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Oct 17, 2013JCLChrisK rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
"Nobody lived on Deadweather but us and the pirates," this book opens, the "us" being the family that owns the ugly fruit plantation with labor provided by ex-pirates too mutilated to earn any other living. Egbert is the youngest in the family, which means he has spent his life being the smallest, weakest, most abused person in his world. Fortunately--or not, depending on your perspective--he knows that his world is not the entire world because he has discovered the joy of reading and devoured every book he's encountered. The greater world seems a much kinder, more exciting place than his meager, maltreated life on his isolated island. ----- "I'd always consoled myself, when I dreamed about life outside of Deadweather, with the thought that somewhere there were better, more civilized people, who wouldn't turn into a pack of snarling dogs because a man who was good with words had whipped them into a frenzy." ----- Egbert's isolation comes to an end the day his father makes some sort of discovery, and he finds himself testing his theory about better, more civilized people in the countless situations of danger and peril that he is thrown. Egg's tale begins slowly--though from the start he narrates it with a subtle, sophisticated wit--then eventually rewards the patient reader with a rousing adventure of piracy, greed, love, and noble sacrifices. He's a true underdog and a pleasure to root for. I'm excited to read the next chapter of his chronicles.