Death Island by Kelsey Ketch
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Age category: New Adult
Release Date: December 31, 2017
Description:
Her family name tainted by her great-grandfather’s crimes of piracy, Meriden Cummings is far from the typical 18th century woman. A social outcast, she works in a carpentry shop in a small village, where the people barely tolerate unconventional behavior.
However, her life takes a turn after a gang of pirates attack her village and her blood reveals an ancient map adorned with Mayan glyphs leading to Death Island. An island legends say is ruled by the Mayan god of the underworld, Ah Puch. Her great-grandfather had sought after the island before he vanished without a trace. Now, Meriden is about to journey across the sea to understand her family history.
There are only a few problems: her growing feelings toward a mysterious stranger linked to her great-grandfather’s past; a greedy band of pirates after her great-grandfather’s legendary treasure; and a contract she has unwittingly signed in blood with Ah Puch himself.
My Review:
Death Island is an adventure tale set in the early 1700s, featuring pirates, a strong female character, and a quest for treasure overshadowed by an insidious curse.
I found the story itself to be rather interesting with plenty of action and well-developed characters. It was full of seagoing action, and the pace picked up when Meriden and her shipmates reached Death Island. There are some aspects of a ghost story, and I really dig how the mystery of the “gardener” as she calls him is played out. The curse was also cool, adding quite a bit of tension to the story. Marked as unavoidable, the author still manages to build the hope that Greg or Meriden might find a solution.
As for the romantic interests, I wasn’t all that into the fact that every man Meriden grew up with is essentially in love with her. It seemed unrealistic to me. But besides that, I did enjoy the progression of Meriden and Greg’s relationship. It was refreshingly slow to build, and the personal histories and hang ups of each of them were excellently woven into a realistic struggle, both internal to themselves and with each other.
I also dug how Meriden stands up for herself throughout the book, though it also seems to closely pair up with a lack of judgement and self-preservation that sometimes gets herself or her shipmates into more trouble than they should have faced.
As for the historical context of the book, it’s kind of a mix. On the one hand, it’s obviously well researched for the main subject: the ships, the NC history, and the Mayan mythology, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. On the other, there are some period inconsistencies, such as the 18th century characters’ first person narration referring to adrenaline, which wasn’t discovered until the year 1900, and more than a few references to cleansing wounds with alcohol, which, if referring to isopropyl alcohol, wasn’t discovered until 1920, and which may also be considered a bit out of historical context when the idea of disinfection or even washing one’s hands as a doctor didn’t come into play until the mid-1800s.
The voice of the 1st person narration, as well as the dialog, also comes across as much more coarse and modern than I would expect from a story set in the early 1700s, likely around 1712-1715 or so, based on the clues I found related to the war Greg mentions having fought against the Tuscarora. I also found it particularly jarring how often and cavalierly the f-bomb was used by the characters. Still, I was surprised, when I expanded the google usage chart to start in 1700, to see the word nearly matching present day usage until dropping off in 1800 and resting nearly at zero until 1950 when it began its ascent to present day prolificacy, so maybe it’s historically accurate. It just seemed a bit off from what I expected.
As for the editing, it is also a mixed bag. For the most part the grammatical structure and punctuation are spot on, but I noticed way more than a few instances of homophones used in place of their obviously intended sound-alikes, such as causally instead of casually and literary instead of literally. I also found a few cases of noun-verb mismatch and the occasional incorrect form of a word used as an adjective or adverb. Add in a few sentence fragments, which I wrote off as intentional, but still noticed, and I found these as a whole to distract from the story.
Overall, I enjoyed this story, but I feel the book needs a bit more polishing. I think folks who enjoy YA or NA with nautical themes, pirates, and Mayan mythology might dig this book, especially those who are looking for something a little different. Historical fiction purists might find some issues with this story, but folks just looking for an adventure might be ok with it.
I received a free copy of this book from the author via Lola’s Blog Tours.
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Read on for an excerpt and more information about the author!
