Review by bookcheshirecat - Voyage of the Damned

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bookcheshirecat 's review for:

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

4.0

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

“A twitch of a smile. ‘And that’s why you’re wrong. The hero isn’t the dragon. The hero is the fish.’ My arms drop. ‘The fish?’ ‘The fish did not have to share the burden. The fish could have survived without it. But it sacrificed itself because it saw the suffering of others. The world would have been doomed without the fish.’ She holds my gaze, her expression utterly serious. And in that moment, I am, for once, speechless.”

➽ I had a really fun time reading Voyage of the Damned! I was excited about this Fantasy debut and finally got the audiobook from my library. The story follows Ganymedes 'Dee' Piscero, the heir to one of Concordia's twelve provinces, as he embarks on their journey to the Goddess's Mountain. There's only one issue: Dee lied about having a Blessing, a magical talent that each heir inherits from their family. Not only does he have to pretend to be like anyone else, there's also a gruesome string of murders on board and no contact with the outside world before the journey ends!

➽ I liked Dee, as he had a funny, snarky character voice. I feel like not everyone will like Voyage of the Damned, as it's quite slow paced, but for me what matters most is the connection to the protagonist. In this case, I found Dee delightful and relatable. He has to lie to everyone on board because his father had a bunch of affairs, and one of his bastards might have inherited the Blessing. Unfortunately, the last time a bastard tried to usurp the throne, so now extramarital affairs are strictly forbidden. Every province is named after an animal, and Dee's home Fish Province is already considered to be at the bottom of the food chain. Therefore, he can't afford to let his secret out and is determined to make everyone else hate him, so he doesn't have to attend any further events. Dee is intentionally being as unlikable as possible, so no one gets close enough to find out his secret. He only opened up to his crush Ravi who promptly cut him off once he got attention from the higher provinces. I really felt for Dee, as he's considered a troublemaker and seen as worthless by the rest of his peers. Not only does he not fit in with them, Dee often feels like he's good for nothing.

➽ When the murders onboard start happening, it's up to Dee to find out who is responsible, because he might be next. He takes a young girl called Grasshopper under his wing, as she's the youngest Blessed and left terrified by the events. Their relationship was honestly so sweet and immediately endeared me to Dee, as he was so protective of her and became an older brother figure for her. While everyone else is looking down on his 6-year-old girl from a lower province, Dee sees how clever and funny she is. Later on, he's also joined by Wyatt, a sickly Blessed who also has stakes in this investigation and is one of the few people Dee trusts. I really liked how the divide between high and low provinces played into the conflict! Dee has always been called a 'pissfish', a derogatory slur for people of his province that shows how little the wealthier provinces value them!

➽ I thought that the ending could have been more satisfactory. The last part of the story lost me a bit as I was waiting for the payoff and didn't quite get what I hoped for. I was expecting a clever twist about the identity of the murderer and a shocking revelation about Concordia. I feel like the story was building up to a great reveal, as we've seen the disputes between the provinces and the dehumanisation of the people of Crab province, who have been shut off since their revolt. I just expected something MORE from the ending.

Cordelia's motives might have made sense and shown how her prejudice allowed her to easily sacrifice all the lower provices. However, I still felt like the author was playing it too safe. In the end, everything became convoluted as other Blessed were also involved in the Murders. I'm glad that Dee took on the Blessings and pushed for better treatment of Crab province. However, I wish we'd gotten a better insight in why Crab province was exiled and how that might have shown a darker side to Concordia. In the end, I felt like there was a bit of wasted potential.

Content Warnings