Personal Rating: 4.5 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.66 Stars 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. (goodreads.com) You ought to know by this point what a sucker I am for pretty books. Before I get started explaining what I like and dislike about this book I need to take a moment to make sure you appreciate how pretty this cover is. LOOK AT IT. It’s even prettier when you’re holding it in your hand and feeling the matte dust jacket. Plus, when you look at the cover under the dust jacket it is just as pretty if not prettier. Lemme show you: Less than stellar picture quality, I know, but LOOK AT THAT GORGEOUSNESS! Golden sparkly stars all over the place and IT’S SO PRETTY! I love it so, so, so much. Seriously, it is a striking book in person and there are few earthly things that make my heart as happy as a beautiful book. Okay, now let’s get down to brass tacks: does this book have a story to match it’s cover? Heck yes (pardon my language). If you read the description then you’ve probably guessed that this is sort of a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights or at the very least a take on the story of Shahrazad (or Sheherazade or Scheherazade or whatever you want to call her). To be honest, beyond a few key facts, I don’t know that much about these stories, but I’m pretty sure this differs a lot from the story of Shahrazad and her murderous husband. From what I’ve heard, I prefer this version. And I think it does a good job of preserving the integrity of the tale and maintaining Shahrazad’s cleverness. One thing you should know if you intend to read this story is that very few of the characters actually get names. The main girl does not, though I am pretty sure that she is Shahrazad. From the other reviews I was reading on Goodreads it would seem that many people think that the lack of names leads people to think there is a lack of characterization. I may be wrong, but I don’t think this is the case. I think it is more of a challenge for an author to characterize without the help of connotations that come with names, but I think that E.K. Johnston did a really good job. In addition to that, I think it made the story feel more like a fable or a campfire story to keep the characters nameless, which I liked. The main character, the girl, may not look like much to someone who is used to reading about heroines who start rebellions and don’t take crap (pardon my language) from anyone. She seems to go along with her situation without much struggle, she obeys the villain, and she prevents fighting, even if the fighting would make her personal situation and the lives of a few others better. Just because she comes off as demure does not mean that she is a weak female character. Personally, I think she is a lot stronger than a character who kicks tush just to be seen as strong. She has quiet strength and she is a wise character. She doesn’t have all the answers, but she bides her time while she gets them and when the time is right she stands up for her family and for herself. The villain of this story, Lo-Melkhiin, is one of the few characters with a name. I kind of like that the bad guy gets a name even though the main character does not. There’s something poetic about it, ya know? Lo-Melkiin is a pretty standard bad guy when it comes to the way he treats the MC, but what makes him interesting is that he is actually a good ruler of the lands he controls. It gives him some depth beyond big, mean, and scary. There are many other characters that I really liked in this story. Her father, her mother, her sister, her mother-in-law, the sculptor, the henna artist, the women of the palace - the list goes on. Personally, I think this story is full of rich characters who all move the story along in an interesting and unique way. I think a lot of the time a person’s reaction to a story depends on what kind of story they are in the mood to read. A lot of the time I’m ready to read cookie cutter YA novels with tough, witty, strong, righteously angry protagonists, but sometimes I just want a beautiful story with some meat to it, something that makes me think. When I picked up this book that was the reading mood I was in. I have been in a bit of a reading slump lately and none of the thrilling YA novels that I normally gobble up have been tempting me. I started A Thousand Nights yesterday and I could scarcely put it down. It’s a good read for a dark night when you can revel in the mysteriousness of the plot and the weirdness of it all. Speaking of weirdness… this book has a lot of it. Or maybe not weirdness, but foreignness. The characters had a very established religion in the world that the story takes place in, which I struggled reading about personally. It definitely does not fit anywhere alongside or close to Christian beliefs. They also messed around with dark powers, which made me wary of reading, but the story was ultimately really good. The writing was what you might call “flowery”. Why use three words when you can use, like, fifteen? Sometimes I don’t have the patience for floral language, but it just helped weave the magicalness of this story. It just had a feeling of a classic. It feels less commercialized and extremely out of the ordinary. Part of that might be because it is a stand alone (though I hear there is a companion novel). I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but in recent years I’ve become enamored with stand alones because they leave you feeling like you’ve accomplished something or that the story is really, sincerely done and that’s okay. Not that I don’t love a good series, it’s just nice to be without the commitment sometimes. As far as maturity rating (which I feel all books should come with, just like movies) I’m going to have to say a light PG-13. While nothing explicit happens in the book, they reference stuff a lot throughout the book and there is some pretty intense violence. I’m not sure if I will read the companion novel to this story, since I enjoy it by itself so much, but if I do I’m sure it will be interesting (and it has a pretty cover too…). As you can probably tell, I enjoyed this book and I’m happy it got me out of my reading slump. NOT TO MENTION IT’S BEAUTIFUL. I think I used the word “beautiful” a few too many times in this review, but whatever. You can just deal with it because it is the best word I know to describe A Thousand Nights. Thanks for reading, I’d best go tend to the sheep (jk, I don’t own any sheep). Image source:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21524446-a-thousand-nights
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