Hush

Hush by Donna Jo Napoli

I’ve always enjoyed Donna Jo Napoli. I’m a sucker for fairy tale stories. This book was a little bit of a let down.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it…but I wanted my happy ending. I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. But I guess that is life? You can’t always expect happy endings.  The story is about a young Irish princess, Melkorka . In the beginning she relishes her position as a princess. She’s not necessarily bad, she just has this belief that everyone has a place and position in the world. Her life gets turned upside down when she along with her sister gets captured on a slave boat. The princess becomes a slave. The title of the book is hush because once Mel is captured, she becomes silent. Never speaking to her captors or the other prisoners. Through this however, she gains compassion and feeling for those who she once saw as beneath her.

As much as I like Donna Jo Napoli, I guess I was hoping there would be a happy ending for Mel. But I can’t expect life to always be fairy tale endings can I?