I'm not usually into murder mysteries, but with the added fantasy vibe I was keen to give this one a try.
Very much enjoyed this book! Would read from this author again for sure!

Voyage of the Damned is a book that started so well. Or, rather, reasonably well. Enjoyably enough well. And then it went rapidly downhill.

When it was going well, it felt a kind of lighthearted mystery (albeit with a fair amount of gruesome murder). The main character is, in the nicest way (also known as I’m failing to find the words I want), a bit of a loser, but sympathetic enough for it. He has no friends, he’s keeping a secret (that he’s not actually the heir to his father), and all he wants is to be released from all responsibilities. Instead, he finds himself on a murder cruise, where every one of the other heirs seems to be dying. Including his ex-best friend.

Like I said, it was all going fine for about the first quarter. But then the middle section was, to be blunt, so fucking boring. There was a lot of repetitiveness. People kept dying, the investigation wasn’t going anywhere, the main character felt like he was being needlessly self-pitying for a lot of it (this was, it has to be said, where my sympathy and patience suddenly ran out). There was no tension and no drive to it and, really, it felt like the only way this would be solved would be because no one would be left alive except the murderers.

In fact, the only way anything came out at all was the stupidest deus ex machina-esque twist that I have read in my entire life. In the interests of not spoiling anything however, I’m going to take this at a different angle. I think the underlying issue here was a failure in worldbuilding. It was weak and generic and that meant that the twist when it came felt less something that made sense within the worldbuilding and more a “oh this can happen now” twist. It’s not clear how these “blessings” (that give heirs to regions a specific magic power, but manifests uniquely to them) really work. There’s no apparent limit on the level of power they could have. Which, I think, is where the nature of my problem with the twist lies. A fantasy magic system where there are no checks on the power just leads to stuff like this. Really the fantasy elements in this book only seem to be there as a way for the characters to deus ex machina their way out of a hole. The investigation is going nowhere. The main character is in no way capable of solving the murder himself, even with the friends he has. In fact, he basically doesn’t solve the murder! It solves itself for him!

The more I read of this book, the more frustrated I got. I had this theory from the start of the who and why, but that was blown out of the water pretty quickly. I do think, though, that it was a better mystery plot than whatever the hell this was. It’s not like this couldn’t have been done well, but here, it absolutely wasn’t done well. And the second aspect of the twist? Just as frustrating as the rest of it! All of it coming down to just how poor the worldbuilding was. And also, it has to be said, how little interest I had in any of the relationships the main character had.

I mean, I had little interest in any of the characters full stop. They were one-note, completely flat and uncompelling. If, on occasion, they showed a little bit of personality or interestingness, it soon disappeared, swamped by the main character’s mediocrity. If the characters had been remotely intriguing, then perhaps I wouldn’t have minded the lack of worldbuilding effort (after all, this is a character-driven story for the most part), but alas. They were as bland as the rest of it.

So, in conclusion, I have to ask exactly why the comparisons to Murder on the Orient Express (besides the obvious, murder cruise/murder train ride) because, oh boy, Agatha Christie this is not.

Five Stars!
Did I have any idea who the murderer was? No. Did I suspect everyone, including the 6 year old child? Yes. Did it go the way I expected it to? Also no.
This is a tightly plotted, intricate and intriguing novel that not only is huge amounts of fun, but also tackles some very important questions around wealth, class and status, and the pervasive, poisonous idea of worth being decided by birth.
It's also absurd in the very best way, with puns galore and a point of view protagonist with Opinions. Also - bunnerflies...
If you like you fantasy mixed with mystery, your magic mixed with class warfare, and your jokes terrible but adorable, this is the book for you.

We need more fantasy murder mysteries. This one was great and wasn’t just And then there were none, which I am always on the look out for when publishers put “like Agatha Christie” in the description (seriously it happens a lot). Also it is a diverse murder mystery so A+

I really enjoyed this book. It has really feisty, vivid, unique characters who all feel really well developed and chaotic af. Ganymedes is just an idiot (said in the most loving way possible), a chaotic bisexual, and kind, which I really needed.

The mystery was unique and kept me hooked. I did made some correct guessed (logged with my best friend as per usual), but they were executed in uniquely different ways than I thought which left me laughing and happily intrigued. Well worth the read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Think Death on the Nile but make it magical.

I adored this book MUCH more than I thought I would going into it! Our MC's humour, sass and character just took this book to the next level. I mean how can you not root for the funny, queer and sarcastic underdog? Voyage of the Damned is filled with murder and mystery but also found family, loyalty, identity and humour this book brought me immense joy, whilst stressing me the HELL OUT. I mean I was constantly worried for this cast of characters!

Voyage of the Damned is a whodunnit but make it magical. Because if there's one thing more difficult than figuring out a who dunnit its when all the suspects have magical but unknown magical blessings! The twists and turns will keep you on the edge of your seat, whilst Dee and the found family he has drawn to his side will make you smile.

An excellent take on the detective story, with a great cross-genre debut. Part ‘And Then There We’re None’, part fantasy epic, part star crossed love story. Loved it.

This was a passionately endearing story that was filled with all sorts of emotion. I recommend this for fans of both genres!

I am not typically a fantasy reader but I was hooked by this pitch as being Agatha Christie adjacent! This was such a fun ride and I can't wait to read the next in the series. More murder mystery fantasy, please!

Death on the Nile meets fantasy and a smug, bastard, funny queer underdog protagonist you can’t help but root for.

The twelve heirs of the providence’s board the Dragon's Dawn ship to travel to the mountain where the Blessing was first bestowed, to give thanks to the Goddess, united once more.

Each blessed is graced with a unique and secret magical ability known as a Blessing. Except Ganymedes, ‘Dee’, a bastard who is forced to lie to everyone about his absent Blessing by his father.
Aboard, the beloved heir is murdered and everyone is a suspect as the murderer strikes again and again.

This is such a fun story filled with immature jokes, found family, longing, queerness, identity, class, loyalty, and discrimination.

Dee is a master of puns and also seems to draw the lost, abandoned souls to him (think Six of Crows). This includes a sickly boy and a six-year old hyper girl.

’We're a package deal.’
‘We're a swarm!' Grasshopper leaps in place.
‘I guess I have a way of picking up strays,’ I say with a meaningful look.

This is a locked door Murder mystery with magic, complicated families, and an empire set to falling apart with rising tensions and a ‘Bandage’ border set to be overrun.
It deals with topics of castes, expectations, disabilities, and prejudices.

Loyalty also meant hate. Indiscriminate, unquestioning hate.

And THAT TWIST? I thought I knew what was coming and thought I’d be kinda disappointed, but whilst I predicted some things, there was something that totally took me by surprise happened and I was like WOAH.

The perfect blend between light-hearted moments and hard-hitting character insights.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for providing an arc in exchange for a review!

I was surprised with how much I loved Voyage of the Damned!
It was an absolute delight to read and I really liked the writing style.

The book also had some great characters! I especially loved Dee as I thought he was a lot of fun and quite sarcastic. I really found him quite relatable.
I was also a big fan of how unique Voyage of the Damned was as I've never read a book that was both a murder mystery and a fantasy.

I definitely highly recommend you check out this book as you won't be dissapointed!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for
an ARC.

The cover and synopsis of this book really drew me in, and it definitely did not disappoint!

I really loved Dee, I thought he was very sarcastic, funny, and relatable! He was so easy to like and helped with the flow of the story.

The other characters in Voyage of the Damned are also very interesting. There are 12 characters involved and throughout the book we are in such close proximity to them — White managed to write them all very cleverly. Each character is unique in every way and it was great to watch them all interact with each other and different scenarios.

There is never an unnecessary or dull moment and the mystery of it all was such a page turner.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for this ARC !

When I saw the cover, then read the synopsis, I knew I wanted to read this book! It checked so many things I like. And I wasn't disappointed!
Dee, the main character, is fun, touching and has a lot going on in his head and in his life. I found him to be a well developed character, rich and interesting to follow as he tries to understand what's going on on the ship. The others characters are interesting too, even if they can seem a bit archetypal at first. But under that layer, they're not, and it's awesome. Grasshoper is my favorite after Dee. There is touch of romance too, present but not overwhelming the rest of the story, which is also a good point ! This romance passes through some hardship and twists, in a nice, surprising way.
The plot is quite simple on the surface. The Blessed of the twelve provinces are reunited on a ship in order to go to an important moutain. Murders start to happen. They have to be solved, and Dee needs to survive. Under that quite simple idea, we have to navigate to politics of the Empire and the relationships between each provinces, suspect everyone (or not) until we can understand what is really going on there. The story has some really nice twists and turns that I didn't see coming (but hoped they would come in a way or another. also, I don't read that many murder mystery, so my deduction skills aren't on point). The author managed to disseminate clues throughout the story, so the reader can pick them up and try to piece them together. I some point I got a piece of the answer to the mystery, but lacked the other. The reveal was nice.
The universe is interesting too, even if it seems a bit archetypal and simple. Each province has an symbolic animal, a type of environment (desert, rainforest, mines...) and give something to the Empire that is more or less unique to them. It didn't bother me because it fitted well with the story and was managed well enough. It's a bit like a video game with different region that contrasts sharply against each other, it has it's charm.
The moral argument through the story (I won't tell them here as not to spoil), are also well managed, present but not overly so. It's balanced and serves the story.
A great experience, that I would gladly reread one day !

Thank you to Francis Whyte and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book the story is set on a ship. 12 blessed rulers to be have to undertake a pilgrimage to the mountains. The main character Dee has a secret everyone on the ship is blessed but he is lying and isn’t blessed. He tries to alienate himself to keep his secret safe but when one of the 12 is dead he investigates the murder meaning he has to get closer to his fellow travellers.
I thought Dee was a brilliant character, he was sarcastic, funny and full of self consciousness. He was so relatable and you couldn’t help liking him. The other characters has differing personalities and we’re well developed. I especially loved the bond with Dee and grasshopper. I felt I understood each character as the book progressed. The story building is really interesting and I hope there is a second book to delve more into this world. I have given this 4 stars only because I guessed the whodunnit halfway through. It was still a page turner but I would have liked more of a shock at the end.

Voyage of the Damned is the debut novel from author Frances White. It is a lgbtqia+, mystery, fantasy standalone story that is scheduled for release on 18th January 2024. A big thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Michael Joseph Publishers for providing me with an early copy of this novel.

Voyage of the Damned follows protagonist Ganymedes Piscero (Dee), heir to the Fish Province, as he's trapped on a twelve-day voyage with the eleven other heirs of the kingdom. But not all is as it seems, everyone has a secret close to their chest - including Dee - and when a beloved heir shows up dead, Dee must fight all his self-doubt to find the murderer before it's too late. White's beautiful world of Concordia simply blends magic gifts, corrupt politics and an incredibly humble hero in a smooth combination of wonder.

I'm going to start this review by talking about the characters in this, as every part of Voyage of the Damned that is so uniquely great, is down to the beautiful protagonist White has created. Dee is a simple boy, with no ego and no aspirations for his life, in fact, he honestly resents it and everything about it. Now, I know a lot of other novels also follow this angle, but the difference with Dee is his lack of self-confidence, worth and motivation. I know that sounds incredibly morbid but White presents Dee in a way that is just stupidly relatable for all of us struggling to understand how to get on with adult life. I know I've definitely experienced every single feeling we see Dee go through and I don't think I've ever read a novel so human to me. Within a few lines, Dee had me giggling and I instantly loved him. I could already tell the kind of person he was and this only grew deeper as the novel progressed.

The other characters in Voyage of the Damned also deserve a huge applause. Writing a novel where 12 characters are in such close proximity the entire time must be so hard, and White just delivered. Each character is unique in their temperaments, motivations, and behaviour, and it's wonderful to see how they all interact and deal with these different types.

There is not a moment in this novel that feels out of place or pointless. The world-building is seamless and logical, making it easy and even fun to learn the ins and outs of these new strange societies. Dee being so blasé and witty in his delivery and the way that important information is delivered piece by piece means that you don't even realise the world-building is happening until it's all just there in your brain. The murder mystery element of the plot is also fantastic, it had me guessing at every turn. I thought I had my suspicions but then I'd get more info and change my mind. The fact that every character also has their own life-changing secrets means you can never quite determine whether you're witnessing something related to the murders or not. It works perfectly to establish that balance of trust and untrustworthy with practically every character you meet.

The pacing of the novel goes hand in hand with the plot but it is just so perfect. There is never an unnecessary moment and yet there is still plenty of time to experience everything. From love to comfort, intrigue to anger and even stress. It's all there just waiting to be delivered in an easy manner and filling you to the brim.

There were so many emotions throughout this novel and I was genuinely shocked by quite a few situations throughout. There is a moment where we get to see some vulnerability of a character, and I was so ready to learn more about them and loving them and then BAM, bad things happen. Also, the simple way love is presented in Voyage of the Damned is beautiful, it is a simplistic but natural progression of getting to know someone and just unintentionally falling, and falling hard. It was just the best warm vibes.

The ending of the novel was a little predictable I must admit, but then what isn't these days? I feel like we all know the protagonist is gonna be important so it's not a surprise when they are. I also found the epilogue a little cheesy but after the drama and the intrigue keeping me on my toes throughout the novel, I'm totally here for a little bit of cheese and resolution. It means I can walk away content and happy, so I can't be mad about it really.

Overall, Voyage of the Damned is not just about the mystery, it's about experiencing that want to live and knowing that everyone deserves a chance to live equally. That moment in life where you can acknowledge that yes, it's shit; yes, you've done wrong; yes, you might not feel worthy but you realise you deserve a life and it's a life deserving of laughter, love and more. And, you not only want that for yourself but for everyone despite what prejudices you have seen since birth. That's what struck me so hard with this book and what I will always carry with me having come away from it.

Anyone looking for a thrilling "who done it" mystery this book is a winner. I would also recommend Voyage of the Damned to people that aren't massive fantasy nerds but want a little bit of magic and a bit of an intro to the genre. I think the novel is better suited to YA and older readers just because of the concepts and the situations we find within the story. I will definitely be recommending this book to many people upon release.

Have you ever wanted the Twelve Districts, but with more anime hair and peppered with humor?

This book started out with a very fun, tongue-in-cheek tone. We meet Ganymedes, aka Dee, a heir no ruler envisages passing their domain to: good-natured but averse to responsibilities, plagued by self-doubt and hiding a secret that makes him unworthy in his own and, he assumes, in everyone else’s eyes. Dee is trying to escape a voyage that is sort of the rite of passage for the next generation of rulers after they all manifest their Blessings. Naturally, he is forced to go despite his best efforts. The voyage will involve (a lot of) murder, romance, self-discovery and a sizable dose of found family - which are all good things, but their execution varies. The things that worked well are, for example, Dee’s voice remains kind and humorous throughout (even if he is a very sentimental person), and the murder plot itself is not that easy to unravel. I can also roll with anime hair and mascots, even though I don’t necessarily understand why every part of Concordia sports landscapes and weather conditions that are so radically different from its neighbors - kind of like those sectors in the Catching Fire arena: you cross the border and boom, it’s a whole new world. I could argue that nature doesn’t work that way, but it’s a fantasy world with superpowers so the argument is moot.

As the book progressed, it started losing momentum for me: first when Dee spent a lot of time in his head. I also definitely didn’t need to learn every heir’s backstory in such amount of detail. But my biggest problem was probably the resolution, which felt rushed for events of such magnitude and contained way too many things I found hard to believe or justify (I have a bullet list of questions, but that would be giving away spoilers, so let me leave it at that).

There are definitely good things and nods to very important ideas in this book, like perpetuated xenophobia and a general discussion of otherness, or the fact that even god-like powers are not enough to remake a world in one day. And in the end, maybe it’s the number of ideas and the scale of each of them that resulted in the story turning out messier and more superficial than I would prefer.

3.5 rounded up to 4. My thanks to #NetGalley for an early copy of #VoyageoftheDamned

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. I enjoyed the unique concept of this book, which is a fantasy/mystery whodunnit death cruise. Characters were well developed, especially the main character Dee who has very relatable issues, The politics of all the provinces and other worldbuilding was handled very well. There were lots of twists and turns and the ending was very satisfying. Very impressive for a debut author! Recommended for those that like mystery / fantasy and the found family troupe.

What a fantastical fantasy adventure. This was a great read and one that was not on my radar originally. Unique concept and great execution. I loved reading this one and I highly it.

Voyage of the Damnd was on my most anticipated reads of 2024! Who wouldn't love the sound of 'Agatha Cristie if she wrote fantasy!' What a fantastic tagline.

I did enjoy Voyage of the Damned following Dee on his disaster voyage for 12 days cooped up on a ship with eleven people who cannot stand the sight of him. In this aspect, I think White has written a very similar tale to Gideon the Ninth and both have familiar themes.

I did read Voyage of the Damned in a couple of days and the plot makes it difficult to put down but I found the writing style slightly jarring and I think the characters needed to be a little more fleshed out, especially the side characters. However, our main three, Dee, Wyatt and Grasshopper, were so delightful that by the 50% mark, the writing had faded into the background.

I think for a debut I am very impressed and will be keeping an eye out for more of White's work

A mind-blowing murder mystery on a ship full of magical passengers. If Agatha Christie wrote fantasy, this would be it!

This was a lot of fun, well written with interesting characters, magic and mystery, a little long for my liking but otherwise I had a good time with this

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc