[Review] The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King

Title: The Dust of 100 Dogs

Author: A.S. King

Publication: 2009

Publisher: Flux

Source: Bought
Age: 17+, heavy sexual scenes, language and violence (animal abuse included).

Pages: 320

My Rating:

Summary:

In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of escaping the pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with "the dust of one hundred dogs," dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body-with her memories intact.

Now she's a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica.

My thoughts: 

King threw me on a wild ride with The Dust of 100 Dogs--her debut novel is insane, original, palpable, and full of disaster and excitement and adventure and is just one of those books that needs to be read. King is such a highly regarded author, with her recent novel, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, and after reading her debut, it's easy to see why.

The Dust of 100 Dogs follows the story of Emer Morrisey's trials and tribulations in life, and what happens after her death. Just before her last dying breaths, she is cursed to live out the life of a hundred dogs. At the end of what could only be seen as a mad rush, Emer is reborn as a human--Saffron Adams. At her core, she is still Emer, and she wants what is hers, what she lost 300 hundred years ago along the shores of Jamaica, lying underneath the dust of 100 dogs. It was extremely difficult to pin-point exactly how I should summarise the novel without spoiling anything important.

The story was intricately woven, told in a form of dual perspective, both clever and original. At first, I was a bit confused and kept frantically trying to remember all the characters and events that happen, and at first, the novel felt very jumpy. Every few chapters, Emer/Saffron divulges in a doggy moral attached with personal story during one of her lives as a dog. This felt a bit irrelevent to the novel as a whole, but allowed some form of believability to the protagonist's living out those dog lives. The novel seems extremely simple, but when I finished those last pages, I realised WHY King set everything out the way she did. And it works.

Although I said that this is a book that people should try, I also feel the need to warn people: this book is not for the faint-hearted. There are strong sexual scenes, several of them involving rape. Swear words abound. Violence, really graphic descriptions that really protrude in the deep recesses of my mind, even after I've finished the last page. Perhaps all of this (except for the sexual scenes--those I could have gone without, Amy!) only helped to encourage what would be the troubled loving feeling I hold towards this book now.

The characters . . . seriously, there are WAY too many characters to think of. I'll discuss the most plot-centric figures. Emer begins as a meek and shy girl from Ireland, who has to endure the pain of losing her friends and family at the hands of war. She ends up a pirate: strong, determined, fearless, abbrasive and proud. My opinion of her is mixed, but she was admirable in many ways. Saffron is smart, calculative and struggles with dealing with her home life. She leaves to seek what she left behind in her last life as a human (Emer). Saffron is essentially Emer, but with reincarnation, while her memories are kept intact, Saffron has assumed a unique personality separate to Emer's. She seemed more like a narrator than the protagonist to me.

I feel that if I discuss this book too deeply, I may spoil the whole thing. So, I guess I'll just say that the characters were complex and realistic. Although not likeable at all times.

I think the deciding factor for me is the fact that this novel is so well thought out that everything falls together in the end--even with all its ambiguities and mysteries that remain unsolved in the end. I really enjoyed the reincarnation elements to the story. All in all, The Dust of 100 Dogs is a solid debut that seems to stretch out the YA genre in its originality and complexities.  


Recommended for mature (17+) readers.

Trailer:

Buy:

Live in Australia?

Fishpond | Readings | Dymocks | Angus & Robertson | Borders | The Nile

Live elsewhere?

Amazon | The Book Depository

Links:

Goodreads Page

I have received this review copy in return for an honest review.

Challenge: YA Historical Challenge 2011

[Review] A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler

Title: A Blue So Dark

Author: Holly Schindler

Publication: May 2010

Publisher: Flux

Review Copy: International Book Tours

Pages: 288

My Rating:

Blurb (Goodreads):  

Terrified that her mother, a schizophrenic and an artist, is a mirror that reflects her own future, sixteen-year-old Aura struggles with her overwhelming desires to both chase artistic pursuits and keep madness at bay.

As her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet keeps drawing Aura toward the depths of her own imagination—the shadows of make-believe that she finds frighteningly similar to her mother’s hallucinations.

Convinced that creative equals crazy, Aura shuns her art, and her life unravels in the process.

My thoughts: 

Painfully slow. Really disliked it. Until...

Probably from page 100 onwards, I started to get a vibe that perhaps A Blue So Dark wasn't so bad after all. I would have given up on it, if I hadn't felt obligated to finish, and write a review on it; but I'm glad I stuck to it and got to the end, because if I hadn't, I would have missed out on something truly special.

One aspect I really liked was the characters. Aura is vulnerable, but puts on a brave front and she had a good voice all through to the end. Nell, an old woman working in an art shop, is wise and kind and strong and all-knowing. I loved her. Jeremy was incredibly, well, cute. For a skater boy. Hah. But it's really sweet to see their relationship develop, and I loved their little scenes together. If I talk about Aura's mum, there's no way I can NOT spoil anything, so I'll leave it to you to read it.

Having not known much about Schizophrenia in the past, this book was a good indication of what Schizophrenia does to people: the affected and those involved. I liked the little notes below each chapter - in italics, there's a sarcastic kind of note from Aura about Schizophrenia. I thought they were pretty cool.

The storyline was slow-moving a lot of the time, but for most of the last 100 pages, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It allowed time for reflection on Aura's mother's situation, which is definitely the book's main focus. Also, I'm glad that Schindler allowed time to just describe the scenes, explain/reassess the situation, talk about characters, etc.

Also, I liked the framing of the novel. The mermaids mentioned at the beginning come back, as do the paintings and the art:

"Now, I just carve her, over and over. Can't quit. Think it's because I can never get her quite right. Never can show how much she sparkled."

He sighed, shaking his head as he tossed the whittled piece of drift into an old galvanized tub on the floor in front of the counter. I folllowed after it, finding the whole tub full of mermaids--some painted, some dotted with glitter, some stained, some (possibly half-finished pieces) left so natural they seemed to have actually washed onto the beach with faces and long flowing hair and scales. (pp. 5-6)

Final thoughts:

If you can wittle through the painful beginning, and love illness YA novels, you'll probably love this one. While I probably won't be reading this one cover-to-cover again, any time soon, I'm definitely going to go pick up my own personal copy to read over my favourite scenes.

Extras
At the back, there is an interview of Holly Schindler, by Allie at Little Willow! Which is cool, because I love her blog. :) It's a really good interview, and I enjoyed reading that, too!

Buy:
Live in Australia?
Fishpond | Readings | Dymocks | Angus & Robertson | Borders | The Nile

Live elsewhere?
Amazon | The Book Depository

I am in no way affiliated with the above sites, nor with Schindler or publisher. I do not receive any money for reviewing or linking.

Learn more about A Blue so Dark and read more reviews at Goodreads!