I honestly liked the writing style of Miriam McNamara. It was descriptive and really gave me the vibe you need to pull of a historical fiction novel like this one - especially one with pirates. It also read ridiculously fluently!

Of course, the f/f romance was a huge plus. I love anything LGBTQIA+ and I... quite... liked seeing Lucie and Anne Bonny's relationship develop.

But...

First of all, I got annoyed by Anne. Why? The Anne Bonny I know, is the mysterious, bad-ass one Black Sails gave us in their show. Not a woman in dresses who loves all things romance and needs men to solve her shit. It messed with my brain. It got on my nerves. I realize I should've kept the two Anne's separate but it just wouldn't work?!

As for Nat, I simply wanted to know more. Him and Lucie hadn't been in contact for a while and they don't even feel the need to properly catch up with each other in the slightest. Like. What kind of friend is like that?

Apart from that, I also felt like the characters fell extremely flat. It was a cute story - sure - but there wasn't really any development other than Mary's journey towards accepting herself. That's it. That and it's a pirates novel. There's supposed to be some swashbuckling adventure and I didn't get that at all!

Overall I did enjoy reading this novel, because it was such a quick read and the romance between two female characters definitely helped that but... I definitely had some issues with it as well...

3 / 5!

Kathy

One of my most anticipated books for this year was The Unbinding of Mary Reade, which is a YA story based on my favourite gang of pirates – Calico Jack, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. There’s a fair bit of controversial content in this book, but if you’re prepared to weather a few somewhat uncomfortable situations, then this is a very interesting read that brings Anne and Mary’s relationship to the fore.

Let’s get the difficult stuff out of the way first. This is a historical novel, and pirates generally aren’t known for their wonderful treatment of women (part of the reason that Anne and Mary were so notorious is that they were so unusual for their time). This novel does not shy away from the rampant sexism and indeed sexual harassment that the female characters face – I have quite hard limits on gratuitous rape scenes, and will often DNF a book or other media which takes this even a smidgen past too far. But I actually found most of the situations in this book both believable and necessary for the plot, and nothing is described graphically. Mary’s breasts are bound when she dresses in male clothes, and the loss of this binding is what reveals her to the crew – it’s deeply uncomfortable, but I didn’t find it gratuitous. Anne’s backstory is just fact, pure historical fact, and where she is beaten it does not feel sexually derived, just part of the violence of piratical life. Others may find this crosses their personal lines, but I thought it made sense in context.

I cannot in any way speak to the transgender or genderqueer elements of Mary’s journey, so I won’t attempt to. A quick scan on Goodreads will show you lots of reviews which discuss this far better than I can. What I can speak to is Mary’s confusion and inner struggle upon realising she is attracted to women as well as men, and I found that to be well-written and ringing with truth. I’d be interested to know if the author is bi. After finishing the book, I started to think that maybe there was a bit of the old ‘women abused by men become lesbians’ trope, but while reading it didn’t seem like that. Mary and Anne seek comfort in each other, but they are also attracted to each other well before anything bad happens.

Okay, on to the positives. I love that this novel exists. F/F Anne Bonny fanfic being published for real is awesome! I’ve seen some complaints that there isn’t a lot of actual piracy in this book, but I actually found that quite refreshing – it was hardly sea battles all the time in real life. There’s space for the political side of piracy: the downtime, the boredom, the planning, the democracy of the crew, the question of whether to take the law’s pardon or continue as outlaws. There’s a lot of exploration of what it means to be free, and whether piracy actually achieves that. I thought this was very well handled and interesting.

I am so very down for F/F romance becoming more popular. I loved the way that Mary and Anne instantly had a spark, but that their relationship was a deeply emotional and caring one. This isn’t insta-love, it’s a slow realisation that someone else can end up becoming the centre of your world. I wish this slow pace of romance was more of a trend for relationships of any orientation in YA. I also liked that Mary’s relationship with her male friend Nat was shown in flashbacks and the present day – none of this ‘gay now’ business.

Mary is a complex and confused character, but she is instantly likeable for her determination to survive. She’s a true Slytherin – deeply loyal to her chosen few and always pushing for the best. This isn’t my favourite version of Anne that I’ve ever seen – she’s a bit of a contradiction. Sometimes she’s kicking ass and taking names, and sometimes she’s weeping into a blanket. She does a fair bit of weeping. This is not really what I expected – I think she would have had to keep up her image to stand a chance on the ship. But I liked her fierceness being combined with the softness, and even in her weepy moments she still felt like she was ready to pull a knife on someone.

Jack is… not the Calico Jack I love. McNamara makes him something of the villain of the piece – not outright bad, but not a nice guy. I much prefer both Jack and Anne in other works (particularly Black Sails). I think a fair amount of people who read this will have seen Black Sails, if they’re interested in pirates, and so they may, like I did, find these versions a little bit strange and a lot less fun.

To sum up, then, this is a complex, fascinating novel. I found it utterly compelling, and I loved the romance. There are issues, as I think there will often be when trying to tell queer stories in a realistic historical setting, and it’s definitely not a rollicking, sea-shanty-singing, piratical adventure, so if you’re going into it expecting this, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if you’re interested in a gorgeously written character study of an irrestible and plausible Mary Reade, then definitely check this out.

I’m going to go with three out of five stars, because while there was a lot I enjoyed, I don’t think this was quite perfect (I do like a little bit of rollicking in my piratical stories).

This book was another DNF for me. This was unfortunate for me because I had been really excited about the idea of a female pirate story. Especially when I found out it was based on a true story. However, about halfway through the book, I realized it was not what I had expected. Instead of a lot of daring pirate fights, it was mostly about the interworkings of a ship of pirates. There was a lot of technical stuff that I did not find as interesting. I had expected more considering how the beginning of the book started. I especially expected more from Anne's character. I was a little disappointed though. Enough so that I didn't want to finish the book. I appreciated the diversity in this book, especially the budding relationship between Mary and Anne, but I almost think a story told from Anne's perspective would have been much better. I do think this book has a market out there and it still has the chance of doing well but it just wasn't for me at the moment.

I made it 38% of the way through this book. So far the only thing that has really happened is they sailed to a deserted island.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

To be honest, I don’t even know where to start.
Probably why I really wanted to read this book. I mean, female pirates? f/f romance? Based on historical events? Basically history fanfiction? Hell yes, sign me up for that.
Sounds awesome, right? That’s what I thought. Unfortunately, it turned out to be not that awesome. This sounded so interesting and good and don’t get me wrong, the thought behind it actually is pretty cool. I just did not like what was made with this idea. It just felt… unfinished.

First off, I needed ages to get into this book. The reader gets thrown right into the story and I was constantly confused about what was going on. There are so few explanations. For anything. There is only a bit of world building, just the tiniest bit. The majority of the book is set in the Carribean in 1719 but we don’t get to see much of it. Yeah, there’s the sea and some beaches and of course Nassau. But what else is there? Are there other animals except for fish and tortoises? Are there plants in those jungles? How does the society work, other than men are powerful and own their wives? What does this society mean to the characters who have to live in it?
I just have so many questions. True, since it is historical, I could just go ahead and read everything up, but that is not really how reading a novel works, is it?

If there is only so much worldbuilding, what does the book focus on? The characters? Not so much.
We have our main character, Mary. She has disguised herself as a boy (Mark) for most of her life. It was easier for her that way, though she fell in love with her best friend who did not know she was a girl. We do not know much about Mary’s thoughts. Because somehow she always talks and never thinks much. The actions she takes in certain situations are discribed in two sentences, probably a half sentence of thought. And that’s it. I can’t really put her character into words, mostly because she is very indecisive and never really sticks with an opinion. She says one thing, then the complete opposite 5 sentences later. And what made her change her mind? I have no idea. I really can not tell you, sorry.
Well yes, there are throwbacks to two years earlier when she was still poor and living in London with her mum and/or her Granny. But this really only explains why she disguises herself as a boy and how she came to be where she is now.

You see, that was the protagonist. You can guess how well we get to know other characters. There’s Anne, of course. The piratess Mary falls in love with. Or not. Or does she? Anne appears to be strong and independent, what she wants most is her freedom. But then she makes herself dependent on men, on the other hand. And then she suddenly gets all angry and weird and back to nice and flirty. I just can’t tell what is going on inside her.

And Nat? Childhood best friend/love of Mary’s? He likes her or has a crush on her, he defends her, but only so that is is barely enough. He makes advances, but then he draws back. He does what everyone his age and profession does, he’s not even having a character really. Nat is just doing what people tell him to do and I spent most of the book wanting to punch him in the face.

What is said about Calico Jack, famous pirate captain? He likes women, breaks promises (or not?) and gets angry very easily. And that is what I can tell you about the leader of the crew.

That said, I can’t say I enjoyed the writing style much. Everything was just too short, any details were amiss. It just seemed very unfinished and off. And some of the words the characters were using feel to modern to be used in 1719.

To sum it up, the idea is brilliant. How it turned out, not so much. Unfortunately. I really tried to enjoy this, but I just did not. Though it had bi (?) pirates. The book read like it was nowhere near finished.

I absolutely love pirates and f/f romance. Both together is even better, so I was incredibly excited when I first heard about this book and I've been anticipating and shouting about it ever since.
When I first heard of some of the bad reviews, I adjusted my expectations but this ended up being even more of a trash fire than I could've believed possible.

Now I am not someone who criticises pirate books very harshly. I don't mind if there's not a lot of actual piratey stuff because I just really like the setting. So I didn't mind that this wasn't very fully of actual pirate action but the thing is, normally there's some other good redeeming quality about it? Like there's some other interesting storyline that keeps me going or a good romance. Whatever. I DON'T CARE, give me something. This did nothing for me. I mean they barely spend any time on a ship so it didn't even have the setting that I love. And if there was an actual action scene it was never fully fleshed out and kinda faded into black.

I sadly don't think there was much chemistry between Mary and Anne. Throughout the whole book I was hoping something would change but while I found the physical attraction between the two believable, I don't think there was any romantic tension whatsoever. Especially looking at the ending, it just didn't seem believable. I'm glad this ended the way it did (boi would I have thrown my Kindle out the window if it had been different) but only because I wanted the happy gay ending, not because I actually thought this was a good romantic storyline.

I don't think the switches between the timelines helped much with my enjoyment either. A lot of the times it would take me out of the “action”. And while I liked some of the interactions Mary had with Nat (it was the more believable romance tbh), I just always wanted to go back to the “current” storyline.
But especially in the last bit it was so unnecessary. I get what the author was going for and the idea was nice but it didn't really do much for me. At that point I just wanted the book to be over.

In the first half or so I read this and just felt bored. I didn't have any emotional connection and couldn't give two fucks about what happened to the characters. But for a long time it was still a 3 star read for me because while boring and not well executed, I didn't really have any other issues with it.
But at one point I just couldn't take the repeated homophobia and (threatened) sexual assault and all that shit. I just got so fucking mad about it. And ugh, I know, I guess I should've expected it because it's Historical Fiction but can't a queer woman haves some hopes and dreams? I don't mind SOME problematic elements for historical accuracy (that's a whole nother discussion anyway) but so many bad things would happen R E P E A T E D L Y, so much that at one point the novel basically consisted of nothing but these problematic elements and it made me sick. Literally. Like I'm not gonna lie, as a queer woman this was so fucking hard to read sometimes.

I'm also not sure how to feel about the representation of Mary's struggles with her gender. As a cis person I can't really say much about it but there some parts that felt super iffy to me. I'm sure some of Mary's thoughts could be relatable but there's scenes that I think are horrible to read about.

To be fair I should have DNFed it. I thought about it several times but my heart loves gay pirates so much, I thought I could get through this. In hindsight I can truthfully say I wish I had DNFed this. It definitely would've spared me some pain.
I can't recommend this. The problematic aspects are not worth it at all.

Content warnings for sexual assault, abuse, homophobia, sexism and transphobia.

The Unbinding of Mary Reade is a book about a girl named Mary who is forced to masquerade as her dead brother so she can get her mum drug money. But it spirals out of control when she shot the captain of the ship and joined to become a pirate. This then becomes a tale of lesbian shenanigans and hard to read font that switches between italicized and regular. Ultimately a book that was lead astray from its overall theme. Should be labeled LGBT from the start.

This book is just not for me. I didn't finish it and I don't feel comfortable reviewing it in detail.

I really wanted to like this book, but the writing style wasn't ideal. I was anticipating this book for so long and was left disappointed. I also thought the character and plot development could have been better.

Gah...my heart is so freaking full after finishing this book!!! I went into it expecting a story telling the tale of a girl who wasn’t quite sure who she was, and that’s exactly what I got! I also got some epic pirate scenes, some forbidden romance, and an ending that put a ginormous smile on my face! There were definitely some tough scenes (it is set in the 1700s after all), but they just made the story more real for me! I loved the characters, and I loved seeing Mary’s character evolve!

If you’re looking for a great LGBTQ story and you also love pirates, you’ll love this one! Just don’t go into it expecting all pirates, all the time. :D

All romance and no action

Actual rating: 2.5 stars
This book is about Mary Reade who dressed up as a boy for her whole life, because her mother didn’t want a daughter but a son. Her grandmother thinks she has a grandson, instead of a granddaughter, and pays her to visit (as a boy). This is the only income she and her mother have. At some point she decides to join a privateer (?) ship, as a boy, with a friend of hers. At some point they are split up, and her goal is to find him again. She ends up in a fight with another ship; during the fight she sees that one of the attackers is actually a girl. So she decides to kill her own captain, and join this female pirate. The story takes off from there.

What I thought:
For a pirate book I expected a lot of action, in which this book really disappointed me..
This book starts in the middle of a fighting scene, which was great. And later on there was another small fighting scene, I would say may 35 pages total of action?
Besides those fighting scenes the book mainly focuses on all the love dynamics, which was still interesting but not what I wanted from this book.

Recommend for: readers who like romance, with not a lot of action.

This book contains bisexual representation. But also a lot of homophobia and sexism (which is accurate for the time, but be aware if you don’t like that).

Well, this book was disappointingly boring. Pirates, and boring. Such a shame. There was potential in this book. But honestly, everything is so dull.
This book has a really heavy focus on romance and ignores a lot of actual pirating. The romance aspect wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't the main focus of a story about pirates. It's based on a true story, that I feel might be more interesting and exciting than this book is. So this book brought that about, inspiring me to read the true story. (I read a small amount already, and the characters of Anne and Mary have been aged down by about 20 years, even though the year they met remains the same)

I just had higher hopes for this book. I wish it was more exciting than it was.

Ehhhhhh *wobbles hand* I didn't care for this book. It felt stilted and unsure of itself, and the characters weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked. This could have been a fun adventuresome romance, but instead it... wasn't.

Sorry but I couldn't get into the book at all. I tried though, I'm so sorry for my ADD brain.

I had high hopes for this historical YA f/f pirate romance adventure. (Many things I love!) This centers on Mary Read, who joins a pirate crew that includes Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham. Other readers may find this book is up their alley, but the narration and characterization really did not work for me and I DNF.

I did not finish The Unbinding of Mary Reade because the text of the eARC was like a screenshot of a Word document. This made it headache-inducing to read and not worth it. I was looking forward to a swashbuckling female protagonist, but not at the cost of my eyesight.

A pirate love story worth reading. Follow the journey of a girl who's destined to bring justice to a world with none.

I LOVE anything pirates. When I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. Mary Reade and Anne Bonny? I dreamed about this stuff as a kid. I read other reviews before reading it and I know I shouldn't have now. So many bad reviews were given and I don't think they're really accurate.
If you're looking for pirate adventure, no you won't get it. But if you're interested in pirate life you'll get some of that. The book was more about the secret life that Mary lived as a man both before and during her pirate days. If you are okay with reading about this aspect, then the book is rather good! I was actually interested the entire time. The double life that Mary lived was fascinating.
I'm not against books with homosexual themes, or bisexual I should say. I just do not read much as my preferred genres are thrillers or historical fiction but I've been reading a lot of everything recently. I believe a lot of the nature argument of homosexuality. I'm not really sure anyone chooses to be gay or not. However, Mary falling in love with a girl seems a lot to do with nurture in this case. Mary's forced lifestyle as "Mark" led her down a path of a solely masculine lifestyle. She lived that life whether her choice or not and falling for Beth at 15 and then Anne at 17 seems as if it was because the life she lived. This portion was interesting to me. Her wanting for Nat as a child and at her older age though makes her a bisexual and it's as if the nurture argument is favored here.
Although lacking pirate adventure as noted, the pirate lifestyle still interested me and I really enjoyed the book. One thing that I found fault with was the writing style. Most of the book was written well and the pirate vernacular was used. I came to a line over halfway in that said "they were cool with each other". Ok, has I been reading a YA novel set in modern times, I wouldn't have looked twice but this line was so out of character to the book that I didn't like it. I know it was just one simple line but it felt so out of place like the author forgot what she was writing for a second. That was my only issue though.
I really wish people would look at the book for what it is more than wishing it was something else. I enjoyed it. If I want a pirate adventure, I'll read something else but this still has the backbones of a really great book and incorporates pirates which was interesting enough for me. I'm a tough critic and somehow again, I am going against popular opinion. I enjoyed the read!

Well, hoist the mainsail, stock up on rum and run up the Jolly Roger: it’s time for a swashbuckling tale of piratical adventure! And, this time, the boys don’t have all the fun. Miriam McNamara introduces us to Mary Reade, who runs away to sea in 1717 disguised as a man, and who finds a new lease of life when the Dutch ship on which she serves is taken by pirates. Mary is impressed by the elegant pirate captain, ‘Calico’ Jack Rackham, but even more taken with the red-headed woman who fights in a red velvet gown at his side. This is Anne Bonny who, along with Mary, is one of the very few known female pirates. McNamara’s story plays a little fast and loose with the ‘facts’, though there are few enough of those, but she conjures up an engaging read with a very modern take on gender identity, which does justice to the spirit of Mary’s extraordinary story.


The strangest things are true. Mary Reade was born illegitimate, to a mother who was mourning the recent death of her legitimate son Mark. Feeling that a son was a better bet than a daughter, Mary’s mother brought her up in breeches, calling her Mark and keeping her true sex a secret from everyone around them. McNamara interweaves this story of young ‘Mark’ with the later tale of Mary’s joining the crew of Calico Jack in the Caribbean, and her awakening to a future full of new possibilities. McNamara even adds a childhood sweetheart, ‘Mark’s’ best friend Nat, who is oblivious both to his mate’s true sex and the depth of ‘Mark’s’ feelings for him, and whose departure to serve as a privateer in the West Indies has drawn Mary out to look for him. But, as Mary spends more and more time with Calico Jack and Anne, she begins to wonder whether Nat will really bring her the happiness she seeks in life.

Of course, the main reason to read this book is because one can never have too many pirate stories. But it’s also a very sensitive exploration of how our gender is shaped by our upbringing, and how this may or may not dovetail with our biological sex, and how our sexuality, likewise, may not fit comfortably with either. Mary is a rich and complex protagonist, embodying the diversity of experience that we increasingly seem to see in other young adult novels as well. Her childhood love for Nat; her fascination with Anne: these emotions encourage her to try to carve out a new niche for herself in her world. And, best of all, Mary achieves what she does through her own determination and her own hard-won skills. Unlike Anne, she doesn’t shuttle from the protection of one man to another and the fact that she doesn’t need men, coupled with her fondness for breeches, only adds to the collapse of whatever reputation she might have had.

Anyone who’s done a bit of reading on Mary’s and Anne’s histories might spot moments where McNamara simplifies the real story. Anne, for example, was illegitimate like Mary and, like Mary, was brought up disguised as a boy, which gained her an education that she wouldn’t have received as a girl. This isn’t emphasised in the novel and, in fact, I found book-Anne a little too soft and a little too reliant on others – not necessarily what I’d have expected from a woman with as much spirit as the historical Bonny. Mary, too, has been changed a bit. In the book, she’s in her late teens when she joins Rackham’s crew – young enough to suffer the coming-of-age pains that give the story its emotional charge. But the historical Mary was in her mid-thirties when she joined up, and had already fought as a soldier on land in Flanders, been married, had briefly run an inn and been widowed. She must have been a more mature (and hardened?) figure than McNamara’s protagonist.

I wonder whether McNamara plans to write a sequel? The ending is certainly left tantalisingly open. (Although, spoiler: I thought it required too much suspension of disbelief to imagine that two women – two people of any sex, indeed – could steal a ship without a bit more help.) If you’re keen on feisty women of history, pirates, or good young-adult historical fiction, I’d suggest giving this a shot when it’s published in July. I found it a light, engaging read, though in the light of research I’ve since done on Reade and Bonny, I think I’d have enjoyed it even more if the book had stuck to the facts.

The real Reade seems to have been about twelve years older than Bonny, which would have changed the dynamic in the book considerably, even if it might have been less appealing to its target readership. A feisty cross-dressing teenage female pirate? Brilliant, obviously. But a feisty, cross-dressing, middle-aged female pirate, who’d already fought in the Dutch army and (it transpired later) was a good deal braver than Calico Jack? Completely epic.

For the review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/03/24/the-unbinding-of-mary-reade-miriam-mcnamara/