heyt 's review for:

The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

3.0

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I was promised piracy on the cover but this was a slow burn into that. Historical fiction has never really been my thing but the way Hawes uses the jargon of sailing and the vocabulary of the times really set the atmosphere of the piece. There is no dumbing down the word choices and it does not shy away from the violence of piracy in general. This was definitely an adventure story and seeing how Philip reacted to his changes in circumstance made things interesting. The Lloyd Alexander introduction to this makes note of how this is more lit fic than was common for children's literature at the time and I can totally see that.