Hush by Donna Jo Napoli

Title: Hush
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Age Group: Older Teens
# of Pages: 340
My Rating: 3/5

The lovely young Irish princess, Melkorka, always lived a life of luxury. She looks down upon slaves, thinking they are worthless beings.

But unfortunately, she and her younger sister, Brigid, are kidnapped onto a slave ship one day. There she learns the cruelty and harsh life that she is never exposed to before. She lives through the dire weather and punishments from her captors. Throughout, she keeps silent. Using her power not to speak, she awe those around her.

This novel was a little difficult for me to get into for a very long time. I was reading this for nearly a month, I believe. Going through the life with Melkorka, the entire novel was quite slow. The plot is realistic during this time period, therefore there was not a lot of things to look forward to. It was around the last one hundred pages where I was finally able to zip through it.

I disliked Melkorka a lot in the beginning. I understood that she is a princess and she is always above the rest, but her feelings toward slaves made me want to slap her across the face. I was glad that she eventually grew up, learning that slaves were just like her: human. Her younger sister, Brigid, is quite a bright one. I took a liking to her but she wasn't there halfway through the last bit of the novel.

In Hush, you journey with Melkorka from her kingdom as a princess to Iceland as a concubine. The majority of the time, the setting took place on the slave ship. Therefore, there was minimal things that could occur. Once she finally got on land, there you would see a bit of progress in Melkorka's life.

Overall, Hush is a read that would entertain those who are into historical fiction. It is based off the real Melkorka and the author worked around what could have possibly happened to her. But if you if dislike stories that are slow-paced, then it is not for you.