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sarah984's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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
This is a very difficult book for me to rate. I loved the concept: kind of a "1001 Nights" type story about a chef kidnapped by pirates who can keep himself alive only if he makes a special meal for the enigmatic captain every Sunday.
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 wheremajor characters are dying left and right. There is a minor "mystery" subplot about a saboteur on board but it is immediately obvious who it is so there's not a lot of suspense there. A few of the characters are standouts (Mr Apples was great, and while he was basically a plot device I liked Joshua) but most of them are flat and stereotypical (the Chinese twins, everyone involved with the Brass Fox). Sometimes there were huge revelations about characters that never went anywhere, and the confrontation that the whole book builds up to ends in under ten pages.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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)heather_lt's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
The story begins by talented chef, Owen Wedgwood (and the narrator of this story), being kidnapped by pirates after they murder his employer. To survive he has to serve the captain one gourmet meal a week with nothing but the scraps he can find on the ship and ingredients he can barter from the band of odd, eccentric people which make up the crew. Throughout the story, as the captain sails them across the globe, Owen learns her work isn't all murder and piracy.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Violence, Death, Murder, and Drug use
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