"Bloody Jack" – What Level of Sexuality is Acceptable in a Young Adult Novel?

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Book Review : Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

Spoiler Alert!

Mary Faber is thrust on the streets as an orphan when her parents and sister die. Her clothes are stolen and then she is taken in by the Charlie the Rooster, the leader of one of the gangs of orphans, where she is taught to beg and steal to survive. After Charlie is murdered, Mary finds a new gang leader for the remaining children, and leaves to seek her fortune as a boy, Jack. Mary finds it is a lot easier to be a boy. The officers of the HMS Dolphin are looking for a few boys to join their crew and Mary, now known as Jack, is selected when she demonstrates that she can read. The HMS Dolphin is in search of pirates, to relieve them of their treasure and stop their thievery. While sailing Jacky becomes tight mates with the other ships boys, but she also acquires enemies among the crew. Everything depends upon her secret.

Adult Point of View

I felt nervous through the entire novel for fear of what atrocities could happen to the protagonist. As an orphan there was the danger of being killed or captured to work in a brothel. On board the ship Jacky was in fear of being raped by a lascivious crew member, who didn’t even care if she was a boy or a girl. When Mary/Jacky starts her period she thinks she is dying, which I find hard to believe that a girl growing up on the streets wouldn’t know about menstruation or reproduction. When she finally reveals her secret to Jaime, the boy she has been doting over she has to use all of her powers of persuasion to keep them away from having sex because of the danger of pregnancy. Mary comments that a skirt is inconvenient for a girl to wear and is disturbed thinking perhaps that is the point of a skirt, to more easily compromise a girl. Bloody Jack felt trite and one dimensional, it offered nothing new with a girl pretending to be a boy.

There are fun moments in this novel and probably has a lot of historical accuracies, however, I didn’t really enjoy it. I felt alarmed when I read this was for kids over the age of 12 because of the constant references to sexuality. I am not comfortable having that young of teens reading this book. I don’t have a good answer for what level of sexual content is appropriate in a young adult novel. Generally, I feel that kids need to receive a balanced perspective about sexuality and need their parents to help define the boundaries for morality. Bloody Jack seems to talk about sex, sexuality and gives a nuance that abuse is wrong, but there is not a sense of balance. Though this is a popular series I cannot recommend it.

2 out of 5 stars

- the Mother

Teen Point of View

She has not read this book because of the level of sexuality.

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