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ExUrbanis

Urban Leaving to Country Living

Book Review: Beside a Burning Sea by John Shors

February2

Beside a Burning Sea,John ShorsBeside a Burning Sea
by John Shors

From Hilary Hatton at Booklist:
It’s the fall of 1942, and the U.S. hospital ship Benevolence is cruising the waters of the South Pacific when it is torpedoed by the Japanese. Only nine people survive, and they eventually wash up on an island: the captain Joshua, and his wife, Isabelle, a nurse; Isabelle’s sister Annie and a woman named Scarlet, both nurses; Ratu, a teenage Fijian stowaway; Jake, a black engineer; Nathan and Roger, two officers; and Akira, a wounded Japanese soldier.

Okay, first of all, let’s look at the survivors of this accident. One: the captain of the ship. The captain. Don’t they go down with their ships anymore? Two: three nurses. One just happens to be the captain’s wife. The captain’s wife, even though they were not together on the ship at the time of the torpedoing. What are the odds?

The next nurse just happens to be Annie, the captain’s wife’s sister. The captain’s wife’s s….you get the idea. )The third nurse is a “throwaway”: the character that can be killed off by the danger that stalks them all.)

While it is only a matter of time before Japanese naval forces reach the island, the more immediate danger is Roger, who is a ship’s officer, but also a spy for the Japanese. It’s Roger who tipped the Japanese that, unbeknownst to the captain, the hospital ship was carrying ammunition and other supplies of war.

Roger is drawn as a mentally unstable, sadistic, misogynistic, and overly proud man. No explanation is needed: after all, he’s the traitor.

The captain Joshua, the engineer Jake (the token black, who just happens to be the one who had befriended the ship’s stowaway – who also survived) and the other officer Nathan are, of course, kind, helpful, chivalrous, co-operative and generally nice guys. No explanation is needed: after all, they’re Americans.

Then there’s Akira, a wounded Japanese soldier who was on the ship because the rules of war were that hospitals treat all wounded, regardless of nationality. Because Akira’s Japanese, the author spends the entire book explaining and justifying how it is possible that he might be human; a decent and kind human who is in love with Annie. (And how Annie could possibly love him.)

The Japanese who land on the island are all wicked, wicked. The Americans who come and bomb and kill the Japanese are heroes. Are we twelve years old?

Beside a Burning Sea is a romance and, really, I shouldn’t have been venturing into this territory. I have no patience with such juvenile characterization and plot coincidences. The roster of survivors reminded me of a (quite bad) story that I wrote for a seventh grade English composition.

If that’s romance literature and you enjoy it, then have yourself a read. But this is nowhere near being literature. I know I sound like a book snob when I say that, but I find that as I get older and realize that my time to read is running out, I want to read solid fiction (and my snackies of cozy murder mysteries). If I’m going to read romance, at least let it be disguised in a half-decently written story (such as The Diplomat’s Wife.)

How about you? How important is the writing–the plot development, the characterization, the style, the objectivity of the author–to you, if you like the genre?

I borrowed Beside a Burning Sea from my public library.

Beside a Burning Sea satisfies six of my reading challenges: the What’s In a Name Challenge, the 10 Categories Challenge, the Historical Fiction Challenge, the New To Me Authors Challenge, the Support Your Local Library, and 100+.

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P.S. If you click through the affiliate links in the book titles, you may notice a different cover. I like to see the cover that’s on the copy I read – and it’s usually different than Amazon.com because they display the American release, and I read the Canadian. Again, the links are affiliate links so I will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make after clicking through from this blog.



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posted under Book Reviews
4 Comments to

“Book Review: Beside a Burning Sea by John Shors”

  1. On October 8th, 2013 at 8:31 pm sarah bornhijm Says:

    Agree with your analysis of Beside a Burning Sea. A waste of time but had to read it for bookclub.

  2. On October 8th, 2013 at 8:39 pm Debbie Says:

    How did the others in your book club feel about it, Sarah?

  3. On December 3rd, 2013 at 9:51 am Nia Says:

    i also agree with your review. i find this book extremely corny…. well since romance is not my cup of tea. i was disappointed tho, because i thought this was going to focused more on the USA-Nippon hostility during the pacific war. i could never finish this book, i discontinued it and i regretted my wasted time as well.

  4. On December 19th, 2013 at 3:28 pm Debbie Says:

    Nia, I’m not quite sure why I invested the time I did in this book. I guess I thought because it had been recommended, it had to get better. . .

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