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sassmistress's review against another edition
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.
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: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death of parent, and Colonisation
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.rcsreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Read aloud for bedtime. I quite liked it but the children thought it long and boring and Tabby actively hated it.
There was some racist language I had to edit as I read, including the N word.
There was some racist language I had to edit as I read, including the N word.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
olivertrumann's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment
mscalls's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol
seanml's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Well, it was exactly as you might expect. Pirates, parrots, treasure, yar-har and rum. And like all books written back then, it ends very suddenly in a handful of pages. But it’s a kids’ book, so there’s no reason to expect a metaphysical masterpiece. This is about talking parrots and captains named Billy Bones. 7.5/10.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Racism, Torture, Blood, and Alcohol
lucinotlucy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, and Colonisation
major_tom's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
4.5
This is a very nice, even classic adventure story. I rarely read anything in this genre and I loved this book. The plot is interesting, the characters are well-written and funny, the writing is light and descriptive without becoming overbearing. I enjoyed the main character - IMO, he was described quite realistically, being a teenage boy with all the flawed thinking.
Overall, it’s a very light read, if you want to go into a short pirate adventure with a young, self-assured boy and other strongly opinionated characters.
P.S. To be honest, I picked up this book because I was wondering how much of it, if anything at all, inspired the Treasure Planet cartoon lol.
Overall, it’s a very light read, if you want to go into a short pirate adventure with a young, self-assured boy and other strongly opinionated characters.
P.S. To be honest, I picked up this book because I was wondering how much of it, if anything at all, inspired the Treasure Planet cartoon lol.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism
elwirax's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
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
3.5
*3.5/5
I don't think I ever read "Treasure Island" as a kid but what I did do was watch Disney's "Treasure Planet" and since then it has been my favourite Disney "comfort" movie. I only recently realised that the animated movie was inspired by this books so I had to read it. I definitely don't regret that decision (there are worse classics out there).
PROS:
The first half of this book was quite slow, however, part 5 and 6 were quite fast paced and definitely the most enjoyable.
I liked Jim's character, since this is technically a children's book it makes sense that the protagonist would be younger. He was a great character who had to face a lot of tough situations such as being surrounded by calllous pirates, murder and the fight for survival.
My favourite character by far was Long John Silver as he seemed the most complex to me. I liked that despite the double crossing he chose to stand by Jim's side at the end when all the other pirates wanted to kill him (to be fair it was to save himself from the gallows but such are the ways of morally grey characters).
What annoys me most about classics is that they'll ramble on and describe things for 100 pages straight and call it a day. In this case, Stevenson's use of word choice was enough to allow me to visualise the scenes but not overwritten to the point I lost interest.
CONS:
There were a few parts that I found bothersome namely the racism. Even with the understanding that "Treasure Island" like most other classics was written at a time when thoughts on race were much different than they are now, as a modern reader I hate reading such comments in literature altogether. It particularly bothered me when Trelawney assumed that the reason Silver was always sailing was because he was married to a Black woman.
Although there was definitely action and adventure I didn't really feel the excitement of this until the last 2 parts which is ironic. As well as this I didn't really like many of the decisions made in this book by the adults.
I think I would've appreciated the story much more had I read it at a younger age. However, Stevenson did a great job of combining more mature aspects such as the grim imagery, the drinking and murder with fun characters and looking for treasure to appeal to both younger and older audiences. Hence as a whole this was still quite an enjoyable read (minus the racism of course).
I don't think I ever read "Treasure Island" as a kid but what I did do was watch Disney's "Treasure Planet" and since then it has been my favourite Disney "comfort" movie. I only recently realised that the animated movie was inspired by this books so I had to read it. I definitely don't regret that decision (there are worse classics out there).
PROS:
The first half of this book was quite slow, however, part 5 and 6 were quite fast paced and definitely the most enjoyable.
I liked Jim's character, since this is technically a children's book it makes sense that the protagonist would be younger. He was a great character who had to face a lot of tough situations such as being surrounded by calllous pirates, murder and the fight for survival.
My favourite character by far was Long John Silver as he seemed the most complex to me. I liked that despite the double crossing he chose to stand by Jim's side at the end when all the other pirates wanted to kill him (to be fair it was to save himself from the gallows but such are the ways of morally grey characters).
What annoys me most about classics is that they'll ramble on and describe things for 100 pages straight and call it a day. In this case, Stevenson's use of word choice was enough to allow me to visualise the scenes but not overwritten to the point I lost interest.
CONS:
There were a few parts that I found bothersome namely the racism. Even with the understanding that "Treasure Island" like most other classics was written at a time when thoughts on race were much different than they are now, as a modern reader I hate reading such comments in literature altogether. It particularly bothered me when Trelawney assumed that the reason Silver was always sailing was because he was married to a Black woman.
Although there was definitely action and adventure I didn't really feel the excitement of this until the last 2 parts which is ironic. As well as this I didn't really like many of the decisions made in this book by the adults.
I think I would've appreciated the story much more had I read it at a younger age. However, Stevenson did a great job of combining more mature aspects such as the grim imagery, the drinking and murder with fun characters and looking for treasure to appeal to both younger and older audiences. Hence as a whole this was still quite an enjoyable read (minus the racism of course).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Racism, Blood, and Alcohol
machenn's review against another edition
adventurous
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
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Blood, and Alcohol
karenaerts's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Minor: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Blood, and Murder