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3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
A ripping yarn as they say, with a healthy sidebar of historical fiction relating to the post Jacobite rebellion period in Scotland
Enjoyable read. Pre-read for Y4 Ambleside Online. Listened with narrator Kieron Elliott. Excellent narrator. He had the accent to make the reading feel more authentic. Would read again on my own and will probably read the next book.
I think my timing was off for this read. My husband and my 12 yr old son both really enjoyed it and highly recommended it to me. And I really like Treasure Island, so I thought this would be a shoe-in. But it was just ok. My brain wasn’t wanting to process all the Scottish vocabulary to make it make sense so I glazed over a lot of the details and just followed the gist of the plot. I think I would have liked it better if I could have dove in deeper. Some of the humor I caught was really funny. Sadly, the ending was lame. One thing that I did think was cool…..I am related to the Stewart’s of Scotland, so that was kind of fun.
Comments will come when I've actually finished the book. :)
It was a pretty good book. It was a fun adventure.
It was a pretty good book. It was a fun adventure.
Read this to my son, who is 9. We got some good kicks out of the telling of details of David's and Alan's friendship. Not as good for reading aloud as Treasure Island; but that was mainly because of my problems with pronunciation and dialect, often having no idea what many words even meant! But it's a good story, and I like Stevenson's writing. It would have been better for us had I been more familiar with UK history. I have traveled to central Scotland including the islands of Mull and Iona and thus very much enjoyed the author's descriptions of the gorgeous wild craggy landscape.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Spoilers of broad plot points (but it's all shown in the maps / dust jacket description anyway). This book was fun to read for the first few sections: the standoff with the uncle, being on the ship, stranded on the islet, but once it got beyond that I found it to be very slow. The traveling across Scotland is just interminable, and combined with the focus on 18th century internal Scottish politics, and it just becomes a slog. There are honestly four different chapters of "flight through the heather"... just slightly different pieces of heather.
At the time and place of publication, maybe the setting of Jacobite Scotland was a well known setting for adventure and drama, almost like the Wild West now. But being thrown into it without any foreknowledge, it's just inscrutable. Even after learning more about it to get through the book, the plot is constantly driven by issues of "clan A likes clan B but not clan C", which just isn't engaging.
At the time and place of publication, maybe the setting of Jacobite Scotland was a well known setting for adventure and drama, almost like the Wild West now. But being thrown into it without any foreknowledge, it's just inscrutable. Even after learning more about it to get through the book, the plot is constantly driven by issues of "clan A likes clan B but not clan C", which just isn't engaging.
I greatly enjoyed Treasure Island and Jekyll & Hyde, but I’m loath to admit that I found it a bit hard to get into the story of David Balfour. Between all the gaelic/Scottish thrown in (I had to keep pausing in the story to look at the glossary) and the apparent expectation that I be familiar with the highlands of Scotland, it seemed a bit of a chore to get thru each chapter.
Don’t get me wrong, the writing is excellent and in par with Stevenson’s other writings, however, the main character lacked the spark that his other protagonists had in spades. David Balfour thinks himself great but is in fact a young whinny kid that gets rewarded for basically having no backbone.
It’s worth the read mostly for the “I read a classic author” cred, but there are other, better books by this author.
Don’t get me wrong, the writing is excellent and in par with Stevenson’s other writings, however, the main character lacked the spark that his other protagonists had in spades. David Balfour thinks himself great but is in fact a young whinny kid that gets rewarded for basically having no backbone.
It’s worth the read mostly for the “I read a classic author” cred, but there are other, better books by this author.
18th book of 2024.
I finished this on the way to Bournemouth, where Stevenson wrote it. I was never that impressed with Treasure Island, having read it later in life, and didn't think that much of Jekyll and Hyde, either, which I studied at university. But, Kidnapped was considerably more enjoyable, mature and well-written. Stevenson evokes a dreary and mythical Scotland. David Balfour is a good protagonist that I felt for, an issue I had with Scott's Rob Roy: none of his characters were even likeable. So this one comes out on top from our neighbouring Scottish writers so far. I also loved that Stevenson blended fact and fiction with Alan Breck, Rob Roy and many other real historical characters. A good romp layered with Scotland's violent history.
I finished this on the way to Bournemouth, where Stevenson wrote it. I was never that impressed with Treasure Island, having read it later in life, and didn't think that much of Jekyll and Hyde, either, which I studied at university. But, Kidnapped was considerably more enjoyable, mature and well-written. Stevenson evokes a dreary and mythical Scotland. David Balfour is a good protagonist that I felt for, an issue I had with Scott's Rob Roy: none of his characters were even likeable. So this one comes out on top from our neighbouring Scottish writers so far. I also loved that Stevenson blended fact and fiction with Alan Breck, Rob Roy and many other real historical characters. A good romp layered with Scotland's violent history.