Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Publication date: March 2010
ISBN: 9780805089684
Source: Library
Diribani and Tana live quiet lives in their village, until Diribani is gifted by a goddess to speak flowers and jewels. When Tana is then gifted to speak snakes and toads, she is certain it is a curse. The lives of the two girls are then separated as Diribani is taken to the palace and Tana is exiled from her village. As threats to their lives become commonplace, the two struggle to understand why the goddess has chosen them and what they should do with their gifts.
Things I Liked:
I loved the rich detail and the use of color and texture and so many other little things to describe the beauty of the tale. The atmosphere was so real, I could smell the spices and feel the sticky heat. An interesting and intriguing story to go with the gorgeous place. I just all around like how it's written and the fairy tale feeling of it. Definitely I need to read that original tale!
Things I Didn't Like:
I felt just a little disappointed in the ending. Things went kind of fast and wrapped up, well, a little oddly. I wasn't entirely sure what I was supposed to get from it. But, I kind of feel that way about a lot of fairy tales. They seem to have a point, but sometimes I'm not sure what it is :)
Read-alikes:
The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Pretty much anything by Juliet Marillier
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
that I recall
mrg-factor: X
maybe a tiny bit of innuendo
v-factor: ->
some minor stuff, nothing graphic
Overall rating: ****
What's your favorite setting for a book? Foreign, domestic, fantastic?
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