J. Maarten Troost

The best-selling author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals recounts his uproarious misadventures following in the footsteps of idol Robert Louis Stevenson in the South Pacific, describing how his efforts to pursue sobriety in the exotic locales of the Marquesas, the Gilberts and other regions enabled him to reconnect with his family and the world's beauty.

A True Treasure Island Ghost Story

Headhunters on My Doorstep

A jumbled memoir that suffers from some seriously misleading marketing

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

 but never got around to reading any of Troost’s other books. I was looking for some armchair travel, so I thought it would be a good time to pick up 

 was extremely different from my expectations. I expected the humor of his first book as well as that wonderful feeling of wanderlust and explorations of cultures on far-flung portions of the world. What I found instead was a depressing memoir about a man’s recovery from alcoholism.

And yet, this is marketed as travel and adventure. The tagline for this book is “A True Treasure Island Ghost Story.” Let me tell you, this book isn’t really a travelogue. The travel was just an attempt to scrounge up material for the book that Troost admits he was close to being in breach of contract for not delivering. So his solution was to offer a book about retracing the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson. So he loosely followed Stevenson’s path through the Pacific and occasionally sprinkled in some background biographical info about him. I don’t know where the ghost story part was supposed to come in – other than some vague references to being haunted by the past. And that isn’t enough to cut it for me. I expected the title to be a bit on an embellishment; that’s how 

 was. But this description had too little in common with the actual the book.

But most disappointing was how little the setting came alive. I didn’t get any sense of the locations. I wanted to feel like I was in the South Pacific. I wanted wanderlust and adventure. So while this wasn’t objectively a bad book, it wasn’t what I was promised. And I just didn’t enjoy it.

Colleen

A jumbled memoir that suffers from some seriously misleading marketing


I thoroughly enjoyed The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific but never got around to reading any of Troost’s other books. I was looking for some armchair travel, so I thought it would be a good time to pick up Headhunters on my Doorstep.

Unfortunately, Headhunters on my Doorstep was extremely different from my expectations. I expected the humor of his first book as well as that wonderful feeling of wanderlust and explorations of cultures on far-flung portions of the world. What I found instead was a depressing memoir about a man’s recovery from alcoholism.

And yet, this is marketed as travel and adventure. The tagline for this book is “A True Treasure Island Ghost Story.” Let me tell you, this book isn’t really a travelogue. The travel was just an attempt to scrounge up material for the book that Troost admits he was close to being in breach of contract for not delivering. So his solution was to offer a book about retracing the steps of Robert Louis Stevenson. So he loosely followed Stevenson’s path through the Pacific and occasionally sprinkled in some background biographical info about him. I don’t know where the ghost story part was supposed to come in – other than some vague references to being haunted by the past. And that isn’t enough to cut it for me. I expected the title to be a bit on an embellishment; that’s how The Sex Lives of Cannibals was. But this description had too little in common with the actual the book.

But most disappointing was how little the setting came alive. I didn’t get any sense of the locations. I wanted to feel like I was in the South Pacific. I wanted wanderlust and adventure. So while this wasn’t objectively a bad book, it wasn’t what I was promised. And I just didn’t enjoy it.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 2 Stars
Attention to Details: 3 Stars
Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Objectivity: 2 Stars

Headhunters on My Doorstep A True Treasure Island Ghost Story

Reviews