Abandoned Ship – the reader (Traci Chee)

It is time to abandon ship me mateys!

the reader (Traci Chee)

I so wanted to love this book and yet all I can say is meh.  While I liked the main character, Sefia and her side-kick Archer, it was soooo boring.  All Sefia basically did was wander around in the woods forever.  I hate that trope in fantasy novels.  Even the passages in the novel about pirates didn’t make me happy.  And for this blog, that is really saying something.  This novel was so hyped and loved and here I am again with an unpopular opinion.  I know I made it through more than half way but then let it sit.  Then me rental expired.  Then I waited for a while for it to be available.  Then got it again.  Then tried three more times to get back into it.  Then it expired again with me having only explored another handful of pages.  Bah!  Pirates, assassins, magic, a book within a book, two somewhat interesting main characters, and yet no major plot to speak of.  So abandoned it be.

The author’s website has this to say about the novel:

A stunning debut set in a world where reading is unheard-of, perfect for fans of Inkheart and Shadow and Bone

Sefia knows what it means to survive. After her father is brutally murdered, she flees into the wilderness with her aunt Nin, who teaches her to hunt, track, and steal. But when Nin is kidnapped, leaving Sefia completely alone, none of her survival skills can help her discover where Nin’s been taken, or if she’s even alive. The only clue to both her aunt’s disappearance and her father’s murder is the odd rectangular object her father left behind, an object she comes to realize is a book—a marvelous item unheard of in her otherwise illiterate society. With the help of this book, and the aid of a mysterious stranger with dark secrets of his own, Sefia sets out to rescue her aunt and find out what really happened the day her father was killed—and punish the people responsible.

With overlapping stories of swashbuckling pirates and merciless assassins, The Reader is a brilliantly told adventure from an extraordinary new talent.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Traci Chee – Author

To buy the book go:

the reader – Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List