A Thousand Nights

There’s an obvious One Thousand and One Nights influence to E.K. Johnston’s A Thousand Nights. But while A Thousand Nights may take its inspiration from the frame story, it is more of an original story than a retelling.

Lo-Melkhiin has gone through many different wives. Many die after a single night, some live for a brief span of days before finally dying as well. When he arrives at the village of the story’s unnamed heroine, she knows her sister will be the girl chosen. To save her sister, she chooses to sacrifice herself. When she reaches the palace, she begins to have visions and to realize that she might have a way to save herself and all the girls who would come after her.

“Always, it seemed, men would overlook unpleasant

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things for the sake of those that went well. The statues’ eyes for the melodious sounds of the fountain. The deaths of their daughters for the bounty of their trade.
There was great beauty in this qasr, but there was also great ugliness and fear. I would not be like those men who turned their eyes from one to see the other. I would remember what those things cost.”

While mostly an original story, A Thousand Nights has the feel of a fairy tale retelling. It’s slower paced and reflective. It’s magical, but it’s a quiet sort of magic. The lack of names adds an intriguing element to it, which I think helps with the fairy tale feel. I think it may also be part of the book’s commentary on how women are often overlooked or left nameless, both in every day life and in the narrative of history.

The most admirable element of A Thousand Names is its heroine, who’s clever, brave and kind. Her relationship with her sister is one of the most central to the novel. This is one of the rare YA books without much romance, for which I was thankful.

I’d recommend A Thousand Names for anyone in search of a fairy tale starring a worthy heroine.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less

Twue Wuv did win the day, but not the romantic kind. The kind that is a secret shared and retold. The kind people seek, but never find where they think they will.

This wasn't a romance nor was this a book about how a girl overcame a tyrant. This was about two sisters who believed in the bond they shared and how that bond showed the world a different way.

First things first, Johnston is a hell of a writer. I'm definitely a plot-over-writing-style person, but I will always give kudos where they are due (and where they don't drag/bore me to tears), and this was just so finely crafted. I knew around the halfway point that this would go right up there with Valente's "The Orphan's Tales" as one of my favorite takes on "One Thousand and One Nights".

Our nameless narrator uses her unwavering bond with her sister to survive her tyrant husband, Lo-Melkhiin, for more nights than any of his previous wives. The tales she weaves for him and for the other palace inhabitants aren't just regurgitations of known stories or fables. They're tales of the desert in which she grew up, tales of her sister, show more tales that are still beautiful in their simpleness. She has conversations with the needlewomen, with her henna mistress, with one of the Skeptics (scientist-philosophers).

The inspiration may be an oft-used one, but the execution is very original. show less

3.5 stars (Liked it a lot)
I wanted to read A Thousand Nights because the premise of being a good storyteller being the thing that helps her to survive in the wake of thousands of dead wives at the hands of Lo-Melkhiin. The sound of the main character putting her life up as tribute rather than the otherwise obvious choice of her beautiful sister shows me a lot about her priorities, and I love when family is one of the driving forces behind the development. Also, the sister left behind weaving the subtle magic trying to help her sister who volunteered to go in her place at home only strengthened that.

The desert setting was fascinating. I am not sure that I have read anything quite like it. But living surrounded by sand sets up a very show more different way of life than being in a more normal setting of country or city. The ways of survival are so different as well as the feel of the middle east with family formation being different (multiple spouses, the importance of sons and carrying on family name).

I loved the strength of the main character, as well as her intelligence. She realized so much about LoMelkhiin and the qasr. She made friends wherever she went although at first everyone seemed to avoid her, because I am sure they got attached to other wives only for them to die as well. But her mysterious power is a match for LoMelkhiin. She is the only one that realized and could confirm that he had been possessed by a powerful being, but she and his mom believed that there was still a part of the original LoMelkhiin still in there, fighting against.

I was captivated by the story, but it wasn't one that I could get fully immersed in because I would want to stop and think.

I like that romance wasn't really the forefront. She wanted to meet the real LoMelkhiin, but she def didn't love the demon that had taken over. It is more about family, friendship, politics to some extent, and magic.

I thought that is was going to be a cliffie ending for sure, but I love how it was wrapped up. The ending surprised me in a good way, because I wasn't sure how it was going to possibly wrap everything up, but it did, and I was happy with it.

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.

Bottom Line: Great main character, and themes with a bit slower pace. show less

This was a clever, thorough delight. The world is rich and deep, delivered through voice (also a strength, for my money) and always enhancing the story and themes. And I really enjoyed those themes - of power and corruption, of how and why people can earn or find strength, of gender roles woven together into society. (Indeed, if I have any slight regrets about this, it's that the line between the world and work of women and the world and work of men is drawn most definitely - but a book cannot be all things, I suppose, especially one this concise.)

Lo-Melkhiin went hunting in the desert one day, and he came back changed. The powerful young ruler now has something cold and calculating at his heart, and though he is still fair, he is no longer beloved. How could he be, when he has killed hundreds of brides and seems to have an insatiable appetite for more? When he comes to the tents of this book's nameless heroine, she bravely steps forward to save her beloved, beautiful sister. She expects to die like all the others, but she finds that she can survive one day at a time -- thanks, perhaps, to her words and stories, which seem to have a mysterious power that they never had before. Can she use them save Lo-Melkhiin and his people from a powerful force of evil?

I loved the sense of show more mystery and the wealth of authentic detail in this book. I have not run across many retellings of The Thousand and One Nights, and this one is particularly skillfully written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. show less

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 show more 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. Approximate Lexile: 920

Thank you, NetGalley, for the Advanced Reader e-book. show less