Reviews

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

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cj_lovesbooks's review against another edition

1.5

Just to be clear I am a hater. I am genuinely curious how this book has such a high rating. I am going to try to breakdown why I disliked this book so:
Our main character is just so unlikable and annoying. He makes too many inappropriate jokes at inappropriate times which just fails to give any suspense/gravity to the whole murder mystery. Also I was fully convinced he was thirteen years despite the author telling us otherwise. I did not wish good things or happiness for him.
Our side/supporting characters are so one-sided and just caricatures of real characters. Their dialogue also doesn't feel like stuff real people would say. Also they are all relatively chill to be trapped on a murder ship. Like I would not be that relaxed.
The romance was completely unnecessary, and I honestly think the story would have been better without it.

Ravi doesn't just murder to protect Dee (I could forgive that), he brutally murders two people. I think 17 stab wounds and killing someone and hanging them all over the sails is a bit over the top.

Despite being an adult novel, the romance is very juvenile. It basically reads like a middle school crush.
The world-building also makes no sense. So the Blessed are in charge but they can be children. Also sometimes the Blessings are literally no help in governing.

Controlling the weather - yes helpful to the entire provences. Breathing underwater - literally only helpful to Dee. Some blessings are definitely more helpful than others.

And some provinces give so much of their food away that they are starving (except Dee is someone still overweight with massively disordered eating - okay actually maybe that makes sense but he shouldn't have had food in excess if he cared so much about others.) But no province has really rebelled in 1,000 years! A thousand years is a long time.
And Crab Province. If it is so hard on the other side of the wall and if it's been so long - how are they still alive and fighting. And if they are only 1/13th and in hostile living conditions, how have they not been defeated. Make it make sense.
In summary, this book is a mess and

Dee does not deserve the power he has at the end.

ohmycookies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

One of the best books I have read this year. The beginning was a bit slow and it was gard for me to get into the story but I love thus. It was a wild ride.

saman417's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I honestly don't know how to rate this book, because I really enjoyed most of it but parts of the ending fell apart for me.

Not sure, for instance, that I can get behind a love interest that the book wants me to think of as fundamentally good but who helped plan a genocide before backing out because he was reminded that he loved his teenage boyfriend.