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siriface's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence
emilycbaker's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
1.5
Graphic: Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Grief, Vomit, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Violence, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, and Gun violence
Minor: Animal cruelty
mizreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I remember reading the first half like a madman. I really enjoyed the premise of a chef and a pirate - and a female pirate at that! And then I started reading it and I was immersed into an absolutely fantastical world. The writing is fantastic, every time I read I felt like I was quite literally transported into a pirate's ship navigating the roaring seas. New vocabulary, too! Especially about ships. Wait till all my neurodivergent friends hear about this 😂
I can't really say why I dropped the book for a while. I think it was mostly because I got super busy as I was moving to a whole new continent, and then school came in like a cannonball and I had to drop reading for a little bit. But then I finally picked it up again, this time in physical form, and I immediately fell in love again with the text. It was as if I hadn't even forgotten it, honestly.
The book is so vivid in its words about the sea and the ship and food, and ugh it just feels so real in my head. The visuals are breathtaking, and they're all text! The focus on day-to-day interactions was also something really fun and cool to me.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Violence, and War
Moderate: Homophobia and Death
saloninareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Violence, Death, and Xenophobia
pelledorso's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Trafficking, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Grief, Homophobia, Sexism, Ableism, Alcohol, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, and Racial slurs
Minor: Classism, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexual violence, and Vomit
annaledbetter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence and Kidnapping
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gore, and Addiction
sarah984's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The cooking and food descriptions are great, and the inventiveness that the main character uses to create meals he knows within the limitations of being at sea are clever and fun.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book is very weird. The book starts out with an almost lighthearted swashbuckling tone, but then veers wildly into a darker type of story where
I feel like a lot of the historical issues were not understood particularly well (multiple characters imply that Americans dumped tea into the sea because of the unethical way it was acquired), which would have been fine in a more fanciful pirate story but not the more serious story the book became.
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Violence
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Racism, Slavery, Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Gore, Blood, Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Vomit
Minor: Drug abuse, Pregnancy, Addiction, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, and Trafficking
There is a scene where a character is accused of bestiality but he is actually doing something else. (this is played for laughs)silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition
Graphic: Death and Confinement
Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Kidnapping
Minor: Cannibalism and Suicidal thoughts
heather_lt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
In theory I should have loved this because it has many factors I enjoy in a story: historical fiction, an adventure plot, a ship/sea setting, a strong female character. But it just didn't quite hit the spot for me. That's not to say I didn't like it, I just didn't love it like I expected. I think it was mostly due to the writing style. It was too simplistic for the heavier themes this story adresses and for that particularly sad ending.
I enjoyed Owen's skill in the kitchen. The author must have had to do some thorough research to come up with these believable recipes! I also enjoyed getting to know the crew along with Owen. They were all fascinating, diverse characters I wanted to get to know further. I also appreciated the author not sugar coating the dangers of piracy and the injuries crewman was likely to suffer from in that time.
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Violence, Death, Murder, and Drug use