This past month, I read the entire Bloody Jack series (mostly on my Kindle) along with a few other separate books. I figured it'd be easiest for me to just share my thoughts on the Bloody Jack series as a group rather than on the books individually.
Bloody Jack - L. A. Meyer (2002)
Curse of the Blue Tattoo - L. A. Meyer
Under the Jolly Roger - L. A. Meyer
In the Belly of the Bloodhound - L. A. Meyer
Mississippi Jack - L. A. Meyer
My Bonny Light Horseman - L. A. Meyer
Rapture of the Deep - L. A. Meyer
The Wake of the Lorelai Lee - L. A. Meyer
The Mark of the Golden Dragon - L. A. Meyer
Viva Jacquelina! - L. A. Meyer
Boston Jacky - L. A. Meyer
Wild Rover No More - L. A. Meyer (2014)
This Young Adult Historical Fiction series is set within the years 1797-1809 and takes place mostly in England and America, but also in France, Cuba, India, and various other countries, islands, and territories. The main character, Mary "Jacky" Faber, runs into a gamut of historical, literary, and legendary figures throughout her travels (aside from the expected historical figures, there are sly nods to the crew of the Pequod from Moby Dick and Fagin's gang from Oliver Twist, for instance, and one book finds her interacting with American frontier legend Mike Fink, King of the River). The historical events and figures are interwoven in such a way that they never seem to get in the way of the main story and characters, though, which I feel is one of the series' strengths.
As for Jacky herself, I appreciated her as a plucky strong-yet-flawed female lead whose ability to get herself out of scrapes is matched only by her ability to get herself into them. Her character does tend to be a little uneven depending on what was needed for the overall storyline, but a lot of the overall changes in voice and tone are understandable just given that the series follows her from age 8 to age 19.
One quibble I had was that there are a lot of characters introduced throughout the books. Sometimes it felt like there wasn't enough space to fully develop all these interesting characters, and occasionally I had trouble remembering exactly who was who, especially for characters who disappeared and then popped back up several books later. I also felt that some of them were used a little too much as deus-ex-machinas, especially Higgins, the intelligent, rarely-ruffled, not-so-secretly-gay steward-turned-butler. But the books overall don't take themselves too seriously and even take on a sort of legendary-storytelling feel by design, so even obvious plot points and completely-out-of-nowhere events are forgivable.
Overall, the series manages to stay strong throughout its entirety and wrap itself up fairly nicely in the end, which is no mean feat given all the events and character arcs going on. I think this would've been a fun series for me to collect and read (and reread) in late junior high/early high school and would recommend it for that age group in general, as well as to anyone looking for a fun and exciting but still surprisingly educational series. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get introduced to them sooner and thus don't have dog-eared copies of my own to revisit.
Related Reads:
The following list is just what occurred to me while reading the first few books - I stopped making mental notes eventually. I'd also have to just broadly recommend reading more about any of the historical/literary characters and events mentioned throughout the series.
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons (Barbara Cohen)
First Test (Tamora Pierce)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
King of the Wind (Marguerite Henry)
A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
The Black Stallion (Walter Farley)
A Soldier's Secret (Marissa Moss)
(to be continued in Part 2)
Bloody Jack - L. A. Meyer (2002)
Curse of the Blue Tattoo - L. A. Meyer
Under the Jolly Roger - L. A. Meyer
In the Belly of the Bloodhound - L. A. Meyer
Mississippi Jack - L. A. Meyer
My Bonny Light Horseman - L. A. Meyer
Rapture of the Deep - L. A. Meyer
The Wake of the Lorelai Lee - L. A. Meyer
The Mark of the Golden Dragon - L. A. Meyer
Viva Jacquelina! - L. A. Meyer
Boston Jacky - L. A. Meyer
Wild Rover No More - L. A. Meyer (2014)
This Young Adult Historical Fiction series is set within the years 1797-1809 and takes place mostly in England and America, but also in France, Cuba, India, and various other countries, islands, and territories. The main character, Mary "Jacky" Faber, runs into a gamut of historical, literary, and legendary figures throughout her travels (aside from the expected historical figures, there are sly nods to the crew of the Pequod from Moby Dick and Fagin's gang from Oliver Twist, for instance, and one book finds her interacting with American frontier legend Mike Fink, King of the River). The historical events and figures are interwoven in such a way that they never seem to get in the way of the main story and characters, though, which I feel is one of the series' strengths.
As for Jacky herself, I appreciated her as a plucky strong-yet-flawed female lead whose ability to get herself out of scrapes is matched only by her ability to get herself into them. Her character does tend to be a little uneven depending on what was needed for the overall storyline, but a lot of the overall changes in voice and tone are understandable just given that the series follows her from age 8 to age 19.
One quibble I had was that there are a lot of characters introduced throughout the books. Sometimes it felt like there wasn't enough space to fully develop all these interesting characters, and occasionally I had trouble remembering exactly who was who, especially for characters who disappeared and then popped back up several books later. I also felt that some of them were used a little too much as deus-ex-machinas, especially Higgins, the intelligent, rarely-ruffled, not-so-secretly-gay steward-turned-butler. But the books overall don't take themselves too seriously and even take on a sort of legendary-storytelling feel by design, so even obvious plot points and completely-out-of-nowhere events are forgivable.
Overall, the series manages to stay strong throughout its entirety and wrap itself up fairly nicely in the end, which is no mean feat given all the events and character arcs going on. I think this would've been a fun series for me to collect and read (and reread) in late junior high/early high school and would recommend it for that age group in general, as well as to anyone looking for a fun and exciting but still surprisingly educational series. I'm only disappointed that I didn't get introduced to them sooner and thus don't have dog-eared copies of my own to revisit.
Related Reads:
The following list is just what occurred to me while reading the first few books - I stopped making mental notes eventually. I'd also have to just broadly recommend reading more about any of the historical/literary characters and events mentioned throughout the series.
Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons (Barbara Cohen)
First Test (Tamora Pierce)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
King of the Wind (Marguerite Henry)
A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes)
The Black Stallion (Walter Farley)
A Soldier's Secret (Marissa Moss)
(to be continued in Part 2)
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