*slight spoilers below*
If The Tide Turns by Rachel Rueckert takes place from 1715 to 1717 at the intersection of Massachusetts Puritanism and the Golden Age of Piracy. If The Tide Turns actually reminded me a lot of Hester. I was really excited to read this one because of the subject matter, and I really wish I had liked it more, which I will get to soon. I first want to acknowledge that this book is a fast read and the short, alternating POV chapters make it a page-turner. I appreciated the early 18th century setting, as well as the blending of two very different worlds that existed in the same time period and how those two things could clash. I also appreciated the Indigenous characters and the acknowledgment of their struggles with the colonists.
I found If The Tide Turns to be chock-full of tropes: the strong-willed, feisty, progressive-thinking woman (Maria) falls for the no-penny-to-his-name dashing man of the world (Sam) trope (both are based on real people, by the way.) In turn, I found the first half of the book to be quite predictable in its plot. The miscommunication trope was hugely irksome for me, and perhaps the frustrating elements that contributed to the miscommunication fueling much of the plot is what made the story a page-turner, because I just wanted to find out how the situation could be resolved. I was so frustrated with how some characters acted in certain situations. For example, Sam, for all his apparent intelligence and enlightened thinking, never once considers Maria could have gotten pregnant by him?! He never once considers that someone else could have written Maria’s damning letter to him ?!
I also found that there were several instances of chunks of dialogue from characters that seemed to simply exist to provide expository historical facts that the characters themselves might not have even known in full without hindsight. Not to mention, that’s not how most people actually speak. These chunks of dialogue were also full of super progressive views for the time. If you look at my reading history, you know I love outsider stories of people who go against the grain in historical settings–however, Sam and Maria were super 21st century in their views which took me out of the 18th century. Toward the end of the book, there is a sword fight and betrayal on the ship by two different characters who I believe were never mentioned before so there was really no emotional impact in their apparent climactic interactions with Sam because I did not even know who they were.
I found, more often than not, that very important and emotional-scenes happened “off screen,” with major action simply being summarized or skipped over rather than have the reader experience the scene in real time. This style choice is something I’ve disliked in other books, and that’s just my personal view, but I much prefer to experience important things with the characters rather than just be told a summary after the fact. It’s quite jarring and unfulfilling. The ultimate climax/reunion that the entire book had been building up to ultimately fizzled to naught and did not provide the emotional pay off I was hoping for. When the book ended, I actually thought, “wait–what? That’s it?”
I hate to give such a critical review, but I also have to be honest. I think the book could have benefited expanding and letting the plot and characters breathe a bit more instead of skipping over so much. (Although I also understand that many trad-publishing editors want writers to cut cut cut because they think readers don’t want to read [buy] long books.) In all honesty, I really wanted to like If The Tide Turns, but it just continually did not deliver for me.
Should you like to venture into these waters and judge for yourself, the book will be released March 26, 2024.
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