The Ship of Shadows

Aleja whiles away her days in her family's dusty tavern in Seville, dreaming of distant lands and believing in the kind of magic that she's only ever read about in books. After all, she's always being told that girls can't be explorers.

But her life is changed forever when adventure comes for her in the form of a fabled vessel called the Ship of Shadows. Crewed by a band of ruthless women, with cabin walls dripping with secrets, the ship has sailed right out of a legend. And it wants Aleja.

Once on board its shadowy deck, she begins to realize that the sea holds more secrets than she ever could have imagined. The crew are desperately seeking something, and their path will take them through treacherous waters and force them to confront nightmare creatures and pitch-dark magic. It will take all of Aleja's strength and courage to gain the trust of her fellow pirates - and discover what they are risking everything to find.

Many thanks to The Write Reads and Penguin for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and for inclusion on this blog tour.

Pirates = Good.

Female pirates = Great.

A whole magic ship full of female pirates = Must read.

Ship of Shadows is a charming, cozy adventure filled with both heart and danger. It’ll transport the reader to far-away countries, across dangerous seas, and all with the comfort of some charming female bonding and found family.

I think I’m in the minority on this blog tour so far in that I didn’t love this book. I did enjoy it, though, and the most important part: even though my adult brain struggled with it, I think children would love this. Younger me would have, for sure, and I can think of quite a few kids at my library who would, because it fits neatly into that wish fulfillment niche that is especially unique to middle grade readers.

The world-building in this is immersive, and will take readers to various different countries and introduce them to diverse cultures.

In a sneaky way that is sure to catch young readers’ attention, without having them rolling their eyes at having to actually … ugh … learn something. I loved how smoothly different cultures were introduced in the narrative, and I learned several things I hadn’t known, too, and was excited to recognize some more trivial facts that I did happen to know.

It’s pretty much a given that pirates are going to travel, and good pirates can blend into their surroundings, so it makes perfect sense that these ladies would have to know at least something about the lands they’re traveling to.

This includes cultural niceties (like not using your left hand in the Middle East because it’s considered unclean) along with dress and even languages (specifically, French, Spanish, and Arabic). I was so excited to see this, because I’ve been looking for books that can introduce kids to other cultures sneakily, by tricking them into having an adventure, and this really delivers on that.

The magic in this is absolutely charming. As if being pirates isn’t enough of a draw, the ship itself is magical. How neat is that?!

I think this was probably my favorite part of the book, and I can imagine kids would love it just as much. What’s better than being a pirate? Being a pirate on a magical ship, of course. The magic aboard the Ship of Shadows is born from legends about it, which means the rooms and things that appear are based on what yarns people are weaving about it, and I loved that. Exploring the ship with Aleja and Frances was one of my favorite parts of the story, because there was so much to love about the ship. I’m more than a little jealous that I can’t set sail in her myself.

This book is just chock full of adventures and puzzles.

I mean, it wouldn’t be much of a pirate book without swashbuckling, now would it? This book skirts the line between cozy piracy and the actual brutalities of piracy really nicely, sparing the reader the real nitty-gritty, but also reminding them that everything comes at a price. I liked that even while it was glamorizing piracy to an extent, there were some harsh realities about the dangers.

The pace was really nice, too, because it’s basically from one adventure to another, with a little bit of female bonding stuck in between. The things these women get into are such fun to read, so I won’t spoil any of them. There is a little bit of a quest going on here, though, which means there are sometimes puzzles or riddles to solve, and I think that’ll definitely appeal to young readers. I thought they were kind of easy/obvious, but I’m also old and jaded, and it feels like a good level for the target audience.

I can’t end this review without mentioning the all-female crew, which drew me to this book in the first place. Not only were they diverse, but there was something different to love about all of them.

I actually really liked that the book delved not only into their ethnic backgrounds (since they’re all from different places, with different cultures), but they all have very different life experiences. I don’t want to say too much, because getting to know them all better was half the joy of the book.

I absolutely adore stories with both found family and crews, so combining both into this one book seems pretty efficient to me.

I really enjoyed reading the crews’ interactions, not to mention the difference in personalities. The secretive captain. The mourning Griete. Oh, and Frances, who was absolutely adorable and somehow always had cake, so obviously, she would be my BFF.

Aleja is too good at … well, basically everything. Magically. Because the plot requires her to be.

This goes back to the wish fulfillment thing I mention. Of course kids are going to enjoy this part more than I did, and this book is really for them, but my old, lame adult brain kept shorting out at everything this kid could do.

In the first 10% of the book, Aleja:

• Reveals that she taught herself English just by reading books in those languages.
• She also speaks French and Arabic, though it doesn’t say how she learned those.
• Is clearly “not like other girls”.
• Conveniently finds a secret book that people have been looking for, for decades.
• Uncovers a money counterfeiting plot.
• Is super good at climbing to escape from people and quickly slip away from men chasing her.

That’s just the first 10%. Recalling that Aleja is a girl in a historical fiction that takes place around the 1600s, best I can figure, in a lower class family. Not to mention that learning languages just from reading books in that language isn’t so much a thing when you’re 12 unless you’re a genius.

Not only did she learn the language, though, she can magically speak it with little hesitation and pronounce the words just fine and be understood, even though, I can tell you from experience, only reading a language that sounds very different from yours without pronunciation rules is … a disaster. Funny, but a disaster. Lesson brought to you by my friend who took French, bless her heart, and then tried to help me study for my Spanish exam. I about passed out laughing at her pronunciation, and she threw my book at me. So … it went great.

I know wish fulfillment books are huge in MG, and I’m not even against kids doing fantastical feats. I just want a reason in the story to believe that they’re capable of doing these things, which I didn’t feel from this story. Every time Aleja pulled off yet another thing, I kept thinking, but how?!

I don’t have to think it has to be realistic or real. I just have to buy it in the context of the story. Again, this is very much a me thing, but it makes me twitchy.

About Maria Kuzniar

Maria Kuzniar spent six years living in Spain, teaching English and travelling the world, which inspired her debut novel The Ship of Shadows. Now she lives in Nottingham with her husband, where she reads and writes as much as she can and bookstagrams at @cosyreads. She is always planning her next adventure. (Photo credit: Emma Matthews)

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