Review – Steel by Carrie Vaughn (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: March 13th, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0061956508
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars
I have enjoyed a lot of Carrie Vaugh’s books and have had this book on my shelf to read for a while. There honestly wasn’t a lot to this story; it was very simple and straight-forward and completely predictable.
Jill is a champion fencer and is depressed after losing an important match. Her family decides to go on vacation to Nassau in an effort to cheer everyone up. While wandering the beach alone Jill finds the tip of an old rapier. Then while on a touristy pirate cruise with her family a freak storm pops up and Jill ends up going overboard. When she wakes up she is in the past, on a genuine pirate ship. Jill ends up joining the crew (she doesn’t have a lot of options) and finds out that the magic that brought her here is dark indeed. Jill struggles to find a way home while doing her best to survive both day to day pirate life and chilling battles.
This was a very simple story. The whole thing was incredibly predictable and could have been told in a paragraph. There really aren’t any plot twists or unexpected turns in the story. It was a quick read as well.
I liked that there is a lot of history about pirates in here. Jill is also a very good fencer so there is a lot about fencing. At times though the story took a backseat to all historical descriptions.
The writing was also very simple and written at a pretty simple reading level. Not a lot of complex sentences or description; just very cut and dry.
I liked Jill fine and thought some of the details in Nassau were interesting. However, mostly the story was forgettable.
Overall a quick read and okay. I just don’t have much to say about it. The story is very simple and predictable. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend unless you are interested in learning a little bit about the history of Nassau (not much history but some).
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge