Reviews with content warning for Murder - Voyage of the Damned

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

182 reviews

clovers_spin's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Concordia is split into 12 provinces protected from the feared Crabs by the Bandage only held up by a waning mad emperor’s powers. Before the emperor passes, the 12 blessed, each with powers tying to their province, must make the pilgrimage to the sacred mountain. Which, is where our protagonist Dee comes in. He has a deep secret he’s been keeping from the others that would endanger his province. When the Blessed begin to die, Dee must find out why before it’s too late. Can he survive this madness with his secret intact?

I think this book had great potential and may be well liked by someone different. But for me the character’s didn’t click. I found Dee deeply unserious in situations that would call for otherwise. In general just kind of annoying. The main romance frustrated me for most of the book because it felt so unrealistic. A twist at the end trying to force it to make sense left me feeling like my emotions and time were wasted. The epilogue also felt like a happily ever after being shoved unsatisfyingly into a place that required way more effort to tie up loose ends. I will say that I appreciated the diversity of characters. I was pleasantly surprised that a trans character felt natural when addressing his transness instead of uncomfortably examined. There was also a wealth of body positivity which was refreshing.

Content Warnings

mariahmmm's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Synopsis: As the only legitimate heir in the Fish Province of Concordia, Ganymedes ("Dee") has been marked as the next Blessed one and gifted with a magical ability - at least that's the lie he and his father are trying to keep up. When the Blessed ones from each of the 12 provinces of Concordia embark on a twelve-day cruise to the Goddesses mountain for the sacred ritual, Dee quickly learns he isn't he only one with a terrible secret on board when one of the Blessed twelve is murdered. With another death quickly following, Dee must question who he can trust as tensions bubbling under the surface between the provinces threatens to explode.

Review: This coming-of-age young adult fantasy was an easy read because it lacked the depth I was expecting from a story with such big potential. The murders and motive felt sloppy, and Dee was a little annoying and very naive despite being the next heir of an entire province.

Content Warnings

em3ra1ddrag0n's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny mysterious 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

Spring 2025: Libby/Audio -- what a unique world/concept. I enjoyed learning about all the different blessed characters and their abilities as well as their motivations. The murder mystery was also interesting to follow and I never guessed any of the twists which I always loved being surprised by. I enjoyed seeing the MMC's growth throughout the story and the different friendships he made. The narrator was also excellent at delivering the humorous lines that the author sprinkled throughout the story.
Summer 2025: Upon rereading, I enjoyed it even more. Changed rating from 4.25 to 4.5 stars!

Content Warnings

orvillefartenbacher's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

amy_brunet's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous emotional funny 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

Content Warnings

slaneyg's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

abidoodle's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I really enjoyed this book. I certainly consumed it. I read it like two sittings haha. It’s “Death on the Nile” meets a really cool fantasy premise. It has great plot twists (one of which I will spoil below…you’ve been warned), strong character development from characters you can certainly find yourself in, and a powerful positive message, all while simultaneously being pretty dark and thrilling. Frances White manages to blend dark fantasy with cozy murder mystery and it’s brilliant. I would definitely recommend to lovers of either genre. And I also loved the representation of different minority groups in this story, it’s so great to see how so many different people can find themselves in characters in this story!

The reason I didn’t LOVE LOVE this book was mostly because I felt like the romance was a bit naive and over-intense and honestly undermined a lot of Dee’s character growth in my opinion. While it was a shock factor plot twist for sure, I actually wish Wyatt was actually Wyatt. I thought that mourning Ravi and letting him go was an important part of Dee’s journey accepting himself and moving past only relying on one person to tell him his worth. I think it was important for him to build that confidence on his own and not have Ravi have been the one “guiding” him to that the whole time. I think that him letting Wyatt in was important too, and I would’ve liked for it to stay like that, or at least not Ravi. I don’t know why, I just felt like it was a big part of his journey and him ending up with Ravi kind of undermines it a bit in my opinion.

Content Warnings

awhxxhinte's review against another edition

5.0

emotional mysterious 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

This book is one of the best I have ever read. Am I crying over it? Yes. Definitely.
I don’t know where to start my explanation.

A lot of people find the main character annoying but I actually thought he was hilarious. I was laughing a lot of times at the jokes and comments he made. Him and his love interest were adorable. But the most adorable off all was Grasshopper, she was my favorite for sure!!

Also this book was classified as an adult book by Francis White herself. I was very confused about that until I got to the end-

I did not see the end and all the plot twists coming, not at all. I tried to guess who it was but it was very unexpected, which made the end all the better. I really got pulled into the story and emotions in this book. Would I recommend this book? 100%

Content Warnings

alastar's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

leedolee's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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: Complicated

A different kind of murder mystery with magic, politics and an intriguing world. The characters were wonderfully diverse and I'm glad for that. Fast paced read that really kept you on your toes.

Content Warnings

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