Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Treasure Island

A solid, fun, swashbuckling tale. It feels as though Stevenson simply wanted to indulge in a love for pirates and adventure, and did so shamelessly. It's a simple, straightforward read which left me content and sated by the end.

If you've seen the film adaptation "Treasure Planet" and are wondering how the book holds up: as one can infer from the different titles, the film takes many creative ways in a way I find brilliant, innovative, and positive. The book gave me a deeper appreciation for the film, and the creators' years-long fight to get it greenlit at Disney. They refreshed the classic while maintaining the integrity, keeping it appealing to modern audiences. The only, minor thing I wish had been retained in the film: the bit about Benjamin Gunn and his quest for toasted cheese! That would've fit in well in a children's film.

Content Warnings

yaraamr123's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

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abby_can_read's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

There is not denying this is a classic. The way the plot unfolded so neatly, and the writing was good. The narrative being told through reports was interesting. Despite that I was rather bored and I struggled to get through this book.

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kwichris's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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sassmistress's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

A thrilling, classic adventure about 18th century seafaring and pirates and treasure hunting. More info in content section.

With older language, high vocabulary, antiquated turns of phrase, and some hard-to-interpret "dialect writing", I would say a high school reader could handle it alone, but as a read aloud you could go much younger. My brother loved it in early elementary school.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Colonisation, Blood, Drug use, Animal death, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

The book being "from a different time", the casual racism is pretty bad. There's a paragraph near the end of the book about meeting people of color in Spanish America and 2-3 references to an unmet woman as the feminized n-word (e-one-g), "n***ess". No sexual content aside from the very distant implication of an unmarried pirate having a female companion at another port (she is referred to with a racial slur). No cursing beyond old-timey pirate talk ("shiver my timbers" type stuff). The narrator dances around implied cursing by saying things like "with an oath I shall not write here". There are many references to prayer, eternity, one's Maker, etc, all positive. The main character admonishes a pirate to pray for God's mercy. Superstitions about ghosts and defacing a Bible causing bringing a curse on you make an appearance. One pirate repeatedly uses "Christian" in an older English sense, to really mean "civilized" (i.e. "European"), and this isn't commented on. The "good guys" do their duty (spelled "dooty" in the book) and keep their word even when they'd really rather not. Pirates are treacherous and deceptive. There is a lot of drunkenness, portrayed negatively, though the "good guys" also use some alcohol and tobacco themselves. The biggest concern some will have is the violence. Murder is kept at a little more distance, but there are accidental/self-defense deaths and intentional injury up close. Dead bodies are described at length. Peril feels very real. Hanging is mentioned frequently, being the legal penalty for piracy.

Spoiler

The "good guys" do maroon some pleading pirates, because bringing them home to the death penalty seemed cruel. They fire upon pirates in self defense and hold them at gunpoint preemptively.

mscalls's review

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adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A ilha do tesouro, título original Treasure Island, foi uma história que marcou minha infância e adolescência. Meu primeiro contato com a obra de Robert Louis Stevenson foi quando tinha mais ou menos 11 anos de idade através do filme de 1950 com Bobby Driscoll. Na época fiquei com um crush em Jim Hawkins, protagonista da história. Foi também a primeira vez que vi e entendi que uma criança/adolescente poderia se machucar de verdade numa aventura. A partir daí assisti a maioria das adaptações da obra para filme e durante a adolescência li uma adaptação em português paradidática. Lembro que na época não achei essa adaptação para adolescentes muito boa então sempre senti que não realmente li a obra como devia ser lida. Agora adulta resolvi concertar esse erro e li A Ilha do Tesouro em sua forma original. Foi uma sensação doce-amarga pois, estando com 41 anos a obra não atinge o meu senso de aventura como atingiu aos 11 anos, sem falar que ter crush em Jim Hawkins já não é mais apropriado, mas eu ainda tenho muito carinho por essa história e memórias relacionadas a ela que vão além do livro físico. Amo os personagens de Jim e Long John Silver, pirata ambíguo e imprevisível, e seu fiel papagaio, Capitão Flint. Não tenho certeza e posso estar errada, mas acredito que de Long John e Capitão Flint se popularizou o estereotipo de “papagaio de pirata”. A ilha do tesouro me apresentou a atmosfera das histórias de pirata e essa atmosfera se tornou uma das minhas preferidas. Amo obras como One Piece e Piratas do Caribe e foi A Ilha do Tesouro a primeira a me mostrar quão empolgante podem ser a vibe e as histórias de piratas. Não tenho reais críticas a obra, apesar de saber que esta não é perfeita. Os únicos pontos fracos que posso apontar foi a conversa técnica sobre navios e como navega-los, vocabulário o qual não me é familiar. O dialogo dos piratas foi um pouco mais difícil de compreender pois era inglês antigo extremamente informal, porém nada que impediu a compreensão da história. Outro ponto que é mais de gosto pessoal é que o narrador do Audiobook era americano e precisei me acostumar a ouvir um livro que é sobre personagens ingleses com vocabulário britânico narrado em sotaque americano. Isso foi um pouco desconcertante, mas suponho que é melhor que ouvir o narrador tentar um sotaque britânico mal executado. A Ilha do Tesouro em resumo tem uma excelente aventura e atmosfera com personagens memoráveis que marcaram minha juventude. Mesmo sabendo que o livro objetivamente não é perfeito a nostalgia me impede de dar menos que 5 estrelas.

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