The revelation that Xiang's father sailed with the Dragon Fleet and tucked away this secret changes everything. Her single memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.īut the pendant's true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside.

Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd businesswoman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life.

The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Two intrepid queer girls of color embark on a legendary treasure hunt in this YA remix of Treasure Island, flipping the script on a notoriously Euro-centric sausage-fest of a classic.ġ826. I hope to read more from this author in the future.In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white, and male canon. Overall, this was such a great book and I’m so happy to have read it. The final reveal of the Dragon Queen felt simultaneously predictable and disjointed from the rest of the book, and the conclusion just didn’t land as well as I had hoped. The ending, however, wasn’t as great as I expected. As a kid, I loved the idea of searching for treasure in a complex map of islands. The first three quarters of the book were fantastic. I appreciated her point of view and how her sheltered beginning allows the reader to discover the wonders of the world alongside her. Xiang is a fun character who I was always rooting for her success.

They also have a keen interest to find the treasure, all whilst dodging the most powerful fleet in the area, led by the Dragon Queen.

Xiang finds herself with a diverse cast of pirates who smuggle supplies between countries. Our story starts off similarly to Treasure Island, where our main character is thrust into a pirate’s life after finding she’s been holding onto a secret treasure map. Trade, embargos, and smuggling is all a part of the setting, as well as beautiful seas, secret bays, and exciting hideaways. Today on Ariel’s Arcs, we are talking pirates, smugglers, intrigue, treasure hunting– what more could a Treasure Island Remix want? A Clash of Steel is a fun adventure of sailing and following a map, except rather than taking place in the Caribbean, A Clash of Steel takes place in Southeastern Asia during 1826.

A Clash of Steel by C.B. Lee