A Prince Among Pirates / Katie Abdou / Book Review
A PRINCE AMONG PIRATES
Kit Davenport doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, but he knows what he doesn't want to do. He does not want to marry the noblewoman his father has picked out for him, regardless of how charming she may be. He's young. He's got so much of life ahead of him. And he's tired of being trapped under his father's thumb.
So on the eve of his nuptials, Kit does something reckless: he packs a trunk. And he has a servant help him lug that trunk to the docks. And before the sun rises, he finds himself contracted to do accounting for the Deliverance, a merchant galleon with a roguishly handsome captain.
The only problem? Kit might have miscalculated. He thought the Deliverance was a merchant ship like any other. He isn't well acquainted with sailors and their like. How was he supposed to know? But as the ship sails into murky waters, he begins to suspect that this ship might be a little... less than legal. And he might just have traded a life of ballrooms and silks for more of a criminal enterprise...
So on the eve of his nuptials, Kit does something reckless: he packs a trunk. And he has a servant help him lug that trunk to the docks. And before the sun rises, he finds himself contracted to do accounting for the Deliverance, a merchant galleon with a roguishly handsome captain.
The only problem? Kit might have miscalculated. He thought the Deliverance was a merchant ship like any other. He isn't well acquainted with sailors and their like. How was he supposed to know? But as the ship sails into murky waters, he begins to suspect that this ship might be a little... less than legal. And he might just have traded a life of ballrooms and silks for more of a criminal enterprise...
THOUGHTS
This book had so much potential, but the execution... just wasn't there. It wasn't the content here that bothered me so much but what wasn't included, what wasn't considered or what was implied without really taking ramifications into account. It was a genuine struggle to read. It hurt me, psychologically. I was left disappointed and uncomfortable, and it was a rather painful reading experience.
This book had so much potential, but the execution... just wasn't there. It wasn't the content here that bothered me so much but what wasn't included, what wasn't considered or what was implied without really taking ramifications into account. It was a genuine struggle to read. It hurt me, psychologically. I was left disappointed and uncomfortable, and it was a rather painful reading experience.
PROS
| No Questions Asked | Though it isn't a spoiler (since this isn't anything the plot hinges on), I still don't want to say too much here to diminish the reading experience for anyone else who picks up this book. But I like just how casual the LGBTQ+ rep in this book is, especially trans and nonbinary representation. People exist, and they're allowed to exist, no questions asked. Especially in a quasi-historical context, I appreciate that. |
| Swashbuckling Adventure | It's rare to find a high-seas adventure in YA, especially one that isn't fantasy. And that's precisely what this is. This are the swaying decks, the wind in your hair, the treasure on the horizon (and muskets, gunfire, and just the right amount of bloodshed). The Golden Age of Piracy is a fun time period to set your period piece in, especially in a market like YA that sees so little historical fiction to begin with. |
| History of Diversity | This isn't a white-washed book, and it shouldn't be. It's a book of colonial powers, of course, but this cast of characters isn't from any of the colonial groups in power. They're criminals, lowlifes, runaways, and their vast array of identities reflects this. Katie Abdou takes the time to consider who, exactly is resorting to a life of crime on the seas, and those stories get told here. It's really nice to see that diversity come alive, a diversity that reflects a history that the text books like to gloss over. This book comes alive in vivid colors, showing a multi-cultural world on the edge of colonial power, from the crew of the ship to the various markets and pirate hideaways that this crew gets caught up in. And I enjoyed that. |
CONS
| The women in this book... Well, there aren't really any women in this book. Which could be fine, except that the women who do show up are... not the type of representation I would like to see. Kitty, Kit's betrothed, is more a plot device than anything else. And if she was relegated just to instigating force that spurs Kit to become a pirate, I would be somewhat fine with that. But she comes back around later in the plot, after the instigating moment, just to act as a plot device to spur Kit, a man, into action again, and I hate that. Women need more of a role that just inspiration for the men around them. Even if she doesn't have a real role in this story, since it isn't her story, I should still feel like she has something, anything else going on in her life. But she exists solely to service a man. There aren't a lot of other women who turn up in this plot at all, except in passing mentions of sexual assault and marital infidelity. These women are cold, aloof, and/or dead. And that... isn't great. It isn't great at all. It's 2026. We really need to do better. | Prop Women |
| Kit's a really hard character to read. His immaturity is on purpose, but the writing of it feels... off. It doesn't feel like a sheltered immaturity. It doesn't feel like a rich-person-learning-reality sort of immaturity. It also doesn't capture the bravado of youth. It just makes Kit feel very young, even though he is supposed to be seventeen (and I've heard that, in the final edition of this book, he might be aged up more). This immaturity in the way he is written makes the whole romance subplot very hard to stomach. He's written so young, and even with the age on the paper, that maturity gap makes the age-gap feel almost criminal. It was icky to read, and it wasn't meant to be. And aging up the character on paper won't fix this issue of writing, so if the character does get aged up in the final publication, I think this critique will still stand. Unless there's a major overhaul that happens, which I somehow don't think will be the case given the timeline that trad publishing works on, the romance didn't work for me. It in fact made me incredibly uncomfortable. | Immaturity |
| This book is, strictly speaking, just all over the place. It's not so much a plot arc as a character arc. But a character arc as the focus of your book only works if there's, you know, a noticeable transformation within the character. And Kit might change a bit but definitely not enough to carry a book. Everything just happens, and nothing much changes. | Wobbly Plot |
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
4/10
Fans of Avi's The True Adventures of Charlotte Doyle will like diving into a book set on the high seas at the peak of the colonial age. Those who enjoyed Erin Cotter's By Any Other Name will like following these characters figuring out where they stand, morally, in this historical period piece.
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Details
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Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own. |
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