Review - Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey (4/5 stars)

Reading level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 208 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: March 6, 2007
ISBN-13: 978-1416934714
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through paperbackswap.com
Rating: 4/5 stars

I love fairy tale retellings and have read a couple written by Dokey previously.  So far Dokey's writing has been a bit hit and miss for me, but this book was definitely a hit.  It was actually one of the better retellings of Cinderella that I have read.

You know the basic story but in this version there are some changes.  Cinderella's name is really Cendrillon and her father is alive, but has abandoned her because the death of her mother makes Cendrillon's company too painful.  There is another boy whose birthday is the same day as Cendrillon's who grows up with her but has an unknown past.  Add to the mix two countries torn by centuries of war, but currently at peace and you have the makings for a great Cinderella retelling.

I loved that Dokey approached this retelling a bit differently, in some ways she stuck truer to the Brothers Grimm version than the Disney version.  In someways she made everything a bit more sweet too.  Most of the story focuses on the power of love and wishes.  When Cendrillon wishes for sisters and a mother to love, her wish comes true but not in the way she imagined.  Her stepsisters and stepmother aren't as horrible as they are in some renditions, and the ways they are horrible in are because their own pain.

There are a lot of twists to the plot, making it more interesting than the traditional Cinderella story.  All the characters involved are paired up happily in the end too, which while unlikely and a bit goofy, is also very fairy tale like and sweet.

Overall an excellent retelling of Cinderella.  Very sweet and loving characters, a very fairy tale like ending.  I loved that the plot was complicated by sympathetic characters and had some additional politics thrown in.  The writing is beautiful and descriptive.  If you like fairy tale retellings I can recommend this as a good read.

The Storyteller's Daughter by Cameron Dokey (2/5 stars)

Previously I have read "Beauty Sleep" by Cameron Dokey, and I liked the story. So, I was excited to read another fairy tale retelling by Dokey. Unfortunately I found this retelling of "Arabian Nights" hard to get through and pretty boring.

Shahrazad is the daughter of a great storyteller. When the King is betrayed by his wife, his heart turns to stone and he vows to marry a young woman each new moon and kill her the next morning. That is unless a young woman comes forward voluntarily knowing she will die the next day. Shahrarad decides it is her destiny to step forward and every morning her life is sparred as she tells a story that has no end.

I had a lot of trouble getting through this book, even though it is relatively short. The language is stilted and somewhat difficult to read. Shahrazad is an uninspiring heroine that, despite talking about how women are always wiser, ends up showing herself to be a weaker character. None of the surrounding characters are any more inspiring. They are all un-emotional and two dimensional.

The stories that Shahrazad tells all have a very transparent moral to them and I didn't find them to be very interesting, engaging, or surprising. I has hoped that either the story itself or the story Shahrazad tells would engage me, but I struggled to get through them despite the fact that the book is very short. The writing seemed, as I said, a bit stilted and immature. I had trouble telling that this book was written by the same author that had written "Beauty Sleep". There is no description of the world, and little description of what the characters are feeling.

All in all this book was a disappointment to me. I am still planning on reading a couple other of Dokey's fairy tale retellings since I did enjoy "Beauty Sleep." Overall if you are looking for an interesting retelling of "Arabian Nights" to read, I would look elsewhere.

Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey (4/5 stars)

I love reading re-telling of fairy tales. This book was just that, a sweet and unique re-telling of Sleeping Beauty.

The beginning of the story follows somewhat with the classic fairy tale but about halfway through the book some interesting twists take place that really make this book a good read. If you like fairy tales you will like this book. It is a read that makes you feel good.

My biggest complaint would be that so much time was spent setting up the story. I really wish Aurore could've spent more time in the enchanted forest. This is a small quip and overall I enjoyed this book. It is a short quick read, that is beautifully written and never left me bored.