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A review by tien
Saltblood by Francesca De Tores
2.25
There were 2 main reasons I picked this up: a fave trope (girl-as-boy) and pirates. Plus, a friend loved it so I reckon this was promising.
After 100 pages or so, I feel that the author was trying to fit too many things in such a short time all to lead to the path of piracy. While it makes sense that there were many little choices in life that lead us to a certain path; this did not make a very engaging read. I felt a lot happened but nothing happened. The book has lost its chance to engage my full interest.
Since this was a bookclub read and it was my choice; I just had to finish especially knowing already that no one loved it. A sad day for me... I managed to finish though there wasn't any surprising twist nor was there any fascinating element that wow'ed me. This is a historical fiction inspired by real historical personage; there aren't detailed historical details so a lot is assumption by the author in weaving this tale so do not be taken in by the 'fantasy' tag on GR.
The structure of the book itself does not lend to a smooth <s>sailing</s> read. Within each chapter, there are divisions which usually indicate jumps in time. The book spans the life of Mary Read (30 odd years) so understandably there must be jumps in time to compress it into 300 odd pages. It breaks up the thread of the story too many times and I'm just not a fan of this.
Theres is one character that I took a little shine to and that is Jack Rackham (aka Calico Jack). He just sounds so alive and colourful! I probably would be scared of him IRL lol but in this fictional world, he was the mainstay.
After 100 pages or so, I feel that the author was trying to fit too many things in such a short time all to lead to the path of piracy. While it makes sense that there were many little choices in life that lead us to a certain path; this did not make a very engaging read. I felt a lot happened but nothing happened. The book has lost its chance to engage my full interest.
Since this was a bookclub read and it was my choice; I just had to finish especially knowing already that no one loved it. A sad day for me... I managed to finish though there wasn't any surprising twist nor was there any fascinating element that wow'ed me. This is a historical fiction inspired by real historical personage; there aren't detailed historical details so a lot is assumption by the author in weaving this tale so do not be taken in by the 'fantasy' tag on GR.
The structure of the book itself does not lend to a smooth <s>sailing</s> read. Within each chapter, there are divisions which usually indicate jumps in time. The book spans the life of Mary Read (30 odd years) so understandably there must be jumps in time to compress it into 300 odd pages. It breaks up the thread of the story too many times and I'm just not a fan of this.
Theres is one character that I took a little shine to and that is Jack Rackham (aka Calico Jack). He just sounds so alive and colourful! I probably would be scared of him IRL lol but in this fictional world, he was the mainstay.