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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Book Review: The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King and a Giveaway!

The Dust of 100 Dogsis the curse placed upon Emer Morrissey, feared pirate of the Caribbean, just as she and her true love are killed. She must live 100 lives as a dog and then be reborn again with all her memories intact. Now she is a teenager in the 20th century, dealing with a rotten brother, demanding parents, and the memories of Emer - and her buried treasure.

The Dust of 100 Dogs

Things I Liked:
I liked most of the Emer parts - her childhood in Ireland, the historical section about Cromwell, her piratical adventures in Jamaica. Those parts were a lot of fun to read.

Things I Didn't Like:
Pretty much, everything else. I think this book will appeal to a very particular niche of readers and I was not one of these. I was turned off by the jumping around between stories and characters. I was thrown by the third and first person narrative switching. I really had a hard time identifying with Saffron at all. I struggled with wanting to finish the story; it appeared to be going nowhere to me. I guess I was expecting more of a pirate adventure, curse of 100 dogs story and got more of an angsty teen drama with a lot of extra baggage thrown in. I loathed Fred Livingstone (but I think everyone does and I can't think of any other way for King to have depicted him). I ended up skipping lots of sections. Anyway, overall, this was just not the book for me.

Read-alikes:
I am really struggling to come up with any for this - suggestions from those who've read it?

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@#$
It's got it all!

mrg-factor: XXXXX
Plenty of this going on - thank you Fred (ugh).

v-factor: ->->->->
Gory pirate fighting and the like.

Overall rating: **

*And because I am hoping someone else will enjoy this more, I am offering my very gently used copy of The Dust of 100 Dogs. Just leave a comment on this post if you are interested - please tell me why you like or don't like pirates - and I will draw a winner next Tuesday, September 1.*

18 comments :

  1. I am kinda on the fence with pirates. I kinda like them because I love action, swearing, and funky clothes. I don't like 'em because they were extremely glamorized and-bottom line-they were thieves.

    shutupjessicasreading(at)gmail(dot)com
    Jessica

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  2. I love pirates. The fictional kind, that is. Whenever I thin of pirates I think of my son when he used to like to pretend as a child.
    wandanamgreb (at) gmail (dot) com

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  3. I'm not a big fan of unwashed, unshavened men, so I am in the not a fan of pirate camp.

    lesly7ch(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  4. Since I was a child I have always liked pirates, they had treasures, adventures, talking parrots and I though they were something like a Sea-traveling Robin Hood. Now I know they weren't exactly the better people in the world but still I like them.

    sheere.dry@gmail.com

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  5. It's a shame you didn't like this book all that much, I've heard such great things about it!

    Why do I like pirates? I'm not sure if I do like pirates specifically, but Captain Jack Sparrow is just hilarious in Pirates of the Carribean, as are the ones in Lisa Shearin's Raine Benares series with their wit and typical-guy-ness, and in Robin Hobb's The Liveship Traders Trilogy, although they're not great people, you love them for being how they should be; evil, nasty, dispicable people who seriously need to be locked up - in this case, without their nastiness, there wouldn't be much of a story. So although I hate them, I know they're needed.

    And who doesn't love saying "Oh-ar"? :)

    Email: joannestapley[at]googlemail[dot]com

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  6. I love pirates, although I've never read a book about them. My favorite aspect of pirating is the burried treasure. I love the idea of an adventure following a map, navigating the seas and of course, dueling with a sword, arrg.

    zenfoxflower@yahoo.com

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  7. Sorry you didn't like your book, I hate it when I get a dud. This sounds pretty good to me, though. :)
    I'm not sure I'm that big on pirates. They're great in the fictional arena, but I can't seperate in my mind the swashbuckling good-time guys from the modern terrorists of the sea.
    zombiegirrrl21 at aol dot com
    I've linked you on my sidebar and I'll be sending a few people your way. I know one person in particular who's very intersted in this book (and pirates). :)

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  8. I love Pirates, Pirates of the Caribbean is my all time favorite movie(:

    kelseythebookscout@gmail.com

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  9. Why pirates are cool?
    Peg legs, gold teeth, parrots, hooked hands, and "Arrrrgh!"
    Yeah that about sums it up.
    Dani.
    lightningstreak123@comcast.net

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  10. I love Pirates. They are great especially in fights against ninjas!

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  11. Forgot to include email address:

    neverendingshelf@gmail.com

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  12. I just love pirates because they are never quite heroes, but they can be quite heroic. I like my characters naughty but nice and pirates fit that bill nicely. Not to mention there's always a fight a'brewin' when there's pirates - and I like me a good fight.

    bittahsweetharmony@Yahoo.com

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  13. Pros for pirates: Sword fights and adventure on the open seas.
    Cons: They were thieves, dirty, and generally a bunch of scoundrels with no respect for authority.

    hauntingorchid (at) aol (dot) com

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  14. I think what I liked most was Emer and Seanie's love for each other (and how it manages to transcend into the future). But I agree with you: it's not a book for everyone.

    I like pirates because the idea of living on the sea and raising anarchy seems like such a cool way of living. (back then, of course. now you'd just get arrested and never get out of jail).

    pancakesthepenguin(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  15. Who doesn't love pirates? Three words: Captain Jack Sparrow.

    =D

    mya DOT rooney AT gmail DOT com

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  16. As a fictional character --- I love pirates, they have adventure, excitement, and battles to just survive. Conversely, I wouldn't want to hang around with this crowd.

    rsgrandinetti@yahoo(dot)com

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  17. Pirates are exciting and they can be really funny (ex: all pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean!). Also, I've neer read a pirate book I didn't like (loved Pirates, the Bloody Jack series) so I don't think an author can go wrong writing about pirates.

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  18. I love pirates because they don't follow the normal rules and live life their own way.

    andie.v107(at)yahoo(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
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