Book Review

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

I DEEPLY regret that I can’t remember which of you wonderful Bitches recommended Cinnamon and Gunpowder, but I owe you one because this book was AMAZEBALLS. I do have to warn readers in the strongest terms that the book has a bittersweet ending. There is a love story, but this is NOT a romance novel and you will want copious amounts of tissues towards the end. But boy howdy, is it amazing!

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is about a chef, Owen, who works for a very rich man in 1819. One night pirates show up at the employer’s coastal estate, kill the rich man, and kidnap Owen. The pirate captain is a woman named Mad Hannah Mabbot. She tells Owen that he will live as long as he cooks a gourmet meal for her every Sunday night with no repetitions in the menu. Owen is outraged at the thought of working for such a villain, and he’s daunted by the realization that he has to work in a tiny kitchen, with very few tools, on a rocking ship, with barely any ingredients.

The amount of action in this book is incredible, and yet nothing is as suspenseful as finding out what Owen will cook from week to week. As the story progresses he’s able to expand his ingredients list considerably. This makes life easier for Owen but it made me considerably hungrier. Owen is resourceful and creative – a true artist. His food is described as being both beautiful and delicious, with multiple courses and always a dessert. But he has to be incredibly creative, not to mention an adept trader and scavenger, to come up with his dishes.

Initially Owen despises the pirates, but as time passes he gradually loosens up a bit. These are pirates who do in fact actually kill people on and off the page, and who give out and who receive brutal physical punishments. As tends to happen with any group of people, some never interact much with Owen at all, some become enemies, and some become friends. Owen never learns to love the sea, but he does learn to respect the multiracial crew and their sense of rough but strict ethics. In particular, Owen develops a strong relationship with the cabin boy, Joshua, who is deaf. Owen teaches Joshua to cook and to read, and Joshua teaches Owen sign language. Above all, Joshua offers Owen friendship when Owen is at his loneliest.

Owen also has a change of heart regarding the captain, Mad Hannah. At first he thinks of her as a monster, a sadist, and a cold-blooded murder. But Mad Hannah is a complex character – smart, tough as nails, strict with her crew when they need it and kind when they need kindness. Her motives for piracy and her relationship with her arch-rival are complicated as well. While Owen sees the British Empire as a haven of civilization, Mad Hannah alerts him to the horrors of colonization and the opium trade.

Owen and Hannah also have something in common. They live spartan lives of intense hardship and focus, but they are both sensualists at heart. Owen, a widower, has been celibate by choice for years and Hannah has been more or less celibate by necessity, and while Owen’s life on land was comfortable, he grew up in difficult circumstances and is accustomed to hard mental and physical work. Yet both Owen and Hannah love things that look, taste, smell, feel, and/or sound beautiful. Their dinners together are sexy not because anything necessarily happens – their relationship is a slow burn, with no explicit scenes. The dinners are sexy because of how Owen and Hannah create intimacy out of arguing about the state of the world, sharing memories, and sharing culinary experiences.

While there are comedic moments in the book, and the premise sounds light, this is actually a pretty harrowing story. Terrible things happen. Many people, including some main characters, wind up dead. However, even though this story did not end as I had hoped it would, it did not leave me feeling betrayed or depressed. I felt that at least some of the characters built satisfying lives for themselves, to an extent that made me ridiculously happy even as I was still crying over events that had transpired only a few pages before the last chapter. For those who really, really want to know how things end, here’s a mega spoiler:

Click for spoilers!

Hannah dies. Owen and Joshua survive and make it to America, where they start a popular restaurant. While Owen misses Hannah, he enjoys his life and he takes comfort in the legends he hears that she survived and continues to terrorize the sea.

If I had to pick one thing to love about the book, it would be the food. If I could pick two things, it would be Owen’s character development. He grows so much, yet always stays true to his essential self – he never stops loving to cook, never learns to love the sea, and never loses his sense of compassion and empathy for others. The very sense of compassion that leads him to condemn Mad Hannah when she kills his employer is the same sense of compassion that allows him to listen to her views and to get to know his shipmates.

I never would have believed that this book could have such an emotional impact on me, but honestly I loved it on every single level. The language is so evocative. I love the concept for the unusual challenge the plot presents the main character (Owen), and for the ways it allows us to get to know how Owen (who is also the narrator) thinks about life. Owen himself presents the reader with such an unusual example of a hero – someone who normally would rarely appear outside the kitchen and who is not a fighter, but who is caring, brave, and intelligent. And of course, I’m a sucker for a female pirate captain. I recommend this book wholeheartedly – just don’t expect everything to be entirely happy at the end.

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Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

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  1. hng23 says:

    I picked this up when it first came out; if I had 4 thumbs they’d all be up! Your review is totally on spot. Time for a re-read…

  2. Dora says:

    Ah man, this sounds great. Definitely goin’ on the old wishlist.

  3. Hazel says:

    This sounds unusual and intriguing. Thank you!

  4. tee says:

    This sounds deliciously wacky. So glad it was fun!

  5. So Santamarina says:

    You know what I love about your page the best? The direct link to Goodreads!!!
    It’s such a god-sent! I couldn’t possibly keep track otherwise.

  6. Lynette says:

    I couldn’t agree with you more. This book is definitely one of my top reads this year.

    So many good characters, so many beautiful descriptions of food!

    I also wanted to mention that it is full of pirate action and most of the story takes place on the sea. There are several ship battles and some gory descriptions of pirate punishments.

  7. Antipodean Shenanigans says:

    I freaking loved this one. I recommend it to anyone who likes nautical fiction. It’s amazing how much plot and character development is stuffed in this book.

  8. ReneeG says:

    I have it up next on my library TBR! Can’t wait to read it.

  9. cherylanne says:

    Buying this now.PS thanks for the spoiler link. I hate surprises and have quit reading or watching something in tge middle if I think it will be too sad for me to take. Xxoocf

  10. Saturngrl says:

    I agree with Cherylanne, I really appreciate the spoiler. I may give this a try, now that I have been forewarned.

  11. Dorothea says:

    I am reading this now on your recommendation, and although it is indeed very good, I am having trouble getting past the lightning speed of travel: they have gotten from England nearly to Macao in two months. I can suspend disbelief about a lot of things–pirates raiding the English coast, fantastical weapons–but strain at the length of the journey. Too much Patrick O’Brian at a formative age, perhaps. As I have said here before, travel tantrum is kin to potato rage, and appears to be my personal bugbear.

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