Bloody Jack

By: L. A. Meyer

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Life as a ship's boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of 18th-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There's only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life...if only she doesn't get caught.

Listen to the sequel, Curse of the Blue Tattoo.

©2003 L.A. Meyer (P)2007 Listen and Live Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Children's Titles - Ages 12+, 2008

My favorite series of all time!!

I’m on my 3rd maybe 4th listen of the Bloody Jack series. I enjoy the character development, fun, drama and mischief in these books.

Audiobook: Now in Color!

I am at a loss for words. The book and this series are excellent, but the narrator, the narrator is astonishingly good. It is like I would imagine switching from a black and white television to a top of the line HD TV overnight. Katherine Kellgren not only gives the character and the story life and a voice, she brings them color as well.

It is a clich?? I know, but I could listen to this woman read the phonebook. Thankfully Bloody Jack is not the phonebook, it is a nice little novel that, although classified as YA, has much to give for any audience.

Great story, made better by audio!

This one of the best voice actors I have ever heard. She is not just an audio reader, but an actress, as she does all the voices, and includes the best drama in it. The story just keeps getting better with each installment. The second a bit slow, but the third more than makes up for it. If you have the chance to listen to this adventure story, you wont regret it.

Bloody wonderful

The world through a childs eyes is a much more interesting place. The narrator Kathrine Kellgren, is perfect for this book, and reminds me of the girl that did the tell, in Thunderdome. I enjoyed the accent both displayed. The book is written for young people, maybe teens or tweens, but I am seventy one and I enjoyed it. It is a fiction that only a young imagination could dream up. But just suspend your disbelief and enjoy it. I have already downloaded the second in the series, Curse of the Blue Tattoo.

Great fun and amazing narration!

As others have stated, the narrator and the book match wonderfully. As a fan of historical fiction authors such as Patrick O'Brian, I enjoyed this lighter look at the world of the sea. Jack is a terrific character and now I'm hooked and will have to listen to the rest of the series.

Kellegren is masterful

I am a big fan of old fashion (late 1700 to 1800) sailing stories. This book is a bit different. Mary “Jacky” Faber, age 12, is a memorable protagonist and we get to see her grow up on board the HMS Dolphin. Mary’s parents and sister died of the plague in 1798. She joins a gang of orphans and learns to steal and beg to survive. Their leader, Charlie, is killed and Mary takes the opportunity to start a new life. She dons Charlie’s clothes, cuts her hair and gets a job as a ship boy on HMS Dolphin. She is hired because she can read. In this story HMS Dolphin’s assignment is to look for pirates.

The story covers the daily life on a sailing ship in the 1800s. This is a historical novel and Meyer has kept his characters in their setting with all the prejudices and stigmas of the period. The accents, dialects are also consistent with the time and occupations of the characters.

The audio version helps interpret the dialect the story is written in. I would not want to read this in book format. The narrator, Katherine Kellegren, brings Jacky to life, so much so, she seems to be Jacky. I understand this is a series and I am looking forward to listening to the next installment. Not sure how they will continue this series because of the ending of the book.

Brava, Katherine! Fabulous narration.

There's a Pipi Longstocking element to this book that's adorable. No, it won't make you smarter or add to your understanding of the world. It's just swashbuckling good fun. But the best part of the book is the narration. Really, it should be Example 1 in the "How to narrate a book" tutorial. Katherine Kellgren makes this book what it is. She is Jacky. This is a simply a delightful, entertaining listen.

This is a fun book for all ages!

I really enjoyed this one -- it was one of my first audio books and I was astonished by the brilliant narration by Katherine Kellgren. It was her marvelous portrayal of the characters that kept me listening and I'm sure my nephews and nieces will love it too.

WORTH IT

I bought this book on a whim when it went on sale. It looked interesting, but not so interesting I started it right away. In fact I probably held on to it for 6 months before I ran out of another series and gave it a shot. That was a huge mistake, by far one of the best series I've listened to/read. Once I started this book I could not stop. I'm normally one who needs to stop and listen to a different book in the middle of a series because I get bored with the plot line, not so far with this one.

Katherine Kellgren is amazing, they could not have picked a better narrator. She sings the songs and her voice lends so much life to this book series. I think she really adds a whole extra dimension to the books.

To sum it up (TL;DR):
BUY IT!

Bravo, Ms. Kellgren!

Katherine Kellgren absolutely made this book for me. "Bloody Jack" is a well-written, well-plotted historical adventure, but Kellgren's performance transformed it into something truly special. She brought color and nuance to Jacky’s world, pulling me right onto the deck of the HMS Dolphin. I could hear the roar of cannons, the swell of the sea and the music played by the sailors in her voice. I can’t imagine experiencing this book in any other way.

Set at the turn of the 19th Century, “Bloody Jack” uses the familiar trope of a girl dressed as a boy to experience a man’s world, but the appealing heroine, diverse cast of characters and spot-on pacing made the story fresh and exciting.

Mary “Jacky” Faber escapes a dismal life as a London street urchin by fast-talking her way on board a British man-of-war headed out to sea in pursuit of pirates. Because she can read and write, she is assigned to help the tutor who instructs the young midshipmen and ship's boys. As performed by Kellgren, Jacky's voice conveys her wonder at the sights and workings of the ship, terror in battle, and later in the story, the overwhelming joy of young love. She comes fully alive in Kellgren's telling – smart, resourceful, self-deprecating, tender-hearted yet practical.

Much of the humor and dramatic tension in the story comes from Jacky's efforts to maintain her disguise – first because she does not think through all the implications ("What about the call of nature, you twit?") and second because she begins to fall in love with another ship's boy, Jamie Fletcher, who comes from a respectable family fallen on hard times. Jacky struggles very believably to choose between the freedom of being a boy – able to climb rigging, visit taverns on shore leave and explore opportunities denied to women – and her desire to live as her true self. (She also discovers, later on, what is meant by the phrase "feminine wiles" and how to use hers to advantage.)

Jacky also learns hard lessons about grown men who bully those they perceive as weaker, and about abusers who victimize children to satisfy their twisted desires. The HMS Dolphin is a microcosm of humanity itself, with all of the good and evil of men represented on its decks. Much of the story was quite dark and brutal, showing the hardships sailors endured and how cheaply life was sometimes held.

I greatly appreciated how the characters behaved in ways both true to their times and to their own experiences. (For example, Jamie at first turns up his nose at the daily ration of horse meat, while the malnourished Jacky wolfs it down as if it’s the best thing she’s ever tasted.) By the story's end, many of the characters - from the unflappable Captain Locke to the passionate but prudish scholar Mr. Tilden to the kindly "sea dad" Liam Delaney - seemed like old friends.

This book has it all: adventure, excitement, humor, pathos and tenderness – all vividly rendered by Kellgren. I am looking forward to joining Jacky on the rest of her adventures in this series.