The Dust of 100 Dogs. A Book Review by Drama Girl

The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King


Pirates. And Dogs. And pirates who are dogs. More specifically, a pirate who is cursed, so that she has to live 100 lives as a dog (with all her memories), before she can finally reincarnate as a human, with the one goal to return to Jamaica and dig up the treasure she buried as a pirate in her past life.

So meet Emer, the aforementioned pirate chick. She's pretty cool--she wasn't always a bloodthirsty pirate queen. In fact, it's hard to believe that the sweet little Irish Emer of the first part of the book could ever turn into the fearsome entity that plagues her later incarnation--Saffron.

Now we get to the modern stuff. It's interesting to watch a teenager with all the memories of a twenty-something pirate and 100 dogs. So, besides acing every history test ever, Saffron isn't much affected by her past lives. Except for her burning desire to dig up the treasure that is rightfully hers as soon as she turns 18, which confuses her parents and leads to some very interesting therapy sessions.

The book switches between the perspectives of Emer and Saffron, and even though Saffron has all of Emer's memories it's important to remember that they are two different people. While Saffron is dealing with teenage angst involving the Homecoming dance, her alchoholic mom and druggie brother, she narrates the entire thing with horribly descriptive goriness, courtesy of Emer. You see, most teenagers would picture an annoying friend getting run over by a car, but thanks to her pirate history, Saffron has all sorts of interesting choices, such as removing their eye, or twisting their thumb off.

Emer's transformation is by far the more interesting of the two. A little girl from a small village in Ireland starts with simple troubles like sewing, or fighting with her brother. But as horror after horror corrupts the little girl, you have to watch Emer grow up fast, and you can't help but cheer out loud when a bad guy gets it.

Historically accurate, romantic, and full of twists and turns, The Dust of 100 Dogs cannot be placed into one  category. Except Awesome.