In any case, the children are nearly feral. In the case of Emily, from whose point of view we follow the action, it seems to have put her so far into her dreamy imaginary world that she’s sometimes unaware of reality. The Thornton children have grown up in a crumbling old house in a ruinous Jamaica running wild, and let’s just say that being kind to animals doesn’t seem to be a concept they’re familiar with. No timeframe is given for this novel except that it is after the British outlawed slavery, but I assume it’s sometime in the 19th century. The novel is frequently compared with Lord of the Flies, which should give you some idea of its effect. Much of the book’s power derives from the contrast between its light-hearted, jaunty tone and its subject matter. For some reason, I always thought A High Wind in Jamaica, which I read for the 1929 Club, was a children’s adventure story.
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