55. Blades of Freedom

Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase. (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #10) Nathan Hale. 2020. [November] 128 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: Gather round young and old! Step up and see the hanging! The execution of the spy Nathan Hale is about to begin. And by execution, you mean story time.

Premise/plot: Out of all the Hazardous Tales, Blades of Freedom may be the most complicated/complex. It isn't the story of one man. Or two. Or three. Or four. Or even a dozen. The book's subject matter is so complex that it requires a WHEEL to spin. Each chapter, the wheel is spun and two characters--historical figures?--are chosen. Obviously, this is a plot device. Hale knows exactly how he wants his story spun. Some of the characters are mosquitoes. (I'm not lying.)

It is a LONG, LONG, LONG answer to the question how did America acquire the Louisiana territory. It spans CENTURIES. The subtitle helps clarify a little. (But only a little).

My thoughts: I am going to be a voice of dissent--for better or worse. (Probably worse since this one has so many five stars and four stars). I did not care for this one...at all. Which is sad since I typically love this series and get so excited to read another installment of it. The books have explored some dark, tragic, bleak, horrible, troubling times. None of the books have been happy-happy-cheery-cheery. But this one felt a little bit more extreme. 

I am not for softening history, sugar-coating it, making it all warm and fuzzy for modern readers. Nor am I all about shallow, surface-only story telling. So I'm not saying that Hale should "change" history to keep the series age appropriate. But I can't imagine a kid being emotionally ready--mentally prepared--for the HEAVY, HEAVY, SUPER-HEAVY weight of this one. For better or worse, I just imagine handing this book to a child to be like handing a kid a hundred pound weight like it's nothing.

In some ways--perhaps not all ways--it is a very political tale. To the extent that human rights have been politicized, you could say it is all politics. But rather you slant it all human rights or slant it politics, it is heavy. We have parallel accounts of the French revolution (and its aftermath, namely Napoleon trying to be like Pinky and the Brain and conquer the world) AND the Haitian revolution. You can believe that slavery is wrong, wrong, super-super-wrong, completely unjustifiable; you can believe that it's wrong for the nobility to let the peasants starve without any concern and compassion--and still be blown away by how wrong mass slaughter, mass murder, the brutality of it all really is. It's a BLOODY, BLOODY, BLOODY book. The book explores--to some extent--the mentality of revolutionary politics. Anything is justifiable if you get the desired end results. 

The world view isn't new to me. In fact, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables explores many of the same themes and views. But Hugo wasn't trying to entertain children. If Blades of Freedom was marketed for adults, I wouldn't have any issue with it at all. The themes explored are worthy of thought.

I was also bothered by how the mosquito (mosquitoes) were the heroes of this one. To the extent that Yellow Fever was seen as a SAVIOR and every time someone died of it the readers were supposed to cheer. (Or at least that's how I felt it was being pushed.) Like the mosquitoes were fighting on the right side, and were doing their part to rid the island of evil.

The book also ended in a very ODD place. It was almost like Nathan Hale ran out of paper and said, well, that's good enough. I've reached my goal for page counts. I'm done. 

 The book also explores voodoo. Yes, voodoo. I guess this is inescapable in a way since it's about the history and culture of Haiti. So expect several (a handful?) of scenes with characters drinking animal blood. And then there's Pauline--Napoleon's sister--she is kind of traumatizing in my opinion. If I was a kid, I'd be having nightmares.

 Reading is 100% subjective. Every single reader is different. Some readers may think this is the absolute best book ever. And I do not think every reader has to agree about a book. That is always important to keep in mind. So many people think that their subjective opinion is the one and only valid opinion. It doesn't bother me at all that 87% of readers (so far) have given this one 4 or 5 stars.

© 2021 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews