Bloody Jack

There are many different things that can be considered a trope in YA fiction today. Books that come out now are filled with YA characters that have little to no development or dimension. Then there is the average YA heroine. She is often a girl who is angry...at something, and often does not consider herself pretty, even though boys constantly throw themselves at her. To top it all off, she is terribly clumsy if the author wants to go for the grand cliched effect. I am happy to say that this book, Bloody Jack, has no of those problems. It is an excellent work f YA fiction that I think I will enjoy for years to come.

This is most because of the main character, Mary ‘Jack' Faber. She is a girl living in the 18th century, when her whole family is killed by a plague, and she is forced to live life on the streets. Not content to face possible starvation or freezing to death she decides to make her way to the King's Navy, and decides to join the SS Dolphin as a ship's boy. Now she not only has to survive living amongst the crew, some of which want more than to be her crewmate whether she likes it or not, but also amongst the pirates they hunt out at sea. As a character she is someone who we see grow up in this world and become a capable ships boy. She is resourceful, and able to hang out with boys, but she also wants to do traditionally feminine things like make dresses and outfits for the men. Nicely, she is also not perfect. She does have the problem of becoming hysterical at times, especially when she cannot stand an injustice or losing someone she cares about. But this makes her a far more likeable character overall. She is by far a better character than about 75% of the female YA heroes I read these days.

Then there are the other things that I just love about this book, like the genre itself. We just don't see too many ship adventures with swashbuckling action. It makes a nice change from the typical YA fantasy or space opera we are getting a lot of right now. And I also like how this book does not shy away from the harsh realities of being a ship's boy in the navy. The possibility of being sexually assaulted was a possibility in real life, and that is displayed here. In fact, this is where I offer a trigger warning to any future reader. While this book's cover may make it appear that this is a nice middle grade book, it will become apparent that this is only for more mature high schoolers and above. This is due, in no small part, to the sexual assault that is vividly described in the book. You have been warned.

Needless to say, this is an excellent novel that was a blast to listen to. The reader, although for the life of me I can't remember her name, was able to impress me with almost all of her reading of each character. In fact, I'd say that the only way to read this noel is through her, as the author write the book with Mary's cocky English dialect in mind, which, as I understand it, is somewhat difficult to read. For those of you who don't know what I mean, have you read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban? Remember the part with Stan Shunpike, and his weird dialogue? Now imagine a who book filled with that, and you have this one. Clearly, If you had trouble understanding him, then you should probably listen to this than actually read it. I can assure you though, it isn't a loss as this book will not disappoint from a bad or inappropriate narrator.

It does not surprise me that this book was published back in 2002 because it makes for a nice change from all the typical YA tropes that we see in the genre today. If you are interested in the film series like Pirates of the Caribbean, then I think you'll greatly enjoy this adventure. I know that I am going to enjoy the next episode in the Jackie Faber series. I give this book a five out of five.