The Dread Pirate Fleur and the Ruby Heart
By Sara Starbuck. This is a YA novel (flagged 9+) about a young female pirate, earning her place in her fierce uncle’s crew. She’s feisty, it’s rollicking, it’s generally Rather Good. The story moves on nicely, the characters are boldly drawn but interesting, and it’s packed with juicy nuggets of pirate-based infodumping.
It’s a pleasant, if mild, subversion of the classic “magic weapon” trope – Fleur focuses on the Hart staff, which apparently contains a piece of the sea’s soul, but her conviction that she’s the one the prophecy talks about comes to nothing. Well, nothing yet; the last chapter is definitely setting us up for a sequel, and I look forward to reading it.
Tags: children's lit