A review by ailsabristow
Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

3.0

On the one hand, this book was a perfectly pleasant way to spend an evening: I read it in one sitting, and it was entertaining enough to keep me moving through it.


But! You tell me this is a book about Blackbeard and there’s barely a whiff of the sea until the last 20 pages?

What’s more, there’s something strange to me about the YA-style applied to historical fiction. I got no real sense that any of the characters had a 17th century worldview at all: we basically had an American high school movie, in fancy dress. I’m a particularly grumpy reader of historical fiction, so this in particular grated on me.