Treasure Island
Jim Hawkins is a naïve lad who, by chance, befriends a nefarious sailor while he is staying at the inn Jim’s family owns. In a flash the young boy finds himself caught up in pirates’ murderous plotting and a hunt for treasure. Will Jim survive the high seas, swashbuckling buccaneers, and the infamous Long John Silver?
Although I have read Treasure Island in the past, this Audible Original had a full cast of voices and was perfect for my PopSugar challenge of “a retelling of a classic.” In the past I had thought this book was just alright…kind of that middle of the road classic tale. With this high quality production, I feel like the story was truly brought to life; the characters had more depth and were easier to follow. The thing I had the hardest time with was Jim, as he was a fucking idiot of a child. I don’t know how many times you can run into strangers who are quite obviously scary-ass pirates and still get within arms length of them so that they can grab you and torture information out of you (for Jim, at least…it was several times…and I’m not so sure he learned his lesson until the end of the book. #fartootrusting). I will say, this is also one of the only books where at the end I’m still not sure if I’m for or against the villain. One the one hand, I think he is one of the worst scoundrels in all of the classics. He does an amazing job of lying so well that you really never know which side he will land on. On the other hand, I think he might be a fairly good guy who had a lot of hard knocks in life and ended up in the life of a pirate who is willing to bend the rules in order to take care of himself at all costs. Who’s to say?
In the end, I would recommend this to people who love reading the classics, to anyone who loves a good treasure hunt, or to those who loved the Disney adaptation Treasure Planet and are ready to read the original tale.
Malia's Pizza Rating
Tucked away cheese pizza – Ben Gunn’s favorite!