Reviews

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

olivereads17's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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

3.25

booklover191's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

biscuit_3's review against another edition

4.0

You HAVE to prepare for incredible information dumps in the beginning. You’re Learning the world, key charters, “blessings”, history. But it really does pay off. The main character is chubby, bi, and self loathing. But man he is hilarious. I had no idea who the murderer was until it was revealed and I missed every clue given to us.

isadorawonder's review against another edition

adventurous challenging lighthearted mysterious 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

4.0

greb's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

fkent's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

superdupergirl5's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

One of my absolute favorite reads this year. Fantasy murder mystery written well. 

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Torture, Grief, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Injury/Injury detail

zoedavis's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

4.0

I had many theories about this book and the only one that turned out to be right was the first one I decided was wrong. I was a huge fan of the main character(s) but I’m a little bummed with the ending. Sometimes resurrection magic is okay, cowards. 

Spoilers here: a lot of tragedy could have been avoided if one character hadn’t decided to make it all revolve around the main character for nearly no reason. I’m all behind a criminally obsessed love interest but I was fond of a few of those characters. ALSO, this wasnt a total plot hole but I feel like we just blatantly didn’t acknowledge the actual Crow blessed at all like tho tf is that.  

emily_mh's review against another edition

From the very first page I thought this might be a DNF. This is supposed to be an adult fantasy, but the reality is anything but. The writing style reads like YA in the sense that it is too juvenile for its adult audience. The worldbuilding is utterly lacking for something aimed at adults too, and it is delivered in vague info-dumps that the author honest-to-God ended in “Got it?” one time. There are also awful anachronisms, like thinking “walking away from explosions without looking back” is “undeniably cool”, or the MC Dee’s statement that “asking a Blessed what form their Blessing takes is like asking someone’s bra size.” 

But the thing that cinched the DNF for me was the way the MC Dee thought and talked about a chronically ill SC. It was so disparaging and disrespectful and outright ableist, and I’m honestly surprised that no one has mentioned it (that I’ve found). Essentially Dee would mock the fact that SC Wyatt’s chronic illnesses were killing him. Dee would also mock Wyatt’s symptoms and the fact that the Blessing (magic power) went to him instead of one of his five healthy brothers. Based on some reviews I’ve read I think the MC might hopefully stop being so disgusting, but forgive me if I, a chronically ill reader, don’t want to read a book where the abled MC learns the error of their ableist ways.

Even at that, it seems like an abled character pretends to BE the chronically ill disabled character I mentioned, which feels gross to me.