Pirates of Darksea book review

Pirates of Darksea by Catherine Doyle follows Max who's brother, Christopher, introduced him to the story of Captain Thorn O'Malley of the Stolen Sunrise two years ago. Now two years later Christopher, is stuck in hospital his latest treatment not working and getting sicker, and Max is offered the chance to visit Darksea and Captain O'Malley's ship, just without his brother.

I have read from Catherine Doyle's co-written teenage books before so was excited to read from her with a younger target audience and as a solo writer and she did not disappoint.

I was hooked from the prologue and could not put the book down desperate to know how everything would go for Max. I read it over two sittings in one day due to a prior commitment but if I had the chance it would have been all at once.

I loved nearly everything about the book, including the pirates, magic, adventure and characters. Max was an extremely likeable young boy who you couldn't help but root for and accompanied by Ruby they made a team that you supported and hoped who get out of every situation they ended up in. It was great to see how strong their friendship ended up during the story too.

The pirates and magic made a great addition to the overall theme and story, with characters who had a huge personality and you just wanted to learn more and more about and a world that's magic had constraints and couldn't just be used to fix everything. The adventure was great to read about and had me loving exploring Darksea.

The themes that were explored in this book were also really key and ones that I would say have a high importance. The ending was really well done, and I liked how Max and Captain O'Malley's final conversation went, I think it was definitely a lot better than just using magic to fix the issue.

Overall an easy 4.5 star read that I loved and makes me so interested in reading more of Catherine Doyle's work. Highly recommend.

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