Sometimes a nation's economy is so poor it relies on thievery. Somalia is notorious for piracy to bring money to its people. Iain Lawrence takes a look at a different sort of piracy, that of wrecking ships to loot them. Using false lights, the people who live on the island of Pendennis lure lost ships to "The Tombstones," where the ships are wrecked and their loot free for anyone on Pendennis to grab. What a terrifying position it would be on that ship, and that's the position Lawrence puts the reader in his debut fiction novel, The Wreckers. This is a story with plenty of adventure and mystery to satisfy readers.It just so happens that the first time fourteen-year-old John Spencer's father allows him to take a ride on his ship, the Isle of Skye, is also the time the Isle of Skye is wrecked. John survives the wreck and lays dazed as he watches the people who live on the island, those he believes are there to rescue him, kill one of the crew members of the Isle of Skye. John flees, chased by the wreckers, and is pulled into a hiding place by a man with no legs named Stumps. Stumps, John learns, has John's father held prisoner on the belief that the Isle of Skye smuggled gold.Eventually the wreckers do catch up with John. A man named Caleb Stratton intends to kill John, but another, more powerful man, named Simon Mawgan instead takes John in. Even under the safety of Mawgan, John feels uneasy. There seems to be something sinister about Mawgan, and Mawgan seems to have other motives in holding onto John. Mawgan doesn't believe John that the Isle of Skye has no gold, only cheap wine in its holds. Why then was there sawdust? Why then was the cargo loaded in the dark? All is not bad for John, however. He meets a friend in Mawgan's niece, Mary, who shows him around the island.Much of the tension revolves around who John can trust and what the wreckers plan to do with him, as well as whether his father is still alive. Lawrence sets the stakes early when he shows the wreckers killing off survivors, so the reader knows the threats to John's life are not idle. In the end the story isn't all that difficult to predict, but it's well-told and never dull. Lawrence's greatest creation is probably Mawgan, who is shrouded in mystery. At times he seems full of evil, and at other times he seems genuinely good, as his niece claims. Those who enjoy a good adventure will want to give this a read.
SUSPENSE CATEGORYLawrence's tale is as dark and brooding and dangerous as the crashing sea that surrounds the coast of Cornwall. The main character, John Spencer, is taking his very first sea voyage with his father on one of their merchant vessels. After a mysterious night loading mysterious cargo in the dark, the crew finds themselves in dangerous waters during a storm. Seeing a light, they follow the beacon, only to find themselves trapped in a treacherous cove full of cliffs and jagged rocks. After the ship crashes, men come down and kill the survivors. John barely escapes, and takes refuge with a man named Simon Mawgan, who seems at times friendly and jovial, and at other times furious and dangerous. John soon learns that the villagers depend on shipwrecks for food, furniture, lumber, and other daily necessities and luxuries. Simon's house is grandly decorated with the plunder of shipwrecks. With the help of Simon's niece, Mary, John manages to save his father and uncover the true mysteries behind this deadly village.While the book was engaging and the mystery was intriguing, I felt like the voice of the book was too forced at times. The pirate-y, semi-Scottish pilgrim voice of the narration felt occasionally labored and fake. Also, the characters left me feeling unsatisfied. While the twist ending tried to tie up loose ends and explain the characters' dark motives, it just wasn't satisfactory. I suppose the tale was just a little too dark for my tastes, and the characters seemed blind-sided and selfish and greedy and immoral. While the killing may end, we can still expect that the villagers will pray for a wreck every time they see a ship on the horizon, so they can profit from other people's pain. This book is best suited for boys interested in ships and tales of the sea with an extra dose of murder, intrigue, suspense, and, as the back cover states, "a village bred by evil."
What do You think about The Wreckers (1999)?
Wow! What a book! It's so exciting when a book blows me away - it may not be the best book I've ever read, or something that I would adore if I'd known about it going into it, but this was entirely unexpected and I loved it. It's definitely one of the darkest books I've read (in the first couple of chapters, a ship is wrecked on a coast by villagers who lured it there by false harbor lights, a teenaged boy is chased by villagers who want to kill him to eliminate any survivors, and he encounters a man that seems to glide along the ground in the darkness until he realizes the man has no legs and uses his arms to push himself on a little wheeled platform - OH MY GOSH SO TERRIFYING!). It's incredibly graphic for a historical YA novel, but the atmosphere is some of the best I've ever read. It's not a pleasant read by any means, but it's so well done!
—Ann
Written for young adult readers, this is an adventure from the high seas. Along the coasts of Southern England, live people who after dangerous storms seek out the wreckage of sailing ships on the beaches to salvage for profit. In one such town, the inhabitants go even further by luring the ships onto dangerous shoals and killing any crewmen that manage to make it to shore alive. A young first time sailor, John Spencer, is one of the survivors of the wreck of his ship. Although he lives through the storm and wreck, can he escape the murderous townspeople?
—Kristen
I assigned this book as summer reading because I have a few reluctant boy readers in my class and I knew they would want something short, but I have to say that I was totally sucked into this book myself! John Spencer is accompanying his father on a trip aboard his father's trading ship when the ship wrecks on the coast near Cornwall. The crew is either killed in the wreck or murdered by the locals, John's father is missing (or held hostage?) and John is alternately chased by men with knives and rescued by a local landowner who may or may not have caused the wreck in the first place. This book has plenty of adventure and violence, and I'd be surprised if my reluctant readers didn't happily finish this book.
—Lea
