Reading Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch [Spoilers. Big ones.]

What I learned reading Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch:

1. I do not like books about shipwrecks. 
2. I do not like books about cannibalism.

I kid! I already knew I didn't like books about shipwrecks or cannibalism. When I was a tween and the internet was new, I picked up a copy of Reader's Digest at the dentist. Its feature story was about a girl who survived some-ridiculous-amount-of-time lost at sea. When she was finally picked up, she was the size of a toothpick and had learned to catch seagulls with her bare hands. I have no idea whether the story was true or not (probably not), but that's beside the point. The point is that, within two or three weeks, I knew everything there was to know about shipwrecks and being lost at sea (see: the internet was new!). I knew that it was boring, that it was painful, and that it could result in dietary innovations of the most unfortunate kind. I promptly lost interest. The thing about shipwrecks: no matter how excruciatingly painful, the survivors spend a lot of time staring at water.

What I really learned reading Jamrach's Menagerie is this:

1) I should always read to the end of the publisher's blurb before deciding whether or not to buy a book. And I quote, "the crew begins to regard the reptilian beast as bad luck, a feeling that is cruelly reinforced when a violent storm sinks the ship."

2) Shipwreck and cannibalism plots can turn out to be marriage plots.

The novel, which largely takes place in the slums of Victorian London, and, later, on an already-outdated whaling ship, starts out well enough: the protagonist finds himself in the mouth of a tiger. Shortly afterward, Jaffy goes to work for the tiger's owner, Jamrach, and spends his days cleaning up after exotic animals and being hazed by his older co-worker, a fellow street-urchin named Tim. I found myself caught up in the child's perspective of working, 1857 London--the smells! the street food! the heavy drinking! Later, Jaffy's recollection of joining a ship and chasing down a mythical beast held me spellbound. But then, there is a shipwreck. There is cannibalism. It's a painful read, to say the least.