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bibliomania_express's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is a sharp, quick-paced murder mystery that was everything I hoped it would be. Twelve Blesseds, each representing a province of the United Empire of Concordia, are on a voyage to the sacred mountain. Except Dee isn't Blessed - he's hiding his lack of power to protect his province. Then Dee has bigger things to worry about as one by one the Blesseds are murdered. Dee will have to figure out who the murderer is and what's going on before he ends up dead.
I had such a great time with this book. It has some great character work, a twisty mystery, an interesting magic system, and fantastic representation of different races, sexualities, body types, and disabilities. It also deals with classism, xenophobia, prejudice, religious bigotry, self-esteem, and the economics of control. Along with grief, love, family, found family, and corruption. Just a whole lot of stuff packed into an isolated, closed circle murder mystery on a boat.
Dee was a great protagonist and it was fun to follow him through his resentment and self-loathing at the lie foisted upon him to finding his true self and working his way through the clues. Dee is loud, proud of his big body, funny while using humour as deflection, and in many ways his idgaf nature is what saves the day. There's also a romance element in this book, which went some unexpected ways a few times.
I liked how the Blessings were tied into the plot, and how the story unravelled by revealing bits about each character and their pasts. It did get a bit confusing that characters had names but were also called their province's animal name.
I did guess some elements of the solution, but not all of it. I'm not sure if I would class this as a fair play mystery since some of the clues come rather late and deal a lot with the politics and secrets there wouldn't be a way of knowing.
I'd have more to say, but it would all be spoilers, so I'll leave it there.
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Terminal illness
charlieswrittenadventures's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The characters were wonderfully diverse (different skin tones, queer characters, disabled characters...), loveable (for the most part) and their interactions felt so believable.
The mystery was really good as well. There were some twists and I couldn't guess who did it and especially why but now looking back, I can see that all the clues were there. The author did not make the narrator hold back information from the reader to add more mystery, no, it was all right there!
Also, the humour was on point. I rarely actually laugh out loud while reading, but this book did manage to make me laugh a couple of times.
And the very first paragraph of the book might be one of my favourite openings to a book.
I loved this book. It was so good, such a fun time!
Small "warning" for people who like to be released into the action on page 2 already: this is high fantasy and I felt it started off a bit slow because of world-building but I also think that this information in the beginning was important to know. And the main character's humour and attitude made this part very entertaining too.
Moderate: Blood
emmaggedon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
✅ Magic
✅ A protagonist who just wins you over instantly
✅ Brutal scenes but sparingly
✅ Important messages told well
✅ BUCKETS OF SEXUAL TENSION
Just, WONDERFUL. I haven’t done a “one more chapter, won’t do anything else until the book is finished” in a WHILE!!! More Cross Genre PLEASE I’m FREAKING OUT!! For something that could easily have been YA, I think it works so beautifully as an adult novel, and it does not shy away from being one.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Sexual content and Abandonment
e_read_books's review against another edition
3.75
I was worried in the first couple of chapters that Dee would be too annoying of a character for me to follow. I'll admit his humour did not always land for me, but his true depth is quickly revealed to us and he ended up being a really compelling character and a pretty good detective. I absolutely loved his relationship with little Grasshopper (truly Adorable Level 5/5).
Lowering the score for me is I didn't quite jive with some of the humour and also the conclusion, though it fits well with Dee's character arc. I'm just never going to prefer
Graphic: Death, Self harm, and Blood
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism
styxx's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
inkysplodge's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Self harm, Xenophobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Death of parent
novel_nibbles's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Like all good mysteries, Voyage of the Damned kept me guessing the perpetrator and speculating on how they’d carried out their crimes.
Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
madscientistcat's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Chronic illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Sexual content
amy14's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
aroraback's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Points of the plot were apparent, but I felt like the evidence was pointing against it. But I was pleasantly surprised at various points as the story wrapped up during the reveal. All point but one point were used and didn’t get left behind. The myth the story uses as setup/a driving force felt a little underdeveloped, or like it had more that needed to be edited out. But this didn’t detract from the rest of the story and wasn’t absolutely necessary for the plot to continue.
I did start a little slow with this story, solely due to single quotations (a pet peeve of mine, and something I wouldn’t mind dropping a book for), but once I got into the story I easy got over this.
Star rating based on CAWPILE
I read the first sentence from one review before starting this and was sold on that (before hesitating when I saw single quotations). That being comparing it to a gay Fruits Basket. While not 100%, the story is reminiscent that I love this comparison LOL
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Who dies: Wyatt, Euphodar, Negrüi, Jasper, Shinjirio, Eska,