Reviews with content warning for Murder - Voyage of the Damned

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

181 reviews

lizsim's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark lighthearted mysterious slow-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

cgreaderbee's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous funny 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

Finding myself unsure of where to place this book on a rating scale. On the one hand, I mostly enjoyed it. It was a flamboyant, irreverent romp of a novel, with magic and a murder mystery whodunnit story line. On the other hand, I found certain twists in the ending…odd.

Particularly the discovery that Wyatt was really Ravi all along, who killed people for Dee, and…idk. I just didn’t buy into that romantic twist or element. And I didn’t particularly feel that Dee as a character would either? Plus other elements in the ending which felt unbelievable, like Dee surviving a drop off the cliff and Ravi cutting off his hand…but I digress.

Content Warnings

thechaoticrambler's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense fast-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

svalimont88's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

kberri11's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny mysterious sad fast-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

passionatereader78's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I decided to edit my review because after stewing on the book for a couple of days, I think my opinion has changed greatly. I don't exactly hate this book but it is rife with unfortunate implications that I don't think the author necessarily realised she'd included. I know there was some controversy regarding the book being marketed as Adult, but I went in firmly expecting it to be Young Adult so although the juvenile writing gave me mixed feelings, what made me raise my eyebrows in confusion was

the part where characters had to commit yubitsume or else their secrets would be spilled

. Otherwise, I don't think the book is quite the bold and revolutionary story it claims to be.

I have a crack theory as to why the book is the way that it is, and that throughout the book I kept saying to myself "oh, I'm getting Danganronpa vibes from this". Namely from a combination of the premise of a group of gifted individuals in a closed environment killing each other, and Ganymedes generally acting like a Danganronpa protagonist (though they are still much better detectives than he could ever be, since Dee barely did any actual detective work or mystery solving). Some other things that only strengthened my theory were

Eudora kicking off the string of murders by being found dead on a chandelier like Chisa; Ravi faking his death and coming back in the final act; Dee gaining everyone's powers at the mountain like Hajime turning into Izuru, and then Hajime's hair colour changing to reconcile with his old and new self like in the final Class Trial.

It makes me wonder if the author wanted to make their own Danganronpa but with more LGBTQ+ characters, since the representation came off more as gratuitous than anything meaningful most of the time.

Concerning the unfortunate implications:

On a general note, a lot of the characters felt like they showed up, told us their tragic backstory and gender identity/sexual orientation and then died, making them feel comically hollow and not like actual characters.
Being agender and aroace myself, I'm disappointed but not surprised at Nergui being portrayed as the cold emotionless one. It felt like they were made agender as a third sex so they wouldn't be included in the alloromantic/allosexual escapades on board, and their coldness reinforces bullshit stereotypes that we have to endure just because we don't experience romantic or sexual attraction.
Was it just me or did it feel weird that everyone was happy to call each other by their names most of the time but Newande (a young Black girl) was almost exclusively called "Grasshopper"? Sure she's a kid and it makes her sound cuter, but Dee could have called her by a nickname based off of her name and not her title for similar effect.
Tendai, who appears to be arab-muslim coded, wipes herself clean on several occasions with her headscarf which I sincerely doubt any real world muslims would do
So the big plot twist not only retroactively undid every single bit of character development to the chronically ill Wyatt, it implied that Ravi essentially choose to kill and take his place because he was chronically ill and was going to die anyway. And Dee somehow manages to see past all of that and takes Ravi back without a second thought because he wants to fuck the guy so badly.

Content Warnings

call13cojess's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

hstcrow's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

To be scared and giggling in the same paragraph is impressive and makes for a wild ride of a book! Would highly recommend!

Content Warnings

bookcheshirecat's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

“A twitch of a smile. ‘And that’s why you’re wrong. The hero isn’t the dragon. The hero is the fish.’ My arms drop. ‘The fish?’ ‘The fish did not have to share the burden. The fish could have survived without it. But it sacrificed itself because it saw the suffering of others. The world would have been doomed without the fish.’ She holds my gaze, her expression utterly serious. And in that moment, I am, for once, speechless.”

➽ I had a really fun time reading Voyage of the Damned! I was excited about this Fantasy debut and finally got the audiobook from my library. The story follows Ganymedes 'Dee' Piscero, the heir to one of Concordia's twelve provinces, as he embarks on their journey to the Goddess's Mountain. There's only one issue: Dee lied about having a Blessing, a magical talent that each heir inherits from their family. Not only does he have to pretend to be like anyone else, there's also a gruesome string of murders on board and no contact with the outside world before the journey ends!

➽ I liked Dee, as he had a funny, snarky character voice. I feel like not everyone will like Voyage of the Damned, as it's quite slow paced, but for me what matters most is the connection to the protagonist. In this case, I found Dee delightful and relatable. He has to lie to everyone on board because his father had a bunch of affairs, and one of his bastards might have inherited the Blessing. Unfortunately, the last time a bastard tried to usurp the throne, so now extramarital affairs are strictly forbidden. Every province is named after an animal, and Dee's home Fish Province is already considered to be at the bottom of the food chain. Therefore, he can't afford to let his secret out and is determined to make everyone else hate him, so he doesn't have to attend any further events. Dee is intentionally being as unlikable as possible, so no one gets close enough to find out his secret. He only opened up to his crush Ravi who promptly cut him off once he got attention from the higher provinces. I really felt for Dee, as he's considered a troublemaker and seen as worthless by the rest of his peers. Not only does he not fit in with them, Dee often feels like he's good for nothing.

➽ When the murders onboard start happening, it's up to Dee to find out who is responsible, because he might be next. He takes a young girl called Grasshopper under his wing, as she's the youngest Blessed and left terrified by the events. Their relationship was honestly so sweet and immediately endeared me to Dee, as he was so protective of her and became an older brother figure for her. While everyone else is looking down on his 6-year-old girl from a lower province, Dee sees how clever and funny she is. Later on, he's also joined by Wyatt, a sickly Blessed who also has stakes in this investigation and is one of the few people Dee trusts. I really liked how the divide between high and low provinces played into the conflict! Dee has always been called a 'pissfish', a derogatory slur for people of his province that shows how little the wealthier provinces value them!

➽ I thought that the ending could have been more satisfactory. The last part of the story lost me a bit as I was waiting for the payoff and didn't quite get what I hoped for. I was expecting a clever twist about the identity of the murderer and a shocking revelation about Concordia. I feel like the story was building up to a great reveal, as we've seen the disputes between the provinces and the dehumanisation of the people of Crab province, who have been shut off since their revolt. I just expected something MORE from the ending.

Cordelia's motives might have made sense and shown how her prejudice allowed her to easily sacrifice all the lower provices. However, I still felt like the author was playing it too safe. In the end, everything became convoluted as other Blessed were also involved in the Murders. I'm glad that Dee took on the Blessings and pushed for better treatment of Crab province. However, I wish we'd gotten a better insight in why Crab province was exiled and how that might have shown a darker side to Concordia. In the end, I felt like there was a bit of wasted potential.

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