Voyage of the Damned by Frances White is a standalone debut novel published in 2024.

Genre:

Fantasy

Subgenres:

Young Adult, Queer Romance, Murder Mystery

Opening Line:

My father always said: ‘You can’t run from your responsibilities,’ but he lacks imagination.

My Thoughts:

Confession: I bought this book solely because of how pretty it was.

Now that VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED by Frances White is a nominee in two categories of the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards, I picked it up from my TBR stack. For the first chapter or two, I didn’t think it was going to be my jam, but I did wind up enjoying it quite a bit for what it was.

This book is YA Gideon the Ninth.

The young scions of each of the twelve provinces of the empire of Concordia are stuck on a ship with one another when they start dying mysteriously one by one. Each of them has their own special power (Blessing), as well as a hair and eye color based on their province (i.e. all people from Ox Province have red hair and red eyes, while everyone from Tiger Province has blue hair, etc.). The super snarky underdog queer main character has to figure out what’s really going on in this locked room murder mystery with magic.

This book thinks it is adult (and it is a nominee in the Fantasy category of the Goodreads Choice Awards, not Young Adult Fantasy), and so there are F-bombs and other curse words sprinkled throughout, plus plenty of sexual innuendo. But the tone and writing style were very young adult. I thought the main character was a teenager, until a good while in he tells someone he is twenty-two and a quarter. You know who describes their age using quarters? Children. All of the other characters are of a similar age and act pretty young.

The worldbuilding does not stand up to any amount of scrutiny whatsoever. But as long as you’re willing to just take it at its word and enjoy the ride, this is a fun story with lots of magic and murder, and a queer romance to boot. And that’s just what I was able to do – not question things too much, and have a good time!