This is the fourth book of A.S. King’s that I’ve read. I absolutely loved the other three, and since she’s coming out with another next month, I decided it was time to get caught up on her backlog.
I had heard numerous mentions of The Dust of 100 Dogs and knew it had won some awards, so I quickly moved it to the top of my list, even though I knew nothing about the plot.
It was only OK.
The plot was actually pretty cool. Emer is a pirate in the 16th century Caribbean. She and her lover are burying their treasure and about to leave their life of crime when they are interrupted and killed. Before she is killed, Emer is cursed, using the ashes of 100 dogs, to spend her next 100 lives as “the bitch she is”. Hence the title.
So she hangs out as a dog for a while, but all her memories of her past lives are intact.
300 years later she is finally reincarnated as a human and can’t wait to grow up and go find her buried treasure.
The book switches between Emer’s story and the story of the girl who gets reincarnated 300 years later (Saffron). Since we know how Emer’s story ends before we see the beginning, that plotline is all about seeing how Emer and her lover ended up dead on a beach in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Saffron is just trying to get out of high school and get back to the Caribbean so she can find her buried treasure.
I won’t tell you whether or not Saffron ever found her treasure, but I will say the book is about more than jewels and revenge. She’s out for blood. Until she isn’t.
Interspersed throughout the book are tips on how to train your dog, using anecdotes from Emer’s various past lives as dogs. It makes me think King must be a dog lover, which makes me want to hang out with her even more.
I was disappointed in the writing of this book. It wasn’t badly written, it just didn’t have the tight, focused writing I’m used to seeing from King. It had a tendency to switch the point of view back and forth between characters without warning and there were a lot of unnecessary explanations like “she asked” or “he suggested” when “said” (or no dialogue tag at all) would have done the trick. I still can’t believe I’m advocating the “he said/she said” dogma, but it just goes to show you should never say never!
The emotions in this book also felt forced, and as a result, kind of cheesy. That’s something I struggle with as a writer myself though, so knowing this is one of her earlier books, I’ll give King a pass on that. In any case, there’s no doubt she’s improved as a writer and I am still anxiously anticipating the release of I Crawl Through It.
What about you guys? What did you read this week? Anything that was surprisingly good (or not so good)? I want to hear all about it!
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