Under The Jolly Roger: Being An Account Of The Further Nautical Adventures Of Jacky Faber (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
After a long hiatus, I finally got my hands on the next book of the Bloody Jack series! If you forgot what it's about, you can read my reviews of book one and book two here.Before I even talk about the book, can I just say that's it's getting tough to figure out the order of the books? "The adventures of..." was clearly the first, and "The further adventures" is clearly the second, but it gets confusing from this book onwards. I basically had to search for the list of books page (which didn't even give numbers) to try to guess that this was the third book. Thank goodness for the Internet, which will have things like "Bloody Jack #1/2/3/4/etc"In the third book, Jacky has been kicked out of the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls, and goes back to London to find Jaimy. Unfortunately, due a series of unfortunate coincidences, she gets the impression that Jaimy is faithless and runs away, getting press-ganged and embarking on a new adventure, eventually leading into our dear Jacky becoming a Privateer. Don't worry, I didn't give away any spoilers.Under the Jolly Roger is as wacky as the first two, and probably has more drama than the rest. At times, Jacky comes close to being a Mary Sue, what with how perfect a sailor she can be, but thankfully she messes up on a regular basis. This book has a lot of great supporting characters too - Jacky's 'father' from the first book returns, and then there's Higgins, who is like the perfect butler, and who I hope will appear in many many more books.My only complaint about the book is that I'm starting to get sick of the Jacky/Jaimy romance thing. Jaimy is a nice boy, but they haven't met in ages! They don't even get the letters they send each other! And in this book, Jacky has what can be called romances, with another boy, and I was really rooting for them. Sometimes, I feel like Jaimy only exists to let the reader know how other people apart from Jacky are doing - sometimes, Jacky leaves people behind, and Jaimy's letters let us know what happens (and what is going to happen to Jacky, sometimes).I'm still enjoying this series. I can't say it's the perfect series (see the paragraph above), but I'm having a lot of fun reading it, and I'll definitely continue reading.This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile
Review of Under the Jolly Roger By: L.A. Meyer4 of 5 starsJacky and I have what you would call a love/hate relationship. At times I love her, but at others I just kind of want to punch her in the face for her rash decisions! And this is actually a good thing, every book needs one of those characters that annoy you sometimes, it makes it a good book. I have loved this series for a while now, okay so maybe for only a year or two, and I am currently rereading them. When I got to this one (the third in the series) it really reminded me why this one was and still is my least favorite of the series. I mean for the most part I really did like the book, with the exception of two things. One, Jacky being her usual rash self when she ran away from the horse races at the beginning of the book. My original thoughts were that she should just go and punch the chick, though looking back on that after finishing the book, that probably would not have been the best idea. I mean, Mrs. Fletcher already hates Jacky so punching Jaimy’s cousin probably would not be the best way to win his mom’s favor…anyways. Also, she gets mad at Jaimy for being at a horse race with another girl, but she goes and let’s Robin kiss her and what not and almost “gives herself” to him. I guess I can sympathize, she thought Jaimy didn’t love her, but still she just goes and finds another guy like right away.The second thing that really annoyed me was how Jacky pretended to the captain’s (for lack of a better work to mean the equivalent of a boy toy) gal pal. I don’t know, the fact that she pretended to do it with him for several days in a row just annoyed the heck out of me, especially since she knew how it affected those that loved here (AKA Robin).But besides those two things I enjoyed the book. And the rest of the series is amazing too.
What do You think about Under The Jolly Roger: Being An Account Of The Further Nautical Adventures Of Jacky Faber (2010)?
It hits me with the force of a blow. I am maybe fifteen years old. I am a girl. I am also an acting lieutenant in the Royal Navy and by as regards the chain of command, I am in command of the Majesty's Ship Wolverine.Continues where Curse of the Blue Tattoo left off where we have Jacky going to see Jaimy first at his house but is greeted unkindly by his mother and later is shocked to find Jaimy with another woman. It isn't what it looks like cause before Jaimy can explain, Jacky runs away finding herself kidnapped and is sent on a ship the Wolverine thanks to her disguise hence being mistaken as a boy. On the ship she reveals herself to being a girl but the captain still doesn't let her go. Now Jacky's on her own but while on the ship she remembers what she had learned on the Dolphin and gets some of the crew to her side while staying as far away from the captain as possible. This got to be one of the best in the series so far. It shows that Jacky has come along way from a girl on the streets to a sailor. The ending leaves you at a cliffhanger, onto book 4.
—Nidah (SleepDreamWrite)
It's nice to have Jacky Faber back where she belongs, which is raising hell on the decks of a British warship. Her adventures sometimes verge on unbelievable, and I think Meyer knows it -- how else to explain the cameos from Moby Dick and Treasure Island? -- but the descriptions of life at sea and seamanship are detailed and as far as I know accurate. Meyer also excels at pulling in not only the history of the time, but the history that the characters are aware of, such as the Irish queen (and possible pirate) Grace O'Malley. As you might imagine, O'Malley turns out to be quite an inspiration to Jacky in the later parts of the book, when Jacky has a set of Irish pirates of her very own...
—Chris Aylott
Jacky's back on deck! The Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber might have actually surpassed the original, in my estimation. Talk about girl power on the high seas! Everything that was great about Bloody Jack, plus a little wisdom and maturity (if you don't count a bit of rash decision-making toward the beginning--but what is Jacky, if not impetuous?). Lovely old Liam returns, plus some fantastic new characters. Military history buffs will love the grand finale of this installment.Stand and deliver, boys!
—Meg Mcconk
