"This is the story of one of the most shocking events of the seventeenth century: the wreck of a Dutch ship, the Batavia, off the west coast of Australia, and the extraordinary events that befell its stranded survivors. It is also the story of Judith Bastiaansz, sailing with her family to a new life, who is caught up in something well beyond her experience: first infatuation and then, perhaps, something far more dangerous. Combining a gripping narrative with vivid historical detail, this is a beautiful, terrifying, deeply moving novel of love and anarchy. "
I bought this book a while ago, and at the time I was really into reading Historical Fictions. So after reading the back of the book I thought that this was going to be great. But again I judged the book by the cover, and was wrong. Firstly, it took forever for the story to start. I was pushing ,myself to read and become engaged in it for the first hundred pages or so. Now this a, what I call average, average size book. So I was close to half way through it before I really started to be interested in what was happening. The second thing was that, in the beginning, she keeps jumping from the past to the present without any explanation. So you are left floundering to figure out at what time the story is taken place in. This just contributed to the hardship it was to get into the book. I wanted the main character to have a stronger presence, but did not get what I wanted. I felt she was a meek character, and although she did survive the hardships in the story, she did not become a stronger person or really grow. She stayed the same. I was disappointed in this book, and did have to force myself to read to the end.
I give this book a one out of five.
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