Title: Curse of the Blue Tattoo:
Series: Bloody Jack Adventures, book 2
Author: L A Meyer
Narrator: Katherine Kellgren
Copyright: 2008, Listen and Live Audio
Duration: 14 hours, 13 minutes
Genres: adventure, historical fiction, young adult
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by Kearney Public Library.
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Jacky Faber, Bloody Jack, is back, and this time, she's facing a situation far worse than a ship full of murderous pirates. Curse of the Blue Tattoo, L. A. Meyer's sequel to the enormously popular Bloody Jack, is just as bawdy and entertaining as the original.
(P)2008 Listen & Live Audio, Inc.
AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: If you’re a fan of old movies, then you may be familiar with a Shirley Temple film titled The Little Princess. Shirley played a little girl who was enrolled in a very fine school for girls while her father went off to war. Since the father was very wealthy, the girl was treated like a princess, but when word came back that her father had been killed, and all of his assets seized, things changed. The little princess was forced to move into the servants quarters and work off the debt she had incurred at the school. The head mistress, the sadistic Miss Minchin, no longer had to pretend to be nice.
In a nutshell, that pretty much sums up Curse of the Blue Tattoo. With the share of the bounty she earned in her high seas adventure, Jackie Faber is enrolled in the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston, in the hopes that she can recover from her errant ways and become a lady. But try as she might, Jackie just can’t seem to fit in with the snooty girls at Lawson Peabody. When she was posing as a boy on board the HMS Dolphin, she loved to play her whistle, sing, and dance, but this type of behavior is apparently frowned upon in Boston. The first time Jackie hikes her skirt up to her knees and begins to dance for some sailors who have just shipped in, she is promptly thrown in jail for lascivious behavior, and showing her “lady parts”, begging your pardon.
Having brought shame on her school, Jackie is stripped of her privileges, forced to move into the servants quarters, and work at the school instead of attending classes. Her money, a small fortune, is held by the sadistic head mistress, Miss Pimm, as a dowry for anyone who may decide to marry Jackie someday. What’s worse is that the school’s preacher, Reverend Mathers, has taken an interest in Jackie, and has begun legal proceedings to adopt her. That doesn’t sound so bad, except that the last girl Reverend Mathers “adopted” ended up first pregnant, then dead. Also, by adopting Jackie, Mathers will gain control of her money.
That all sounds a bit dark, but really Jackie’s frank earnestness and lively spirit make her a real joy to read about. She never lets her situation get her down. When forced to become a servant, Jackie promptly rolled up her sleeves and went to work. When Reverend Mathers tries to convince her that she is possessed by a devil, she looks him right in the eye and tells him that as far as she knows, singing and dancing are not a sin. This is one girl who is not afraid to speak her mind, never backs down, and is always ready to spark up a tune on her trusty whistle.
The more I hear of Katherine Kellgren’s narration, the more I appreciate how talented she is. Curse of the Blue Tattoo is a rather whimsical story, calling for some rather whimsical characters, and Kellgren is spot on with her voices. She is totally convincing as the cockney accented Jackie, the haughty Mistress Pimm, or the blustering constable Wiggins who talks a little bit like Elmer Fudd. She also has no trouble at all with various British, Scottish, French, or American dialects. On top of all that, whenever Jackie is in the mood to sing a tune, which is pretty often, Kellgren’s voice rings out true and clear. I can’t imagine a better choice for the Bloody Jack series than Katherine Kellgren.
Curse of the Blue Tattoo is the second audiobook in the Bloody Jack series, and I am really beginning to enjoy it. The premise of the story is not original, but there are enough interesting elements to make the story fresh. And I never even got around to mentioning Jackie’s true love and fellow HMS Dolphin shipmate, Jamie Fletcher, who I’m hoping might show up to save the day, or Jackie’s new friend Amy Trevelyne, who just might be in a position to help Jackie as well, or Jackie’s budding career as a stage actress. Whew! This is one busy girl. I highly recommend these audiobooks.
CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Audiobook Review)
The Angel Experiment: A Maximum Ride Novel by James Patterson (Audiobook Review)
Bloody Jack by L A Meyer (Audiobook Review)
----------dotted line----------
If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get "Curse of the Blue Tattoo", Bloody Jack Adventures book 2, by L A Meyer (Unabridged Audiobook) from Amazon.com.
This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
Come back soon for more audiobook reviews from AudioBook-Heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment