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Scout
As the Scout sails from England, Kit Lovell cries for the life she is leaving and the life she could have had. Her father was a sea captain who went down with his ship before she was born. Now her mother is to marry a stranger, a lighthouse keeper in the remote colony of South Australia.But it soon becomes clear to Kit that this voyage across the world's vast oceans is setting something loose inside her, something she doesn't understand. Her secret encounters with Angel, a mysterious young sailor, seem at one moment completely bewildering and at another crystal clear. And her friendship with the bold and brash young Clarissa is opening her eyes in ways she never thought possible.Yet Kit's internal turmoil is nothing compared to the power of the sea in all its moods as the Scout's melting pot of passengers and crew sail into an adventure that will change all their lives forever.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2010
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Nicole Pluss
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 18, 2010
3. 5 stars
Scout is set in the 1800's and apart from a brief stop-over (about a third into the novel) at Rio De Janeiro, the events in the novel take place entirely at sea.
The descriptions are really vivid - the waves and sea-sickness, the decks and cramped quarters and the gentry living amongst the sailors - it was all painted so wonderfully.
The voice is distinctly from that era - a little bit formal, with this underlying quiet, amused humour in parts and it was easy to imagine the accompanying mannerisms and etiquette of the time. The narrative is like a re-telling, written as a journal after the fact.
The pacing is deliberate and it unfolds in such a gentle and compelling way that I was surprised to suddenly find myself completely sucked in. Hidden amongst the prose are such lovely little details - random intriguing pieces snuck into the story - often these are things I remember the most from stories:
what happened to the horse in the first storm - ooh - it was horrific
someone mentioning their first husband in passing: "He'd been desperately handsome but had stepped on a rusty nail and died"
details of cannibalism in shipwreck times (choosing which sailor to eat first, etc)
As for the characters: Kit (our charming protag) is loyal, quietly fierce, smart and observant and I love her story arc - by the end she is bold and full of hope, although scarred from all she witnessed.
The romance in it is understated which somehow gives it a genuine vibe and the scenes where Angel and Kit are together are a charming portrayal of a young girl experiencing feelings for the first time.
There's also Kit's new friend, Clarissa, who I loved. She's wild and daring and works hard and pushes the boundaries. She's a lot of fun and her morals anatagonise Kit's mum...
As for Kit's mum. She's so concerned with what others think and with being decent and respectable that she'd rather starve than be thought to be greedy. The relationship between Kit and her mum is so deftly done - her mum will frustrate readers in her small-mindedness (I was especially ready to wring her neck in a particular scene in Rio De Janeiro) but somehow, all this little shades of grey are drawn in their relationship that lets you see how Kit's mum truly does care for her.
It has a bittersweet ending in some ways - but ends on great hope for Kit - who has endured so much and I think the impact of the journey will shape her character for the rest of her life.There is tragedy and deaths and it's haunting - the story itself is a re-imagining but based on research from real ships sailing to Australia.
Scout is set in the 1800's and apart from a brief stop-over (about a third into the novel) at Rio De Janeiro, the events in the novel take place entirely at sea.
The descriptions are really vivid - the waves and sea-sickness, the decks and cramped quarters and the gentry living amongst the sailors - it was all painted so wonderfully.
The voice is distinctly from that era - a little bit formal, with this underlying quiet, amused humour in parts and it was easy to imagine the accompanying mannerisms and etiquette of the time. The narrative is like a re-telling, written as a journal after the fact.
The pacing is deliberate and it unfolds in such a gentle and compelling way that I was surprised to suddenly find myself completely sucked in. Hidden amongst the prose are such lovely little details - random intriguing pieces snuck into the story - often these are things I remember the most from stories:
what happened to the horse in the first storm - ooh - it was horrific
someone mentioning their first husband in passing: "He'd been desperately handsome but had stepped on a rusty nail and died"
details of cannibalism in shipwreck times (choosing which sailor to eat first, etc)
As for the characters: Kit (our charming protag) is loyal, quietly fierce, smart and observant and I love her story arc - by the end she is bold and full of hope, although scarred from all she witnessed.
The romance in it is understated which somehow gives it a genuine vibe and the scenes where Angel and Kit are together are a charming portrayal of a young girl experiencing feelings for the first time.
There's also Kit's new friend, Clarissa, who I loved. She's wild and daring and works hard and pushes the boundaries. She's a lot of fun and her morals anatagonise Kit's mum...
As for Kit's mum. She's so concerned with what others think and with being decent and respectable that she'd rather starve than be thought to be greedy. The relationship between Kit and her mum is so deftly done - her mum will frustrate readers in her small-mindedness (I was especially ready to wring her neck in a particular scene in Rio De Janeiro) but somehow, all this little shades of grey are drawn in their relationship that lets you see how Kit's mum truly does care for her.
It has a bittersweet ending in some ways - but ends on great hope for Kit - who has endured so much and I think the impact of the journey will shape her character for the rest of her life.There is tragedy and deaths and it's haunting - the story itself is a re-imagining but based on research from real ships sailing to Australia.
October 31, 2010
Fifteen year old Kit Lovell leaves her revolting relatives in England and travels with her mother to Australia. Mrs Lovell has agreed to marry a man she has never met - a Scottish lighthouse keeper who lives off the coast of South Australia. The Lovell's travel on the Scout, a small, sturdy ship, along with an cross-section of English society, using money that Mr McKenzie has sent from Australia. It is within this claustrophobic and confined situation that Kit begins to understand more about her history, and about who she really is inside.
My biggest problem with this book is its length. It takes too long to get to the adventurous and life-changing situation, and needs an edit through the middle section. The language of the characters is not always authentic to the time the story is set in, and Kit's age seems to vacillate between 12 and 21.
Despite this, the resolution to the story is satisfying, and in general, the book is well-written. It would certainly suit a reader that enjoyed historical romance.
My biggest problem with this book is its length. It takes too long to get to the adventurous and life-changing situation, and needs an edit through the middle section. The language of the characters is not always authentic to the time the story is set in, and Kit's age seems to vacillate between 12 and 21.
Despite this, the resolution to the story is satisfying, and in general, the book is well-written. It would certainly suit a reader that enjoyed historical romance.
September 18, 2012
3.5 stars. Another book I grabbed at the library (it was on display for winning a book award). Loved the author's writing style. Wish I knew what became of Kit and Angel...
November 11, 2012
Excellent writing, characters you care about with great dialogue.
November 10, 2023
Fifteen-year-old Kit Lovell and her mother Rachel are migrating from England to colonial Australia where Rachel is to marry the Kangaroo Island lighthouse keeper. The Lovell’s only contact with the colony has been via the keeper’s letter which carried the marriage proposal and a sum of money. Rachel’s first marriage was short lived. Her husband, a sea captain, died before Kit’s birth.
Nicole Plüss’s novel is set almost entirely at sea, on the sailing vessel Scout. It is told in the first person, at an undisclosed time after the voyage. Kit did not keep a shipboard journal – a record of facts ‘explaining everything other than what was really happening on board’. Instead, she later writes the things ‘that people don’t want down on paper ... the things I can’t forget’.
During the months at sea, Kit’s identity dissolves and re-shapes in the absence of the familiar. She develops an awareness of who she is – and who she might become – in counterpoint to the women around her: she is not her guarded mother, she is not the provocative young Clarissa, nor the snobbish Miss Annabel. She is no longer bound to the land of her birth or the social mores of her family and class.
Kit is also shaped by the men she encounters: the enigmatic sailor Angel, the wealthy passenger Mr Linley, and her absent father Captain Lovell.
Plüss’s novel is framed in three parts. In the first, passengers and crew coalesce into a loosely structured seaborne community. Then comes a storm and an enforced visit to Rio de Janeiro for repairs. The unexpected landing provides a destabilising window into the life of a European colony. In the third section, the ship, its passengers and crew are fractured again. The old world breaks up entirely.
This is a book that bears re-reading. Plüss’s writing, and Kit’s perceptions, have much to offer.
My copy of this book was provided by the Western Australian journal Fiction Focus: New Books for Teenagers. A version of my review was published in Fiction Focus 25(1) 2011.
Nicole Plüss’s novel is set almost entirely at sea, on the sailing vessel Scout. It is told in the first person, at an undisclosed time after the voyage. Kit did not keep a shipboard journal – a record of facts ‘explaining everything other than what was really happening on board’. Instead, she later writes the things ‘that people don’t want down on paper ... the things I can’t forget’.
During the months at sea, Kit’s identity dissolves and re-shapes in the absence of the familiar. She develops an awareness of who she is – and who she might become – in counterpoint to the women around her: she is not her guarded mother, she is not the provocative young Clarissa, nor the snobbish Miss Annabel. She is no longer bound to the land of her birth or the social mores of her family and class.
Kit is also shaped by the men she encounters: the enigmatic sailor Angel, the wealthy passenger Mr Linley, and her absent father Captain Lovell.
Plüss’s novel is framed in three parts. In the first, passengers and crew coalesce into a loosely structured seaborne community. Then comes a storm and an enforced visit to Rio de Janeiro for repairs. The unexpected landing provides a destabilising window into the life of a European colony. In the third section, the ship, its passengers and crew are fractured again. The old world breaks up entirely.
This is a book that bears re-reading. Plüss’s writing, and Kit’s perceptions, have much to offer.
My copy of this book was provided by the Western Australian journal Fiction Focus: New Books for Teenagers. A version of my review was published in Fiction Focus 25(1) 2011.
January 18, 2022
Simple, yet enjoyable historical fiction.
September 12, 2011
Did my distant relatives really journey from the UK in ships like this? I am glad they did but at times the reality this story created was almost too much for my imagination. I hope they were like Kit and Clarissa not Miss Annabel and the Captain.
Read
August 5, 2011Intense, interesting and a little sad, really.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews