New Book Alert: Ginger Star: A Prequel (Stuck in the Onesies Series Book Three) by Diane McDonough; Gender and Racial Conflicts Surround 18th Jamaica Historical Fiction

 New Book Alert: Ginger Star: A Prequel (Stuck in the Onesies Series Book Three) by Diane McDonough; Gender and Racial Conflicts Surround 18th Jamaica Historical Fiction 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's becoming common for me to review two or more books on the same subject. This year alone I have read books about ballet, books set in 2040 California, books in which characters have the ability of lucid dreaming, and fantasies involving magical creatures and beings from countries other than the United States and  those in Europe. It's still rare however when I read two or more historical fiction by different authors that are set at the exact same time frame and feature the exact same historical figures. In recent years, I remember Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes and Gilded Summer (Newport's Gilded Age Series Book One) by Donna Russo Morin being one set and Rhapsody by Mitchell James Kaplan and Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton being another. Well now I have another: the early years of the 18th century Caribbean seen through the words of Katie Crabb's Constellation Trilogy and Diane McDonough's Ginger Star: A Prequel Stuck in the Onesies Book Three.

 Both feature sailors, pirates, the slave trade, and both involve characters questioning and rebelling against the standards of the day. They are so similar, that it really isn't fair to compare them. I am not accusing anyone of plagiarizing, just sometimes ideas strike more than one person at a time. 

There are some interesting aspects that each author focuses on. Both focus on the dehumanization of slavery but they also take different approaches on how others are treated. Crabb also writes about the struggles affecting gay men and lesbians in the 18th century and how they often had to conform to societal standards, exile themselves (in this series' case to the seas), or face imprisonment or death.

She takes some looks at gender roles and the status of women in this time period but it definitely is sidelined for the LGBT perspective.

McDonough however puts her emphasis on race and gender roles. Many slaves and free blacks made communities of their own despite threats from the approaching white slavers and colonials. The book also looks at the roles of women in this Caribbean society and how they also fight for their rights and independence.

The book begins with Amari, a young Ghanaian man in a friendly hunting competition. Unfortunately, he and his friend, Kwasi are kidnapped, taken to a slave ship, and then separated. Amari  is injured and cared for by Ronnie Shepherd, the cabin boy and an indentured servant. The two become friends and Amari learns that Ronnie has been keeping a secret. Ronnie is actually a woman disguised as a boy to escape a troubled abusive home life. When the two reach Jamaican shores, Amari rescues Ronnie from being raped and the two make their escape. They reach an estate where a wealthy woman, Adria, helps them hide and covers for them. Adria invites them to stay on her family's estate, Ginger Star. Unfortunately, she has a secret of her own. She's unmarried and pregnant. 

Since The Constellation Trilogy spends a lot of time at sea, the Reader doesn't really get to explore the beauty of the Jamaican island. McDonough more than makes up for that. Adria’s first description of Jamaica is beyond lovely. McDonough wrote, “Small white caps broke over the reef that was outside the cove. The sea went from royal blue to crystal-clear aqua as it closed in on the shoreline. (Adria’s) gaze landed across the cove on a waterfall that spilled into the sea with fresh water from one of the eight rivers in and near Ocho Rios.” The book also explores the local flora and fauna and the local names for them such as ginger star for heliconia and doctor bird for hummingbird. 

McDounough captures the contradictions of an island of immense beauty and the ugly times which occur there: the buying and selling of human beings, the theft of land and resources by outsiders unwilling to share them with the people who were there first, and the fact that those in authority are so willfully corrupt and ignorant to what’s happening around them that the only way to uphold true justice and liberty is to break the law and become a pirate.

McDonough creates some memorable characters who live on the different sides of the socioeconomic and racial scale that inhabit her settings and makes them real. They are more than just microcosms of their society but individuals that live within it. 

The four strongest and best characters in this book are Amari, Ronnie, Adria, and another character whom I will mention later. After he escapes. Amari joins the Maroon community of escaped slaves and indigenous Tainos. They fight against colonists and rebel against the white government that had been forced upon the island. Amari later marries, adopts a son, and becomes a leader of his community. Because he befriended Ronnie and Adria, he is able to be a bridge between the white and indigenous and black communities of the island and to achieve diplomacy in the Maroons’ desire for recognition and independence. Amari still fights against the slavers and colonists when he has to, but he is also willing to work with and talk to his white friends to encourage cooperation. Also, during this time, the Maroon community grows with more slaves leaving plantations to live lives of freedom in which they can declare their own agencies. 

Adria is on the side of those white colonists and she shows kindness and charity towards those around her, white, black, and indigenous. She is mostly sheltered and kept in a very restricted upper class home where she is expected to marry, have children, and lead the servants and household. Adria  is in a more vulnerable position than Ronnie or Amari and is unable to physically fight, but her strength is in her gentleness and generous spirit. One of her greatest moments occurs long after she gives birth and she is separated from her child. When she learns the whereabouts of her child, the Reader expects her to strike out angrily and accuse those around her of kidnapping them, even kidnapping the child herself. Instead she sees the little one is happy and well cared for. Even though she admits that she gave birth, the little one’s real parents are the ones who raised them. 

Ronnie is another one in a peculiar position that puts her between worlds. Even though she is a woman, she spent time working on ships so can see the pirate’s perspective. She reverts back to her female identity, works in a store and sees other women taking charge of their own destiny. As a former indentured servant, she saw first hand the abhorrent treatment that black slaves suffered and speaks against it even after she enters a romance with a white plantation owner. She retains her friendship with Amari and Adria and helps stand against the institution of slavery. She has survived on her own for a long time, so is very strong willed and knows her own mind.

As I mentioned this book is set during almost the exact same time span as The Constellation Trilogy and many of the historical real life figures appear in both, one in particular. While she is glimpsed very briefly in Sailing by Carina’s Star, she is an important figure in Ginger Star and takes part in the plot in a huge way. She is Anne Bonney, one of the few female pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy. In Ginger Star, she is a former friend of Ronnie’s who  encouraged the younger woman to follow her own path of donning men’s clothing and taking to the seas. 

One of the most interesting things about Bonney’s appearance in Ginger Star is that this book offers a few theories as to why she disappeared from history. In reality, her husband Calico Jack Rackham was executed and she was scheduled to be executed as well, but she claimed pregnancy so she was released. That was the last known record of her, no one knows where she went upon her escape, if she escaped, or when and where she died. Ginger Star cleverly fills those gaps by giving Bonney a more decisive end to her story while still being true to her crafty, adventurous, fighting spirit.

Ginger Star is a very different book from The Constellation Trilogy even though it covers the same time period. It captures great beauty in setting, ugliness in inhumanity, and courage and spirit in the various individuals that dwelled in that time and place.