ailishsreads's Reviews (220)

I recognize that information on Sarah Kidd's life is limited, especially since her historical relevance largely stems from her husband, but this book still feels pretty light. 

I think this book could have benefited from some additional historical context. For example, Sarah Kidd was supposedly very religious and pious in a Puritan society, which is quite the juxtaposition from her actual life as a pirate's wife. I would have loved if they delved more into what women's roles in a Puritan culture were versus a piratical one. 

Also, there was apparently a period when New York was very pro-pirate and its economy largely depended on piracy? That's so interesting -- please give me more than one paragraph about that!

This story feels incredibly empty. The three main characters have exactly one personality trait each, with one of them being a manic pixie dream girl; the world and ghosts are poorly imagined

(what if ghosts were just unhungry zombies);

and I have never read so many ineffectual metaphors. 

This book is deeply mediocre but thinks it's just deep 

This book was so well written, but was at times difficult to read because the dystopia felt too plausible. It's also a very quiet dystopia -- this isn't the Hunger Games or Handmaid's Tale, this is just heightened reality. 

I know this is so nit picky, but the Gwyneth Paltrow mentions totally took me out of the book

This book is a bit of a bloated mess. There are some really solid ideas here (the lasting effects of colonialism, including ongoing colonialism in the form of tourism; identity; strained family relationships; etc.), but the good ideas get buried among all the other things thrown in there. From a horror perspective, there are just too many haunts to deal with

(parasites, dueling ghosts, lots of bugs, the house itself, possession, and the human villain of Alma)

, and it gets overly complicated. 

There's also too much drama happening, including the mystery of Jade's ruined friendship with Halle. By the time the reason for their falling out is revealed, it's by far the least important or interesting thing happening, and it's difficult to care about a character we've never met when so much else is going on.

The big plus though: I am not a romance person, and I was hardcore rooting for Florence and Jade 

I just wasn't enjoying this book enough to keep going. I wasn't attached to or intrigued by any of the characters, the plot was (so far) extremely predictable, and LaValle is constantly telling rather than showing. It also felt like there was a significant discord between his writing style and the book he was trying to write

I fully acknowledge that I'm not the target audience for this book, and maybe I'm just a hater, but the romance really took away from what was otherwise a solid fantasy-adventure and felt a bit forced. Right as the action is peaking, we take a several chapter break to focus on relationship drama?

Also, it's weird to have two sets of siblings be each other's romantic interests. Like I just could not get past that.

Adeyemi's afterward also gave this rating a decent bump 

This book offers an interesting commentary on true crime entertainment and is a great character study of both the killers and the "author" himself

This graphic novel is gorgeously drawn, but that's really it  only strength. It changes the characters from male to female, but in a way that feels like incredibly performative feminism. They also keep the majority of the 1907 dialogue and prose, but occasionally interject 2017 banter, which just feels discordant. In the end, the changes they made detract heavily from the original story