted by Donna
Release Date: October 20th, 2015
Finished Date: October 5th, 2015

Publishers: Macmillan Children's Book
Genre: YA, Fantasy, ReTelling 
Source: For Review
Format: ARC

Pages: 256
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Book Depo 

 

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. 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 rises and sets, 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.

Far away, 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.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. 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 the rule of a monster.

The Review: This is a tough review write because when I first heard about A Thousand Nights I was excited to read it. I was not familiar with the original story A Thousand and One Nights and, was looking forward to trying something new but, then a book called The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahideh popped in my lap and that was it, nothing was ever going to compare to that book. That’s so bad to say but honestly it’s impossible to not compare the two books.

With that said, even though the books are based around the same story they are delivered in a completely different way and also told a differently. However, A Thousand Nights in my opinion fails to deliver because it also doesn’t manage to drag you into the story. I found it hard to connect to the characters who had no names. The family members are referred to as her parents or sister. But the main character herself has no name. Am I the only one who finds this strange? I have no idea what to call now even. How can I identity a character with no name? It’s strange. The only one in the story who has a name is Lo-Melkhiin and I didn’t find myself swooning over the bad boy who doesn’t even have much show time in the story.

The story just didn’t hold my attention with it’s slow plot. I had to force myself to finish it and it’s quiet a short story too, being just under 300 pages. But as I’ve said before, the main issue I had was I couldn’t stop comparing it to The Wrath and the Dawn and maybe that’s my fault for not being able to separate the two books and I do appreciate the effort the author has taken to write the book, but for me this just didn’t work.

Thank you to Macmilliam Children's Books for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.