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A review by forsidious
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman by Brian Jacques
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
This book is a childhood favorite of mine so I'm probably rating it higher than it really deserves. The first third of the book is a blast (and frankly the only part I actually remembered from reading it as a kid). You have a mute boy who got caught on a pirate ship and becomes the cabin boy. He smuggles a dog on board and ends up stuck at sea as the captain tries an impossible feat. During a storm, the captain curses god and for some reason god takes offense to this and an angel comes to curse them but saves the boy and dog (and magically allows them to communicate to each other and the boy can talk now for reasons). The boy is found by a shepherd who ends up dying then the boy leaves and we skip ahead 200 years for a completely different book that no one asked for about a town that's going to be sold unless this old lady can prove her husband owned the town by solving a series of riddles (cause that's how people hide their deeds) Where are my pirates!?
The plot with the flying dutchman is completely dropped for a Christian story about a boy who can't die who sometimes has dreams or visions about the dutchman that amount to literally nothing. It feels like the author wanted to write a pirate book but then got converted to Christianity and didn't want to throw out his frankly great start to a pirate story so just reworked it. Honestly, read the first section as a short story then stop reading and it's 5 stars. The rest isn't worth reading, but childhood me liked it so giving it 3.5 for nostalgia and the start. 2 stars otherwise for false advertising (if advertised as not a pirate story, 3 stars).
The plot with the flying dutchman is completely dropped for a Christian story about a boy who can't die who sometimes has dreams or visions about the dutchman that amount to literally nothing. It feels like the author wanted to write a pirate book but then got converted to Christianity and didn't want to throw out his frankly great start to a pirate story so just reworked it. Honestly, read the first section as a short story then stop reading and it's 5 stars. The rest isn't worth reading, but childhood me liked it so giving it 3.5 for nostalgia and the start. 2 stars otherwise for false advertising (if advertised as not a pirate story, 3 stars).