A review by cheye13
Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer

adventurous dark slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Another book series I never started as a kid and want to mark off my ledger. And unfortunately another book I didn't really need to reread, because my memory was correct. So much of the plot boils down to unnecessary gender essentialism; Pierce's Alanna series handles the (cishet)girl-disguised-as-boy trope with much more nuance and grace. But beyond that, there's significant sexualization of underaged Mary throughout (both as a boy and as a girl) and the egregious sexual harassment and assault is ultimatley the nail in the coffin. On top of it all, the first person POV dialect is intentionally thick and nearly unintelligible (as it's a 'historical' accent rather than simply an English one). Everything about this book screams Not For Kids, save for the actual difficultly level of the writing style. Gonna give the next one a shot but if I have the same complaints, I'm gonna bin this series once and for all.
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