The Ghost Ship: A Mystery of the Sea: Rating: 1 stars

Ghosts ships, pirates, damsels in distress, the whole kit-’n’-kaboodle.

Written by John C. Hutcheson
Fiction · Adventure
Reviewed April 21, 2007

Anyone who thinks bad writing is a strictly modern phenomenon will be unpleasantly surprised upon glancing over this book, which stinks like rotten seaweed. As the title implies, it’s a tale of adventure and mystery upon the high seas, complete with mirages and pirates and pretty blonde damsels in distress. I cackled madly through the purple prose, the tedious descriptive passages, the silly dialogue, and the incredibly racist stereotypes (which is seriously over–theÓtop, even for a book from this era). I’m only giving it a 1-point rating because of the nice illustrations, which are actually quite appealing (and thus make the text seem even shabbier). Read it here, if you dare.