Bloody Jack bu L.A. Meyer (2002)

Bloody Jack: Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy is considered a historical novel. I originally thought it was young adult, but though in this book Jacky is a kid, my sense is she grows up throughout the series, and I plan to get through much of the series, though 12 is a lot.

Mary loses her parents to the plague, lives out on the streets for a while, and then puts on a dead boys clothes and gets taken on a ship as a ship's boy- Jack. Here she hangs out with the other ship boys, but likes Jaimy the best. When she starts showing womanly characteristics, she has to work to hide them. She gets her nickname because she is brave and ends up killing a couple of people during the course of this book. The character of Jacky is great, I love her spunk, her curiosity (she can read and reads whatever she can find), her conversations with God or fate.

As a historical novel of the 1790's, I enjoyed getting a better sense of what it was like on a big ship with hundreds of men - how they occupied themselves, the different roles on the ship, what happens when their ship is damaged. It is like a village in an of itself with various tradesmen. They spend a lot of time practicing war maneuvers, so when they actually have to face pirates, everyone knows their place. I did not realize that there would be a school on the ship for the midshipmen, where Jacky would help out, but that the teacher was also into experimentation - with a kite of some sort.

Looking forward to the next, though my audio store doesn't have it, so I ordered it in print.