Search - East

A totally awesome, cannot put it down, wonderful book. I hate to give it up, but it's time to share it.

I've never read anything by this author, and because of the sheer size of this book it sat on my TBR for I think a year or more. But I'm so glad I got sick and picked it up. Finished in one day, it's just an amazing book. It had some undertones of Beauty and the Beast and Snow White & Rose Red.

Reading the book you didn't feel it was as big as it was because the story never got boring, there was always something going on and if you skipped even a sentence you'd be lost on something small until you went back to read it. There was some fun tidbits in there about the Norwegian Gods (which I've always been fascinated with)some made up fun stuff to show the time period, and everything is so described I can picture it perfectly in my head. Reading it felt like I was watching a wonderful movie.

The only thing bad about this book, is I think it spoiled me. All my other books are boring now! Lol.

This book is totally going on my keeper shelf.

This is such a great book! :D

I just finished rereading this one (for the fifth time) and decided i had to own it.
It's loosely based off of the old fairytale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" (i think that's the title anyway)

You'll fall in love with the characters, I did! lol

*kinda like a beauty and the beast, but with trolls and a lot of superstitions~

I give this book an A++!

EAST is the tale of Rose, who sacrifices her freedom to save her sister, grows to care for the cursed white bear who is her “captor,” unwittingly betrays him, then goes beyond the ends of the earth to make things right. It’s a classic folktale that never fails to move me, but Edith Pattou’s retelling of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” went above and beyond, astounding me with its magical rendering of a traditional story and simple literary elements.

EAST is not extraordinarily sophisticated in writing style: narration alters between several different voices, and none of them particularly stand out as individual examples of great literariness. However, the magic of EAST lies in how these common elements—straightforward prose, a retelling—fit together. The multiple narrators adds a unique rhythm and scope to the story that makes the whole so much more than the sum of its parts.

Edith Pattou sets EAST in historical Europe, and the story traverses lands, cultures, seas, and languages for an astonishing and engrossing read. This is the second retelling of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” that I’ve had the pleasure of reading, and I’m astonished at the different directions in which each author took this folktale. I’m no history buff, but I was mesmerized by Edith Pattou’s description of the various people that Rose meets on her journey, by the variety of people and cultures that existed over great distances at the same time.

Words fail me when I try to describe an extraordinary book; indeed, there is no part of this book that was not amazing, and thus there is no part that I can describe well. There is a reason I still see this book in bookstores: it has the rare lasting power that only the most accomplished of fantasy reads possess.

One of her best books!