Nonfiction masquerading as a novel and failing as either sort of narrative. (character list, historical note, glossary)...
The author of the Stravaganaza series reveals the muse behind Michelangelo’s David.
Hoffman provides a possible inspiration for Michelangelo’s famous sculpture in the form of Gabriele, a handsome fictional stonecutter whose mother served as Michelangelo’s wet nurse. Gabriele comes to model for his “milk brother” in Florence during a time of political unrest. The city is split between the compagnacci, who wish to return the city to royal Medici family rule, and the frateschi, who follow the teachings of martyr and Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, an outspoken opponent of the Medici’s wealth and influence. Michelangelo warns Gabriele to steer clear of Florence’s politics. But impressionable Gabriele is adopted by the frateschi even as his good looks earn him work as a painter’s model for a member of the compagnacci. Soon he finds himself a pawn in a street war that threatens his very life. While the concept is intriguing and the research meticulous, the execution is as dry as the frequently mentioned marble dust. Florence’s turbulent political history is provided to the reader through long, didactic speeches from a confusing crowd of secondary characters that slow all action to a standstill. The entertaining passages that detail Gabriele’s youthful sexual indiscretions, which break up the long-winded political talk considerably, are regrettably few and far between.
Nonfiction masquerading as a novel and failing as either sort of narrative. (character list, historical note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 13 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59990-700-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
A promising premise let down by execution that leaves readers adrift.
An entitled heir to a viscountcy runs away to the high seas in this debut set in 18th-century England.
Stifled by the expectations of his emotionally withholding father, 17-year-old Christopher-Henry Mortimer Davenport, aka Kit, runs away the night before his wedding and talks his way aboard the ship Deliverance, which is about to leave Falmouth, not realizing that its merchant activities are less than legal. Luckily, Captain Reggie Sharpe, who’s from the Caribbean and has brown skin and locs, needs a new bookkeeper since the last one mysteriously disappeared, and he takes Kit on despite his snobbish attitude and lack of sailing experience. Kit spends several months working to win over the crew before discovering that he’s fallen in with pirates. Just as he’s found his footing in his new life at sea, a betrayal sends him back to England, where he must navigate shocking revelations without support from the sailors he’s come to rely on. Unfortunately, the portrayals and discussions of ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and social class differences lack depth and nuance. Sharpe has little personality outside of bossing Kit around, causing their romance to fall flat. While the book’s tongue-in-cheek foreword states that the author has “tweaked history” but “only as far as it will be entertaining,” the line between deliberate choices and inadvertent anachronisms is sometimes unclear.
A promising premise let down by execution that leaves readers adrift. (content note) (Historical adventure. 14-18)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9781665984775
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage.
Adrian, the youngest of the Montague siblings, sails into tumultuous waters in search of answers about himself, the sudden death of his mother, and her mysterious, cracked spyglass.
On the summer solstice less than a year ago, Caroline Montague fell off a cliff in Aberdeen into the sea. When the Scottish hostel where she was staying sends a box of her left-behind belongings to London, Adrian—an anxious, White nobleman on the cusp of joining Parliament—discovers one of his mother’s most treasured possessions, an antique spyglass. She acquired it when she was the sole survivor of a shipwreck many years earlier. His mother always carried that spyglass with her, but on the day of her death, she had left it behind in her room. Although he never knew its full significance, Adrian is haunted by new questions and is certain the spyglass will lead him to the truth. Once again, Lee crafts an absorbing adventure with dangerous stakes, dynamic character growth, sharp social and political commentary, and a storm of emotion. Inseparable from his external search for answers about his mother, Adrian seeks a solution for himself, an end to his struggle with mental illness—a journey handled with hopeful, gentle honesty that validates the experiences of both good and bad days. Characters from the first two books play significant secondary roles, and the resolution ties up their loose ends. Humorous antics provide a well-measured balance with the heavier themes.
An enticing, turbulent, and satisfying final voyage. (Historical fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-291601-3
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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