My last buddy read with Stephen for 2021 was Dangerous Women by Hope Adams. I had seen this book a number of times during its release and had always been tempted by its covers. When opportunity presented itself to give it a read, I took it. Let’s take a look at what this book is about and then read on for my thoughts.
Nearly two hundred condemned women on board a sailing ship bound for Australia. One of them is a murderer. From debut author Hope Adams comes a thrilling novel based on the 1841 voyage of the convict ship Rajah, about confinement, hope, and the terrible things we do to survive.
London, 1841. One hundred eighty Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.
They’re daughters, sisters, mothers–and convicts.
Transported for petty crimes.
Except one of them has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.
As the Rajah sails farther from land, the women forge a tenuous kinship. Until, in the middle of the cold and unforgiving sea, a young mother is mortally wounded, and the hunt is on for the assailant before he or she strikes again.
Each woman called in for question has something to fear: Will she be attacked next? Will she be believed? Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?
Content Notes include death, grief, confinement, sexual assualt, misogyny.
Thoughts on Dangerous Women
Dangerous Women is a unique book for me! I don’t read many historical fiction books outside of the World Wars so it is good to explore a much less known history. I loved the idea of being in a ship and following along with these women whose lives had been uprooted from their home in England and were being taken for a new start to another continent. In those days, travel was long distance only through ships, and as presented in the book, for a packed vessel, it wasn’t the best living conditions either.
The last part of the synopsis “Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?” is what I was most curious about. As the story unfolds, we meet a number of people who are onboard and can have malicious intentions. The reasons for the women to be on board vary vastly as do their adjustment to be on the ship, in each other’s company. Apart from the women prisoners, their matron, Kezia’s perspective adds a lot to the novel as well as a slight romance element. The story is written in the present with chapters with flashbacks, using this as a device to not only reveal the murder but also the prime suspects who could havce committed it.
The following snippet relates to our impression of the first third of the book:
In the first 17 chapters, we have gotten a glimpse of both the past and the present. While in the present, the attack on Hattie is being investigated, the past lays the groundwork on getting to know the different key women characters and how they came to be on the ship. Though I understand the “thriller” side of things, this feels like a slice of life story to me. It is full of mundane moments like reflecting on life, stitching, writing letters, getting to know people, and so on. What do you think of the storyline so far, Stephen?
Although I read a lot of historical fiction myself, this is the first book I have encountered which focuses on the lives of convicts who were sent overseas, and the fact all these people are women makes it even more intriguing. I feel like the past timeline is helping us to try and get to know the main characters and suspects, and build up to the attack on Hattie, and it has been interesting to learn about their backgrounds. I agree that it is more of a portrayal of a life story in some ways. In terms of the ‘thriller’ aspect, I must admit that I am wanting more. We do not know enough about the suspects yet to feel truly invested in the mystery of what happened to Hattie, and generally I think the story is crying out for some atmosphere.
As we continued to read, Dangerous Women did not end up being the kind of read we had in mind. What carried the book was Kezia. I really like Kezia’s attempt to bond with the women and see them as people rather than prisoners. She may have come off as a timid person but through her POV and the others’, I liked how firm she could be and how she looked out for her group. Creating a patchwork and giving the women a chance to start their new lives on a positive note when they get to Australia is a great endeavour. She carried the story for me and I loved seeing her growth.
The chapters flew by but this was at the cost of not fully developing characters and leaving loose ends. There are certainly a few mysteries and characters that could have been further fleshed out, adding more substance and credibility to the plot, which ended up being mostly predictable and sometimes a bit far-fetched.
Maybe the book accomplished what it set out to do, though not in the most thorough manner. We got to meet some of these women who had been convicted of petty crimes mostly. We learned about their past and Kezia’s attempts at bringing them together for a bigger purpose, the quilt. There were a few forbidden romances, some men vs women conflicts amongst the management and friendships built between the women.
One of the reasons I enjoyed Dangerous Women was that it gave me space to ponder the position of women in society, what it means to be labeled a criminal for one crime and to be assumed to be capable of committing any crime.
Have you read Dangerous Women? Did you have a similar reading experience? Maybe my expectations were too high based on how popular this book was and as a result, I was a bit more disappointed. However, I definitely learned about some people’s realities that I had not thought of before! You can read Stephen’s thoughts on this book on his blog.
Add it to your shelves on Goodreads and Storygraph. Check your local library – they probably have a copy!
Thank you for reading this post. 🙂 Head to the homepage for latest reviews.
Cover image: Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash
Be First to Comment