A Clash of Steel

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island.
1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Xiang has grown up with stories about the Dragon Fleet and its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Dragon Queen, all her life. Xiang desperately wants to set sail and explore—mainly to find her father, a presumed dead crew member of the Dragon Fleet. Her only memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.
But the pendant's true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. Rumor has it that the legendary Dragon Queen had one last treasure—the plunder of a thousand ports—hidden away on an island shrouded in mist that only can be seen once in a blue moon.
Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe.

Thank you NetGalley and Fiewel & Friends/Macmillan for the eARC for review!

I’ve mentioned this book on the blog before – when I made a list of retellings! In that post I talked about how excited I was for this book. Naturally I didn’t actually get around to reading it until 4.5 months after it released….whoops. Life gets in the way sometimes yknow? I had a lot going on (moving cross country, sick relatives, etc). BUT now I’ve read it. And I can say that I indeed loved it.

As the title (subtitle?) suggests, this is a retelling of the classic novel Treasure Island. I haven’t read the original, but that’s definitely okay going in to this book. All I knew was that the basis of the original is that there was a great pirate who had a giant stash of treasure hidden away. This book keeps that main theme, and blends it with the legend of Zheng Yi Sao. She was a pirate leader who was active in the early 1800’s. She was the most successful female pirate in history, and one of the most successful pirates in general. I haven’t had a chance to learn much Chinese history, so I loved this chance to learn a little bit, albeit through a fictional lens.

To start with, the whole novel was beautifully written. I could easily picture the different scenes, from the mountains and rivers to the oceans and the ships the characters sailed on. Everything felt so colorful and rich! And oh my god, some of the food descriptions literally had me salivating. I had to actually stop and go cook dinner for myself because I was getting hungry haha.

Another thing that Lee did well was balancing the action and adventure with the self discovery aspect, as well as the romance. Of course the main story is about the treasure hunt, but I feel it is equally about our main character Xiang discovering herself, what she wants, and what love feels like. Her journey to discover/recognize her queerness, and her romance with Anh was lovely to read.

For the most part I thoroughly enjoyed this book, there were just a couple areas where there could have been some improvement. For one, I loved the cast of characters that Xiang encounters on Anh and her mother’s ship. But I wanted more development for these characters! I loved them from the little bit we got to see of them, but they weren’t well fleshed out. Another thing is that I think the pacing could have been adjusted. I found the first half a bit slow, and then everything clicked into high gear verrrry rapidly. But then the last little bit also felt awkwardly paced, and slightly rushed. I think there could have been a little rebalancing done to make it flow a bit better.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book, and had a wonderful time reading it. I’m looking forward to checking out C.B. Lee’s other novels!