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A review by emily_mh
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
Did not finish book. Stopped at 10%.
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.
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.