Hi, it’s Jenna again with the latest edition of Jenna’s Side from frozen up Saskatchewan, Canada. With the temperature hitting minus 40 here this month (Before you ask, is that Celsius or Fahrenheit? Yes.) it’s the perfect time for me to curl up with a great book. So I did.

I have read voraciously for as long as I can remember, and was never really interested in picture books, except Robert Munsch because I’m a good Canadian and Mr. Men/Little Miss because of course.  Oh and The Cat Who Wore A Pot On Her Head. If anyone feels so inclined to get me a copy of that, I won’t refuse.  Ha ha I digress. I tell you this to explain why the sight of a 5 year old reading a chapter book was commonplace in my home, and why I read Treasure Island for the first time at that age.  Right around the same time I discovered Grimm fairy tales, but a couple years after I developed my life-long crush on Batman.  Yes, I was a weird child.  Now I’m a weird adult. This is fine.

So I’ll be brutally honest. A book about pirates? My first thought was, what am I, five again? I have never been so happy to be proven wrong.

Cameron Walker has clearly written Devil’s Eye as a labour of love, as his deep appreciation and enthusiasm for the subject matter shine through in every scene. He spent a decade writing and editing Devil’s Eye and it was a decade well spent. If I had to sum it all up in one sentence I would say its like Pirates of the Caribbean, but without the romanticism and Disney magic, much more raw and visceral.

The world of Devil’s Eye is well-researched and carefully crafted to be close enough to reality to be believable, but far enough away to be an escape that lets you forget you are reading and immerse yourself in it.  In many scenes, especially the battle scenes, it plays out like an action movie, which you watch between your fingers because you can’t decide whether or not you want to see what happens next. (Content note: there is a lot of blood and gore.  It’s not gratuitous; it all feels necessary. But if you’re more squeamish, you will struggle to get through.)

Ultimately, you’ll decide that you want to see and that’s because Cameron has put in just enough suspense to keep you hanging on. Every time you want to look away, you’re pulled back in. More than a few times, I had to put the book down–no, that did NOT just happen.  I don’t even want to know.  Oh who am I kidding, yes I do.

The characters are the real strength of Devil’s Eye. They make its world come alive and keep it from being the 5-year-old story I feared. They are all relatable in unexpected ways–I found myself just a little bit in love with the Devil’s Eye’s motley crew of antiheroes, especially Crimson Jack, and hoping despite myself through each twist and turn that things would work out for them. 

Crimson Jack has the charisma of his namesake from Pirates of the Caribbean, alongside the blood-and-power lust and wits of the likes of Ching Shih. Seriously, if you haven’t heard of her, Google her now. I’ll wait.

Was I right, or was I right? And that’s just one. The entire crew have the kind of stories that don’t quite make me want to join them at sea, but maybe meet up at a pub or something. Of course that would most likely lead to them drinking me under the table and dragging me off, because pirates, but that’s another story.

I love the complex moral code of the pirates as well. They could easily be out for blood, money, power, and booze, not necessarily in that order. And they absolutely are, otherwise what a boring story this would be. But they are also trying to support their families in a system that leaves them few other viable options.

I highly recommend Devil’s Eye as the kind of book you may not be able to read in a single sitting, but you’ll want to.

Rating: 5/5 Stars.