One of the main issues I had with this book and what I had a hard time getting past was how Brown chose to write about the "other." His main character is a white 19th-century Englishman. Fine. But the language that he has given this character in a book published in this century felt out of place. Enough that I was forced to reckon with a 21st century white man calling these characters racial slurs in a modern book. The historical setting, instead of being a space to ponder and contemplate the feelings we may have about how whites are supposed to think about our shard past, instead felt like a 'free pass' for the author to use these terms and phrases without judgement. Not to mention, while the main character evolves past his initial 'I'm a good godly white Christian,' the evolution really ends up being 'I'm a good godly white Christian who once lived with pirates.' The pretense of character development is so lost in his interactions with the other main characters that he doesn't really end up changing at all. A really great premise that was totally spoiled by the writing.
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Ableism, and Religious bigotry