Graphic novels. They are, to quote Star Trek, a new frontier. I know what they are, a few I’ve actually read, but a ton I want to just go totally hermit with and read and shut the world out. Sadly, I do have to work and pay the bills. As I’ve lately been prone to do, I was perusing my library’s graphic novel section when I came across a title I have seen a few times before and decided I needed something I would enjoy and could devour in one weekend. So Cursed Pirate Girl it was!
Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy Bastian attracted me because I like pirates. I don’t know why but I do. So pirates + graphic novel x young adult =super interesting. And it was. Sorta. The premise is this girl, who has no name, is hanging around Port Elizabeth, Jamaica in the 1700’s searching for her pirate father whom she’s never met. Apparently she’s a badass/hipster among the rag-tag kids in the city. She happens to meet the governor’s daughter, Apollonia, who subsequently gets a girl crush on Pirate Girl. This seems important but we don’t see Apollonia until the very end. Also, Apollonia seems demonic. She has no white’s to her eyes. Just black eyes. Like a demon child. We’ll see in volume II if that’s something or I’m just reading way too much into it.
Governor gets worried about the riff raff his daughter is hanging out and decides to do away with Pirate Girl. This leads Pirate Girl to being knocked out and set on the path to finding her father. Also, we later find out the Governor makes Hannibal Lector seem normal. And we also learn that Pirate Girl’s father lives in another dimension. And once we end up there it’s sort of like Alice in Wonderland meets Finding Nemo. I did enjoy this new world. But the plot stalls here. And then the book ends. And now I have to wait for volume II to arrive. Sheesh.
Ok, so worth your while? Meh. The illustrations are super good. I spend more time just looking in the intricate artwork and the world that is given to the readers than I did reading the succinct script. But I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters and the whole pirate father-living-in-other-dimension trope seemed far-fetched. I think it will help once the entire story is written and you can enjoy the whole thing in one sitting. But if you do need something enjoyable to read in a few hours, then I do recommend this graphic novel.
