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A review by justabean_reads
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
2019 Review:
Or rather: Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The only Stevenson I'd previously read was The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde for school. But I thought, Oh hey, Victorian YA that's supposed to be slashy, that sounds fun. I think I had it conflated with Treasure Island though.
About a third of the way in, I was messaging my wife, "This is not slashy. There are no pirates. No one's been kidnapped. Why is everyone Scottish? What is this book?"
Fortunately right after that, the guileless young true heir was packed onto a ship and about to be transported to the Carolinas as an indentured servant (the involuntary kind), and I said out loud, "Murdered by pirates is good."
Shortly following that, the other half of the slash ship showed up, in a ship, and I texted my wife, "Gay or European?"
The rest of the book is the delightful back and forth between the impossibly flamboyant Alan, an honour-obsessed Jacobite and total fop, and the stolidly pragmatic Lowlander David who just wants to go home, man, but is also a little bit falling in love. This includes fleeing across the heather, constantly sharing the one coat they have to sleep under, sparring practice, fainting, illness, faking fatal illness to resolve an argument, screaming arguments about honour, challenges to duels, and a lot of h/c. It's total tropes with id sauce for the last third. If I'd read this when I was 12, I'd have imprinted on it like a baby chicken.
There's also like politics and stuff, but who cares?
2023 Review:
Reread following watching the play more times than is healthy. Book still great. I also appreciated the early chapters more than I did the first time around because I wasn't wondering when the the action to kick off, though I still found the front third a little draggy. This time, I especially appreciated all the humour, and fun character sketches of people we meet along the way. All the bits with Alan are of course a complete delight, and I will never get tired of the flight over the heather sequences. David also struck me as more of a brat than he did the first time, especially in the Mull to Appin section where he's the worst kind of travel writer who hates the locals. Though it was also more starkly political and sympathetic to the highlanders, in terms of the suffering loss of language and culture (Davie might be judging everyone, but he also feels bad for them). I'd forgotten how abrupt and gutting the ending was.
Or rather: Kidnapped: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: How he was Kidnapped and Cast away; his Sufferings in a Desert Isle; his Journey in the Wild Highlands; his acquaintance with Alan Breck Stewart and other notorious Highland Jacobites; with all that he Suffered at the hands of his Uncle, Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws, falsely so-called: Written by Himself and now set forth by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The only Stevenson I'd previously read was The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde for school. But I thought, Oh hey, Victorian YA that's supposed to be slashy, that sounds fun. I think I had it conflated with Treasure Island though.
About a third of the way in, I was messaging my wife, "This is not slashy. There are no pirates. No one's been kidnapped. Why is everyone Scottish? What is this book?"
Fortunately right after that, the guileless young true heir was packed onto a ship and about to be transported to the Carolinas as an indentured servant (the involuntary kind), and I said out loud, "Murdered by pirates is good."
Shortly following that, the other half of the slash ship showed up, in a ship, and I texted my wife, "Gay or European?"
The rest of the book is the delightful back and forth between the impossibly flamboyant Alan, an honour-obsessed Jacobite and total fop, and the stolidly pragmatic Lowlander David who just wants to go home, man, but is also a little bit falling in love. This includes fleeing across the heather, constantly sharing the one coat they have to sleep under, sparring practice, fainting, illness, faking fatal illness to resolve an argument, screaming arguments about honour, challenges to duels, and a lot of h/c. It's total tropes with id sauce for the last third. If I'd read this when I was 12, I'd have imprinted on it like a baby chicken.
There's also like politics and stuff, but who cares?
2023 Review:
Reread following watching the play more times than is healthy. Book still great. I also appreciated the early chapters more than I did the first time around because I wasn't wondering when the the action to kick off, though I still found the front third a little draggy. This time, I especially appreciated all the humour, and fun character sketches of people we meet along the way. All the bits with Alan are of course a complete delight, and I will never get tired of the flight over the heather sequences. David also struck me as more of a brat than he did the first time, especially in the Mull to Appin section where he's the worst kind of travel writer who hates the locals. Though it was also more starkly political and sympathetic to the highlanders, in terms of the suffering loss of language and culture (Davie might be judging everyone, but he also feels bad for them). I'd forgotten how abrupt and gutting the ending was.