Book Review: Esaped From the Gallows by Ton van Reen (The Bokkenrijders Gang #1)

  Note: This book isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Bende van de Bokkenrijders #1: Ontsnapt aan de galg.

 
 Since my Bokkenrijders interest is resurfacing, here's a historical fiction book all about it! Spoilers ahead.

Mathijs is a boy who lives on a farm in 1700s Limburg. The area he lives in is being plagued by gangs of Bokkenrijders, satanist robbers who supposedly ride goats at night. When a group of Roma arrive in town, most people, including Mathijs himself, think that one of them is the legendary leader of the Bokkenrijders. But soon Mathijs finds out the truth and now he will have to do everything he can to save one of the Roma, an innocent man named Goja, from being convicted and hanged. 

Overall a pretty solid and enjoyable read. It's not perfect but it has a lot of good going for it.

First, I do like that this has a pretty chill pace to it. It does have its action scenes which is good, but it also really takes its time to establish these characters and their way of life in the 18th century. And I really like that. Sure, it's maybe not the most exciting thing right out the gate, but I think establishing things here was really important before we headed into the Bokkenrijders action. 

I also quite liked the characters, particularly Mathijs and Wolf, who form a very close friendship over the story. They really worked well together. The other characters were usually quite well-written as well. Nobody really felt flat or boring to me, even the more minor characters.

If I do have a criticism about the book, it's that it hasn't aged all that well in some aspects. The Roma are referred to by the Dutch equivalent of the G-slur, and there's just some racist moments against them that made me uncomfortable. How historically accurate the racism here is, I don't know (since this is a book based on real events in Dutch history), but still it wasn't all that fun to read. In the end the Roma do turn out to be innocent, which is good, but that doesn't negate the (albeit brief) moments of racism against them earlier in the story. 

So yeah, overall a solid story. It mostly has a pretty mellow pace to it but the action scenes with the Bokkenrijders do stand out, the characters are well-written and it really comes across that Van Reen did his research (even if it is obviously not 100% accurate to the real thing). 

Rating: 3.5/5