The vocabulary, much of which is specific to the setting, may challenge readers, but it's unlikely to stop them: the tension over Mel's hopes for escape paces this story like a thriller. Hush - An Irish Princess' Tale by Donna Jo Napoli JanuBy vanessablake BRONZE, Bangor, Maine More by this author Melkorka is an Irish princess, the beautiful first born daughter. Accustomed to being waited on, she admits to disdain for slaves: “Some are of ordinary intelligence, but most are stupid,” she says at the beginning, an opinion that will change radically with her reversed circumstances. Melkorka's journey becomes intellectual as well as geographical. Napoli does not shy from detailing practices that will make readers wince: human hairs serve as sutures, bloody wounds are stuffed with moss-and the Russian crew repeatedly gang-rapes an older captive. To conceal their high birth, Mel and Brigid do not speak, and their silence gives them a hold over their captors, the leader of whom comes to fear that Mel is an enchantress. The girls, dressed as boys in peasant clothing, are hurriedly sent for their safety to a distant “ringfort.” Instead, they are captured by Russian slavers who troll the coastlines, kidnapping women and children. After a Norse youth attacks their brother, their father plans revenge by luring a Viking ship to their town. Melkorka, 15, and sister Brigid, eight, are daughters of an Irish king early in the 10th century, when Viking raids on castles and monasteries are common. , this powerful survival story invents a backstory for Melkorka, a character in a major Icelandic work, the Laxdæla saga.

Close in tone and audience to Napoli's Bound

Hush by Donna Jo Napoli