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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
C 8
A 9
W 8
P 7
I 7
L 8
E 7
54/7 = 7,7
A 9
W 8
P 7
I 7
L 8
E 7
54/7 = 7,7
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Murder
Minor: Animal death
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is my second book by Stuart Turton and I'm a forever fan. This author has become an auto-buy for me now.
This book is about horrible men and their sins coming to them. I loved the way he writes woman with respect and actual role in the story. Smart capable women.
The setting was enticing and new at least to me. The continuous surprises had me screaming WHAT tooo many times. The revelation was shocking but a bit anticlimactic for me.
Highly recommend 👌
This book is about horrible men and their sins coming to them. I loved the way he writes woman with respect and actual role in the story. Smart capable women.
The setting was enticing and new at least to me. The continuous surprises had me screaming WHAT tooo many times. The revelation was shocking but a bit anticlimactic for me.
Highly recommend 👌
Scooby-Doo on the high seas, but make it Dutch. (And ethically gray)
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5, and I should probably round up to four but. Mmmmmmmmm, I liked it so much to start but the last...seventy pages or so? Intensely dull and pointless.
Maybe review to come if I stop feeling so blandly disappointed by how it wrapped up after how beautifully mesmerizing the majority of it was.
~*~*~*~
Okay, so. Like. You've read A Series of Unfortunate Events, right? All the way to the end. Literally, to The End. Were you one of the people like me who felt kinda let down and disappointed by it? Like, shipwrecks and secrets and long speeches about morality and all maybe wasn't your favorite thing after all the scary exciting compelling prior plot?
The last 70 pages of Devil and the Dark Water are incredibly disappointing and incredibly dull to me. In the interest of plot twist revelation after plot twist revelation, the intrigue falls entirely flat, and characters feel like they're parroting monologues to convey all the information they have to in order for the plot to make a shred of sense. I know, it's a Holmes book, he's supposed to explain the answer at the end. But surely it could have been more organic than this; it's Holmes inspired, it's its own beast, it could have been so much smoother in the end. I was struggling to remember who was doing what at any given point (which may have been my own fault, to be fully fair: in the time of The Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour my attention span is that of an ill bunny rabbit).
The things this book does well are abundant. The sailing is tremendously fun (if not very wrong; please don't expect Master and Commander levels of boat accuracy, which Turton even admits in the author note at the end). The mystery itself is joyfully interesting, with the reader debating back and forth on if it's really a demon or if it's human, and who might the culprit really be? And which crimes are most important and how they dovetail back and forth?
And, true enough, I didn't actually sleuth out who it was in advance--all the red herrings are marvelously good red herrings and all the true hints about what's happening are really marvelously well hidden. So, like, that's cool.
I love the characters to pieces, mostly. I love Arent's grumptastic bulk (and, yes, Turton, you may have indeed created a sexy Agent 47 lookin' dude even if that wasn't your intention). Drecht is an asshole (even tho I have a hard time reconciling the last 70 pages about him with the prior details) but I enjoyed reading about him. Sara is sweet and sassy and sharp. The few named people running the ship are all well defined and interesting. Sammy isn't in the book nearly enough.
The plot itself, remarkably engaging. Great elevator pitch. Everyone who asked what I was reading walked away looking interested once I summed up the basics.
But it just goes on and on and on and onnnnn and the last 70 pages, as mentioned, are such a flat turnaround into another book, and not a very good one at that, that the final flavor the book leaves is mediocre and disappointed, and that casts a pall over the rest of the enjoyment I took from it.
So, much as I want to give it 4 stars for the fun I had until the end, the end is just so dreary and disinterested and infodumpy and boring that the fun memories I had were slammed, and that makes it harder to want to recommend.
Maybe review to come if I stop feeling so blandly disappointed by how it wrapped up after how beautifully mesmerizing the majority of it was.
~*~*~*~
Okay, so. Like. You've read A Series of Unfortunate Events, right? All the way to the end. Literally, to The End. Were you one of the people like me who felt kinda let down and disappointed by it? Like, shipwrecks and secrets and long speeches about morality and all maybe wasn't your favorite thing after all the scary exciting compelling prior plot?
The last 70 pages of Devil and the Dark Water are incredibly disappointing and incredibly dull to me. In the interest of plot twist revelation after plot twist revelation, the intrigue falls entirely flat, and characters feel like they're parroting monologues to convey all the information they have to in order for the plot to make a shred of sense. I know, it's a Holmes book, he's supposed to explain the answer at the end. But surely it could have been more organic than this; it's Holmes inspired, it's its own beast, it could have been so much smoother in the end. I was struggling to remember who was doing what at any given point (which may have been my own fault, to be fully fair: in the time of The Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour my attention span is that of an ill bunny rabbit).
The things this book does well are abundant. The sailing is tremendously fun (if not very wrong; please don't expect Master and Commander levels of boat accuracy, which Turton even admits in the author note at the end). The mystery itself is joyfully interesting, with the reader debating back and forth on if it's really a demon or if it's human, and who might the culprit really be? And which crimes are most important and how they dovetail back and forth?
And, true enough, I didn't actually sleuth out who it was in advance--all the red herrings are marvelously good red herrings and all the true hints about what's happening are really marvelously well hidden. So, like, that's cool.
I love the characters to pieces, mostly. I love Arent's grumptastic bulk (and, yes, Turton, you may have indeed created a sexy Agent 47 lookin' dude even if that wasn't your intention). Drecht is an asshole (even tho I have a hard time reconciling the last 70 pages about him with the prior details) but I enjoyed reading about him. Sara is sweet and sassy and sharp. The few named people running the ship are all well defined and interesting. Sammy isn't in the book nearly enough.
The plot itself, remarkably engaging. Great elevator pitch. Everyone who asked what I was reading walked away looking interested once I summed up the basics.
But it just goes on and on and on and onnnnn and the last 70 pages, as mentioned, are such a flat turnaround into another book, and not a very good one at that, that the final flavor the book leaves is mediocre and disappointed, and that casts a pall over the rest of the enjoyment I took from it.
So, much as I want to give it 4 stars for the fun I had until the end, the end is just so dreary and disinterested and infodumpy and boring that the fun memories I had were slammed, and that makes it harder to want to recommend.
Spoiler
BUT LIKE THE GUY(s) WHO DID IT IS (are) REALLY JUST GONNA......GET AWAY WITH IT? They're going to go do MORE cool crimes and decide they themselves have the right to decide who and what is moral and what isn't? They can start with all these noble ideas like punishing kings for killing maids, but it sure isn't going to stay that way. Does this plan really make them that much better than Drecht in the end? His morality was based on getting home to his children and doing whatever it took to get there. Isn't their spooky plan to punish those they deem bad on the same level of 'whatever it takes' nonsense that got Drecht to this space? It just leaves the book on a weird flavor for me, I dunno. There are HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DEAD IN A SHIPWRECK, and they admit that those people did nothing wrong, but at least they got the people who WERE evil, and the collateral that's going to come out of their new spooky Scooby-Doo schemery is going to just elevate the body count to ridiculous levels. Anti-heroes indeed; there's not a decent soul on this boat as far as I can tell (except Arent, whom I love). Old Tom's got 'em all good. Which may be the point, but I still feel cheated somehow.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
'Every man aboard this ship has cause to see land again.,' he said, his voice rich and deep. 'Mayhap it's a waiting family, mayhap it's a favourite brothel or just an empty purse as needs filling.'
Inspired by a visit to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, [a:Stuart Turton|17160667|Stuart Turton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1537181882p2/17160667.jpg] has created a wonderful closed room mystery set onboard a Dutch East India cargo ship named the Saardam. Its journey is from Batavia, located roughly where modern day Jakarta is, to Amsterdam, carrying valuable spices as part of a seven ship fleet.
On board the Governor-General of Batavia is returning to Amsterdam with 'the folly' and a secret cargo known to but a few. He is guarded by his ever faithful Guard Captain and a number of Musketeers. Also on making the journey are his wife, Sara, their daughter, Lia, his mistress, Creesjie Jens, and her children.
The Governor-General has imprisoned Sammy Pipps, a famous detective, who is set to be executed in Amsterdam. Pipps is accompanied by his loyal bodyguard, Lieutenant Arent Hayes. There is also a former Witchfinder turned predikant and his assistant, a mysterious nobel woman, who has taken ill, and a whole host of passengers and sailors.
Even before the board the ship, things start going awry. A leper, whose tongue has been removed, somehow delivers a warning that the demon, Old Tom, is aboard the ship and will deliver three miracles before slaughtering all that do not follow him. As the journey gets underway a mysterious 8th lantern appears overnight, but by morning no 8th ship can be seen. Quickly the fear of a devil amongst them starts the tear the passengers apart and bodies start being found. The mark of Old Tom., and a demonic alter to him, also start to appear in the cargo hold.
Can Arent, with the help of Sara, solve the mystery without the help of his imprisoned friend? Will the truth behind Old Tom be revealed? Can the ship survive all the dangers of the journey?
A great piece of supernatural mystery. However, don't expect a true historical fiction, the history here is very much fiction but that doesn't detract from the story at all.
Inspired by a visit to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, [a:Stuart Turton|17160667|Stuart Turton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1537181882p2/17160667.jpg] has created a wonderful closed room mystery set onboard a Dutch East India cargo ship named the Saardam. Its journey is from Batavia, located roughly where modern day Jakarta is, to Amsterdam, carrying valuable spices as part of a seven ship fleet.
On board the Governor-General of Batavia is returning to Amsterdam with 'the folly' and a secret cargo known to but a few. He is guarded by his ever faithful Guard Captain and a number of Musketeers. Also on making the journey are his wife, Sara, their daughter, Lia, his mistress, Creesjie Jens, and her children.
The Governor-General has imprisoned Sammy Pipps, a famous detective, who is set to be executed in Amsterdam. Pipps is accompanied by his loyal bodyguard, Lieutenant Arent Hayes. There is also a former Witchfinder turned predikant and his assistant, a mysterious nobel woman, who has taken ill, and a whole host of passengers and sailors.
Even before the board the ship, things start going awry. A leper, whose tongue has been removed, somehow delivers a warning that the demon, Old Tom, is aboard the ship and will deliver three miracles before slaughtering all that do not follow him. As the journey gets underway a mysterious 8th lantern appears overnight, but by morning no 8th ship can be seen. Quickly the fear of a devil amongst them starts the tear the passengers apart and bodies start being found. The mark of Old Tom., and a demonic alter to him, also start to appear in the cargo hold.
Can Arent, with the help of Sara, solve the mystery without the help of his imprisoned friend? Will the truth behind Old Tom be revealed? Can the ship survive all the dangers of the journey?
A great piece of supernatural mystery. However, don't expect a true historical fiction, the history here is very much fiction but that doesn't detract from the story at all.
Enjoyed it, but it felt a bit dragged out at time, only for the ending to feel rushed :/