Number of Pages: 323
Reading Level: 9th grade and up
Series: Fin's Revolution #2
Reading Time: 4 days
It is the middle of the Revolutionary War and all Fin Button wants is to go home. Unfortunately, she is wanted for piracy by the British and for mutiny by the Americans. The American congress, though, is prepared to offer her a deal: rescue a kidnapped French countess to spur the French into fighting with America, and get a full pardon for all crimes committed.
Determined to be pardoned so that she can go home, Fin and her crew set off for the Barbary Coast, where they face more dangers than ever before. And, in the midst of all this, Fin is forced to realize that she has changed drastically.
I didn't think this book could possibly be better than The Fiddler's Gun, but I was mistaken. Fiddler's Green was more exciting, more touching, more beautiful, more rollicking, and more fun to read than even the first book.
I truly loved it. Fin is a character everyone can relate to - she's sometimes scared, she doesn't like that she's changing, she sometimes lets her anger get the better of her, and she can fall prey to pride. Fin is human, and that's why she's so appealing.
There are lots of new characters in the second book. Some wonderful, some confounding, and some that you just love to hate. My personal favorite of the newcomers was Jeannot, a Frenchman Knight of Malta, sworn to protect the Mediterranean from pirates and rescue those who are slaves to them. In fact, I wish there was an entirely different book just about Jeannot's life.
I've said it before for The Fiddler's Gun and I'll say it again for Fiddler's Green - A.S. Peterson's prose is phenomenal. He has a power over words that most people only dream of. His descriptive language is mind-blowing, and the pictures he draws of characters, places, battles are so very lifelike. This book deserves to be read if only to experience the beauty of Peterson's writing.
I'm saddened that there are only two books in this series. All the easier to reread, I suppose. And I certainly will be rereading this.
A Note to Parents:
Like The Fiddler's Gun before it, Fiddler's Green is not a children's book. But, as far as teenager/young adult novels go, this one is relatively clean. There are cuss words interspersed (well, they are pirates). There is the occasional mention of whores or a brothel. The biggest standout for me, though, as far as parental guidance goes, would be the gore of it. This book is not for the weak of stomach. A man has to have his leg sawed off, another gets whipped until his back is a bloody mess, and still more are emaciated and grotesque from years of slavery. Overall, though, I would say it's one of the more appropriate books for teens these days.
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