Blog Tour – Cane Warriors

Hello and welcome to my post on the Cane Warriors Bookstagram Tour. I have a shared a picture of the book on Instagram with a short review of my thoughts here but I wanted to post a full review here too!

Nobody free till everybody free. Moa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugar cane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking, and the day of the uprising approaches . . . Irresistible, gripping and unforgettable, Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky’s War in Jamaica, 1760. -Goodreads

My thanks to Kaleidoscope Tours and Anderson Press for having me on this Bookstagram Tour.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a very moving and informative novel about a period of history that I know of but am not overly familiar with.

This novel tells the story of the Tacky Rebellion which was an uprising of slaves against their owners in Jamaica in the 1760s. As a result of this historic revolt, many new repressive laws were passed to give slave owners more powers and the ability to behave more abhorrently towards the slaves. In this particular novel we follow Moa, our 14 year old protagonist, the youngest member of the rebellion. Through his eyes we see the brutality of the slave owners, the violence and bloodshed, mixed with the youthful naïveté and hope of Moa makes the novel seem so much more powerful and moving, but also much more accessible for a younger audience.

The elder leaders of the rebellion are seen, through Moa’s eyes as strong natural leaders, and I enjoyed this viewpoint, seeing the situation through a young man’s eyes. Moa himself is strong and brave, despite the doubts he has about himself. His worries for his mother, his younger sister and his beloved friend Hanaya show this, and add to our concern for Moa and all he is battling for.

The novel is written in Jamaican Patois, and although this took me a second to get acclimated to, I really appreciate the novel being written in this style. It added to the reality of the novel, and I am not the target audience for this novel, but I do think that teens will appreciate the style of this novel.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel, Moa is an excellent protagonist, and seeing the situation through his eyes was a nervous but hopeful experience. I look toward to recommending this novel to teens, and anyone who is looking for a moving powerful historical novel.

Buy the book from Waterstones here (affiliate link)

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