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denjuno's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Great book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
kylosten's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was ready to give this 5 stars because it was such a fun read up until an aspect of the ending pertaining to the L.I. that I will put in spoiler tag below.
I thought I was going to be lost at first because of how many characters there were (I struggle with remembering names) but the map and list of characters at the beginning helped a lot! I flipped back to both throughout the story.
I thought the way the author gave pieces to solve the mystery was good. Not telegraphing everything too much, but nothing came out of nowhere, either.
The relaxed writing style and angsty MC had me unsure if I was going to like this but it made this really easy to read and I ended up really enjoying it! The angst made sense for a 22 year old who has grown up with trauma.
If you like movies like Clue or Knives Out you'll probably enjoy the vibes of this (if you're also okay with some fantasy mixed in).
The chapters are on the longer side.
Ending spoiler:
I found it really odd the MC forgave the LI for going along with and being ready to participate in a genocide of all the people the MC cared about. It was pretty much completely disregarded and barely acknowledged.
I almost wish the LI would have died even though it would take away from the HEA.
I thought I was going to be lost at first because of how many characters there were (I struggle with remembering names) but the map and list of characters at the beginning helped a lot! I flipped back to both throughout the story.
I thought the way the author gave pieces to solve the mystery was good. Not telegraphing everything too much, but nothing came out of nowhere, either.
The relaxed writing style and angsty MC had me unsure if I was going to like this but it made this really easy to read and I ended up really enjoying it! The angst made sense for a 22 year old who has grown up with trauma.
If you like movies like Clue or Knives Out you'll probably enjoy the vibes of this (if you're also okay with some fantasy mixed in).
The chapters are on the longer side.
Ending spoiler:
I almost wish the LI would have died even though it would take away from the HEA.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Blood, Xenophobia, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
bibliomania_express's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Today was the May long weekend here in Canada, and the weather has been warm and sunny. I went to a nearby park to read and enjoy the sunshine, and ended up reading my whole book.
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is a sharp, quick-paced murder mystery that was everything I hoped it would be. Twelve Blesseds, each representing a province of the United Empire of Concordia, are on a voyage to the sacred mountain. Except Dee isn't Blessed - he's hiding his lack of power to protect his province. Then Dee has bigger things to worry about as one by one the Blesseds are murdered. Dee will have to figure out who the murderer is and what's going on before he ends up dead.
I had such a great time with this book. It has some great character work, a twisty mystery, an interesting magic system, and fantastic representation of different races, sexualities, body types, and disabilities. It also deals with classism, xenophobia, prejudice, religious bigotry, self-esteem, and the economics of control. Along with grief, love, family, found family, and corruption. Just a whole lot of stuff packed into an isolated, closed circle murder mystery on a boat.
Dee was a great protagonist and it was fun to follow him through his resentment and self-loathing at the lie foisted upon him to finding his true self and working his way through the clues. Dee is loud, proud of his big body, funny while using humour as deflection, and in many ways his idgaf nature is what saves the day. There's also a romance element in this book, which went some unexpected ways a few times.
I liked how the Blessings were tied into the plot, and how the story unravelled by revealing bits about each character and their pasts. It did get a bit confusing that characters had names but were also called their province's animal name.
I did guess some elements of the solution, but not all of it. I'm not sure if I would class this as a fair play mystery since some of the clues come rather late and deal a lot with the politics and secrets there wouldn't be a way of knowing.
I'd have more to say, but it would all be spoilers, so I'll leave it there.
Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is a sharp, quick-paced murder mystery that was everything I hoped it would be. Twelve Blesseds, each representing a province of the United Empire of Concordia, are on a voyage to the sacred mountain. Except Dee isn't Blessed - he's hiding his lack of power to protect his province. Then Dee has bigger things to worry about as one by one the Blesseds are murdered. Dee will have to figure out who the murderer is and what's going on before he ends up dead.
I had such a great time with this book. It has some great character work, a twisty mystery, an interesting magic system, and fantastic representation of different races, sexualities, body types, and disabilities. It also deals with classism, xenophobia, prejudice, religious bigotry, self-esteem, and the economics of control. Along with grief, love, family, found family, and corruption. Just a whole lot of stuff packed into an isolated, closed circle murder mystery on a boat.
Dee was a great protagonist and it was fun to follow him through his resentment and self-loathing at the lie foisted upon him to finding his true self and working his way through the clues. Dee is loud, proud of his big body, funny while using humour as deflection, and in many ways his idgaf nature is what saves the day. There's also a romance element in this book, which went some unexpected ways a few times.
I liked how the Blessings were tied into the plot, and how the story unravelled by revealing bits about each character and their pasts. It did get a bit confusing that characters had names but were also called their province's animal name.
I did guess some elements of the solution, but not all of it. I'm not sure if I would class this as a fair play mystery since some of the clues come rather late and deal a lot with the politics and secrets there wouldn't be a way of knowing.
I'd have more to say, but it would all be spoilers, so I'll leave it there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Death, Classism, and Colonisation
Moderate: Grief, Blood, and Bullying
Minor: Child death, Fatphobia, Suicide, Ableism, and Terminal illness
its_a_complit_way_of_life's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt
ee1000's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I absolutely adored this book!
A murder mystery in a fantasy world where our main character is a fish out of water (pun intended) and even though he doesn’t fit in, does everything he can to save his fellow passengers and solve the mystery.
I don’t want to spoil things so I’ll try to keep things vague as possible. First, Dee is a wonderful character. He’s just a good person and seeing his motivation to be good override his fear of his secret being found out is so well done. He’s easy to root for!
The rest of the cast I won’t mention to try and keep things spoiler free but I did love the rest of them too!
The twists in this book were excellent. There were a few times where I put down the book and said, “Well that one got me!” That’s the fun thing about a mystery in a magical world, anything can happen!
A great read, and a satisfying end that left me smiling and wanting to hug each of the characters. So much heart went into this book, and I felt the love for the story and characters on every single page.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a copy of this book in exchange for my review!
A murder mystery in a fantasy world where our main character is a fish out of water (pun intended) and even though he doesn’t fit in, does everything he can to save his fellow passengers and solve the mystery.
I don’t want to spoil things so I’ll try to keep things vague as possible. First, Dee is a wonderful character. He’s just a good person and seeing his motivation to be good override his fear of his secret being found out is so well done. He’s easy to root for!
The rest of the cast I won’t mention to try and keep things spoiler free but I did love the rest of them too!
The twists in this book were excellent. There were a few times where I put down the book and said, “Well that one got me!” That’s the fun thing about a mystery in a magical world, anything can happen!
A great read, and a satisfying end that left me smiling and wanting to hug each of the characters. So much heart went into this book, and I felt the love for the story and characters on every single page.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for a copy of this book in exchange for my review!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content
beckisnotonfire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness, Murder, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Violence, and Grief
emmaggedon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Squealing and kicking my feet at this fantasy murder mystery that had It All!
✅ Magic
✅ A protagonist who just wins you over instantly
✅ Brutal scenes but sparingly
✅ Important messages told well
✅ BUCKETS OF SEXUAL TENSION
Just, WONDERFUL. I haven’t done a “one more chapter, won’t do anything else until the book is finished” in a WHILE!!! More Cross Genre PLEASE I’m FREAKING OUT!! For something that could easily have been YA, I think it works so beautifully as an adult novel, and it does not shy away from being one.
✅ Magic
✅ A protagonist who just wins you over instantly
✅ Brutal scenes but sparingly
✅ Important messages told well
✅ BUCKETS OF SEXUAL TENSION
Just, WONDERFUL. I haven’t done a “one more chapter, won’t do anything else until the book is finished” in a WHILE!!! More Cross Genre PLEASE I’m FREAKING OUT!! For something that could easily have been YA, I think it works so beautifully as an adult novel, and it does not shy away from being one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Abandonment and Sexual content
girlreading's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was so.much.fun!!!
but also kind of hard to rate..
Voyage of the Damned is my kind of fantasy. It's laugh out loud funny, easy to follow, brilliantly engaging, a little bit gruesome but also surprisingly tender at times. It's fast paced, action packed and the kind of book you day through without even realising and for the first 90% or so, I was dead set on it being a five star read.
Then the twist hit.
It's not to say it was a bad twist. In fact, it was surprising and interesting but it left me feeling somewhat deflated and detached from the characters and relationships for the last part of the story. It's hard to explain without any spoilers but something about it and certain characters reactions to said twist, didn't quite match up for me with what I previously knew of them. It also left me feeling slightly duped out of a certain relationship (again, trying to be a vague as possible here).
It's frustrating that I was left feeling a little flat after reading a book that I genuinely adored for all but its final pages (and even those weren't bad, I think I just felt the disappointment more because of how much I had been loving it.)
That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy my time with this book and I feel as though I'd probably think a lot more of the ending upon a reread. All in all, this was a witty, tender, murderous and diverse fantasy with a locked room murder mystery, romance and mental health rep, and one that has left me very excited to read Frances White's future work.
but also kind of hard to rate..
Voyage of the Damned is my kind of fantasy. It's laugh out loud funny, easy to follow, brilliantly engaging, a little bit gruesome but also surprisingly tender at times. It's fast paced, action packed and the kind of book you day through without even realising and for the first 90% or so, I was dead set on it being a five star read.
Then the twist hit.
It's not to say it was a bad twist. In fact, it was surprising and interesting but it left me feeling somewhat deflated and detached from the characters and relationships for the last part of the story. It's hard to explain without any spoilers but something about it and certain characters reactions to said twist, didn't quite match up for me with what I previously knew of them. It also left me feeling slightly duped out of a certain relationship (again, trying to be a vague as possible here).
It's frustrating that I was left feeling a little flat after reading a book that I genuinely adored for all but its final pages (and even those weren't bad, I think I just felt the disappointment more because of how much I had been loving it.)
That being said, I did thoroughly enjoy my time with this book and I feel as though I'd probably think a lot more of the ending upon a reread. All in all, this was a witty, tender, murderous and diverse fantasy with a locked room murder mystery, romance and mental health rep, and one that has left me very excited to read Frances White's future work.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
e_read_books's review
3.75
A really well thought out murder mystery considering there were 12 characters each with pretty different magical abilities to keep track of over 12 days in a fairly large ship. There were multiple equally plausible suspects to keep the reader guessing and as such I couldn't be truly surprised when the killer was revealed but the motives and plans still had some unexpected twists.
I was worried in the first couple of chapters that Dee would be too annoying of a character for me to follow. I'll admit his humour did not always land for me, but his true depth is quickly revealed to us and he ended up being a really compelling character and a pretty good detective. I absolutely loved his relationship with little Grasshopper (truly Adorable Level 5/5).
Lowering the score for me is I didn't quite jive with some of the humour and also the conclusion, though it fits well with Dee's character arc. I'm just never going to preferDee becoming the new Emporer "ruling the right way" over abolishing the system altogether. Though there was mention of independence later down the line . However, the meat of the story i.e. the murder mystery was a great fun time and the differing character dynamics between the 12 heirs created plenty of opportunity for great dialogue scenes with lots of character.
I was worried in the first couple of chapters that Dee would be too annoying of a character for me to follow. I'll admit his humour did not always land for me, but his true depth is quickly revealed to us and he ended up being a really compelling character and a pretty good detective. I absolutely loved his relationship with little Grasshopper (truly Adorable Level 5/5).
Lowering the score for me is I didn't quite jive with some of the humour and also the conclusion, though it fits well with Dee's character arc. I'm just never going to prefer
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Self harm, and Death
Moderate: Murder, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Xenophobia
black_cat_iiix's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Murder, and Torture
Minor: Slavery and Racial slurs