Book Review: Voyage of the Damned

Last year I was at Barnes & Noble and saw Voyage of the Damned by Frances White on the table with some sign about it being a TikTok sensation. I had never heard of it, but was drawn to the cover and the synopsis sounded interesting, so I bought it on a whim. I finally read it over the past week and loved it! It made it into my June Favorites list.

The book was so entertaining, unique, and unlike anything I’ve read before. In this fantasy novel, the country or world the characters live in is called Concordia and it is made up of 12 provinces. Each province has a leader who is blessed by the Goddess to have a special power. Typically, the power passes from parent to child. Every year the 12 blessed travel on a ship for 12 days to the Goddess’s Mountain.

The main character, Ganymedes or Dee, is from Fish Province and looked down upon by the upper provinces. He is not ambitious or ruthless like many of the other blessed. In fact, he’d rather not be there at all and tries to irritate the others enough to be kicked off the ship. But before he can try to sabotage himself further, one of the blessed – the Emperor’s daughter – is murdered. Now everyone on board is a suspect. As Dee tries to solve the murder, more and more blessed begin dying mysterious deaths. Can he solve the murders, and keep himself alive, before they reach the end of the voyage?

This book was a really fun read and Dee was hilarious. I loved his sense of humor and his friendship/how he took care of little 6 year old Grasshopper. The mystery was really interesting and I couldn’t figure out who was behind everything since everyone seemed so suspicious!

Read this if you want a fantasy book with a light hearted, comedic, murder mystery and LGBTQ+ representation!

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