Review – The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie @allycondie

The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 26, 2019
Date Read: February 28, 2019
Length: 336 pages
Source: Publisher / Bookish First
★★★★☆

Who do you become when you have nothing left to lose?

There is something Poe Blythe, the seventeen-year-old captain of the Outpost’s last mining ship, wants far more than the gold they tear from the Serpentine River.

Revenge.

Poe has vowed to annihilate the river raiders who robbed her of everything two years ago. But as she navigates the treacherous waters of the Serpentine and realizes there might be a traitor among her crew, she must also reckon with who she has become, who she wants to be, and the ways love can change and shape you. Even—and especially—when you think all is lost.

Ally Condie, the international bestselling author of the Matched trilogy, returns with an intricately crafted and emotionally gripping story of one young woman’s journey to move beyond the grief and anger that control her and find the inner strength to chart her own course.

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I really ended up enjoying this book.  I went into this book without a whole lot of expectations.  I think that I might have read one of the author’s earlier books years ago but don’t remember a whole lot about it.  The premise sounded really interesting so I was excited to give the story a try and was surprised by how quickly I was hooked by this adventurous tale.  I thought that this was just a whole lot of fun.

Most of this book takes place on a ship used to dredge the river for gold.  The book opens on Poe’s first voyage where things take a horrible turn and the man she loves is killed.  Poe is determined to make sure that nothing like that can ever happen again and designs armor that will cover the ships for all future voyages. 

Poe is put in command of the newest voyage which is the first time she has been out since tragedy struck.  It was really interesting to be in Poe’s head as she worked to establish her position of leadership while being unsure if all of the members of her crew are trustworthy.  When things go wrong, she becomes even more suspicious of the others working on the ship. 

I loved the fact that this book had plenty of action.  There are some fairly violent scenes that had me holding my breath and worrying about the characters.  Poe had a hard time trying to figure out who could be trusted and which crew members had their own agenda.  I liked that Poe became a true leader because of her actions and that she was willing to take stand even if it came with a lot of risks.  Poe was a great character and I thought that the key secondary characters were very well done. 

I would recommend this book to others.  I found this book to be very well done with an interesting world, great characters, and an adventurous story.   While I thought that this book stood perfectly fine on its own, I do think that there could be a possibility of future books featuring this world or group of characters in the future.  I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Dutton Books for Young Readers via Bookish First.

About the Author

Ally Condie is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Matched trilogy and co-author of the Darkdeep middle grade series. She is also the author of the novel Summerlost, an Edgar Award Finalist. A former English teacher, Ally lives with her husband and four children outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. She has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is the founder and director of the nonprofit WriteOut Foundation.

Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Twitter

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