Reviews

Struggled with this one for months. A lot of the story is in conversation form, in dialect, which made it slow for me, especially since I don't know what some of the words mean. This book picks up the story of David Balfour which began in Kidnapped. A lot of politics, but nice to see how it all turns out.

cattytrona's review against another edition

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5.0

fuck it catriona five stars. i’m only slightly biased by the fact this is like, the only catriona representation i had growing up, and even though i’m only just reading it now, knowing it existed was a lot of comfort to a lonely young catriona that was me, during my childhood in cold and uncaring england.

anyway, i do have one sole complaint which is that catriona herself is utterly failed by the book for a good chunk, becoming unbearably naïve in the middle there. the introduction to the canongate edition at least gives a good explanation as to why. and luckily stevenson resets the course by the end, so that she gets a bit sharper, and her innocence becomes more interestingly used for romantic misunderstandings, so the book ends on a high.

otherwise, what fun! what a genre piece. you have the adventure romping of kidnapped, but also political conspiracy, historical romance, legal thriller now mixed in. stevenson is such a compelling writer, and i rate him hugely. i massively liked how much of this is set in edinburgh (and that i generally know scotland better than i did when i read kidnapped), because it’s lovely to see the excitement happen on a field i recognise. david’s whole thing is ‘what if a normie guy had the best, coolest friends imaginable’ and that remains a really fruitful setup: miss grant is an excellent addition to the cast. a small thing, but i also adore how he lapses into dialogue the minute he meets anyone who speaks the least bit scots: true, nice, and made me extremely sad about what’s happened to scottish language - great stuff! and loved the last page,

what a great reveal of what this narrative is, what a cute end, what a nice way to know everyone is well.

justabean_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I ended up kind of mixed on this. It's certainly not Kidnapped, and, Christ on a Bike, is the romance tedious, and there isn't strictly speaking a plot, so much as Davie just plodging around northern Europe, and stuff that was direly important in the first half doesn't get mentioned in the second half, and honestly it's just not very good, but also the handful of chapters with Alan Breck Stewart make me entirely glad to have read it. There are some wonderful absolutely peak Alan bits, and interactions with Davie that are both hilarious and immensely sweet. So for Alan's sake, I'd consider it worth a read.

sofabell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

jimmypat's review against another edition

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2.0

This is the first RLS book that I have read where I was completely uninterested. Despite a few moments where I thought it was going to turn the corner into a good book, I finally gave up.

gracemargaret's review

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adventurous slow-paced

2.75

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