This novel has been on my "to read" list for quite some time, and I am SO glad I finally picked it up. This is absolutely the best coming-of-age story I have read; it's perfect, really. ( )

This is one of the best books I have ever fucking read. Don't even read this review... Just go read the book already! Then you can come back and read the rest of this review.

First of all the subject matter cannot be better: pirates, kids, pigs, monkeys, goats, earthquakes, hurricanes, clue-less adults.

Secondly, it's the language, stupid! The language is so fucking great. Hughes sometimes forms the most un-intelligeable sentences with the weirdest fucking words, but string them up in a way that gets across something you wouldn't get with a sensible one.

Next, the narrator: he is so funny. He's always coming in at odd times to tell us his opinion, but rarely outright. He's subtle about it.

Also, the book is full of surprises. Every other chapter presents a weird twist. But it's not a plot-heavy book, by that I mean it doesn't rely on the plot or the twists to make it good. Considering the 500-pages worth of shit that happens in this 200-page book, it is surprisingly leisurely and pleasantly aimless in its plot, until closer to the end.

This book is brilliantly crafted to lull you into one state while shocking you constantly out of it.

This book resists to the very end in giving you the sentimentalism you want, in giving in to your pre-conceived ideas of how things should be. And for that it is pure genius.

This book is entertaining in that page-turning way, to the highest degree.

This book is often laugh out loud funny.

This book does not moralize. It is light reading, but also very heavy if you want to read into it. But most of all, it is light.

There is no lull in this book. It goes straight through. ( )

I had been meaning to read this 1928 classic (not that I read many classics) ever since hearing a glowing review of it on NPR's All Things Considered.
I nearly gave up when I had difficulty slogging through the post-colonial references and the British slang, but about 50 pages in I got hooked.
The story concerns a band of children who find themselves guests on a pirate vessel after the ship is highjacked that they're aboard while being evacuated from a dismal Jamaica to an England that only one of them even vaguely remembers. Stereotypes about childhood innocence (and piratical villainy) are smashed as we peer into the selfish minds of these kids.
It's been many years since I read Lord of the Flies, but I suspect this book is far more disturbing than that one was. ( )

I absolutely loved this book. My comments don't have any special insight others have not noticed, but the juxtaposition of the childhood innocence with piracy sucked me in quickly and kept me there. The book is so rich it almost drips with emotion and fantastic descriptions of the surroundings. You don't see the events through the eyes of the children, but you have a vivid understanding of how they perceive things around them.

Here's a quote from early in the book that I thought represented the spirit of the story:

"They soon came near him: where an orange tree loaded with golden fruit gleamed dark and bright in the moonlight, veiled in the pinpoint scintillation of a thousand fire-flies sat the old black saint among the branches, talking loudly, drunkenly, and confidentially with God." ( )

Disappointing. My book group read it because we saw it on a list of 100 Best of the 20th century; not even a contender in my view. None of the characters were even likable and it was no Lord of the Flies for psychological tension among kids. Nope. It just didn't work for me. Sorry to those who love it. ( )