While the writing style was lovely, there was something missing from this one. I was so excited about it. However, while there is nothing inherently wrong with this book, I was just not interested and found it hard to want to continue reading.

3 stars - some parts of this worked really well, while others left me somewhat unsatisfied.

This is not an action-packed swashbuckling adventure, as the blurb might lead you to believe. It is more of a quiet, introspective reflection on gender roles in early 19th century China, the events which precluded China's Opium Wars, and imperialism.

The story is told through Shek Yeung, an early-30s pirate queen based off an actual historical pirate leader operating in the South China Sea in the early 1800s. Through Shek, the reader experiences what life in 19th century China was like: famine, women as secondary citizens, the citizenry's growing reliance on opium, and the impotent bureaucracy of the Qing dynasty battling with Western imperial powers. The book was undoubtedly well-researched, but this resulted - at the same time - in a lot more telling rather than showing as well as pockets of seemingly unexplained choices (for example, Shek's choice to wear Han clothing as opposed to Manchu clothing when meeting with the Qing dynasty's representative makes little sense to a reader unfamiliar with Chinese history and the fact that the Qing dynasty was founded by invading Manchu's).

For the first half of the book the narrative is somewhat stilted, as the reader is subject to time skips to earlier times in Shek's life which certainly inform her character, but which plucked the reader out of the main storyline. This got much better in the second half, which I found to be a much more enjoyable read.

I think there was a missed opportunity to address and challenge gender roles through a character like Shek. Reading about a protagonist who is not only a woman, but also a mother was undoubtedly refreshing. I had hoped that setting the story against the backdrop of an historically sexist culture would provide a more provocative viewpoint on the issues of gender, particularly given the actual accomplishments of the real-life Shek. This fell flat for me and I generally, at least through the first half of the book, found Shek to be an unlikeable character, but not necessarily in a masterful way (see, for example, Essen in [book: The Fifth Season]). Since we spend the entire time in Shek's head, this was hard to get past.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but don't go into it expecting action and adventure.

"She would not mourn him."

Shek Yeung, legendary pirate queen of history, is embattled in a fight with the Chinese Emperor and European forces seeking to eliminate piracy from the seas. As her story is told, she navigates motherhood, love, and the price of power.

This is an interesting book - but its not the "riveting, roaring adventure novel" that the description led me to believe. From the first page I felt like I was reading an academic paper rather than a novel, the tone caught me off guard since I assumed going into it that it would be more of a dramatized, fictional spin on the life of Shek Yeung.

Shek Yeung was a real person, and lived an absolutely bonkers life, but I feel like we got her story too late into the interesting parts. I would have LOVED to see this novel embrace the beginnings of her story, to show the rise of her into power and then leave the bulk of what the novel's current plot is - as the ending. I think the overall story would have painted a better picture than this one. It wasn't bad, it wasn't boring, and it wasn't skippable, but it was literary, character driven, and historical - which, for many readers picking up based on description alone - might not anticipate or enjoy.

Content warnings: Violence, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, War, Torture, Colonisation, Addiction

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me a copy of this book for an honest review.

The setting and context of a badass woman pirate on the Chinese seas pre-Opium War is extremely captivating. But the tension/conflict/plot wasn’t really enough for me and it felt the book dragged me through a day-in-the-life-of Shek Yeung.

The writing style isn't my favorite, but it is such a well written book and the plot is excellent.

I think those who are nitpicky about writing style/voice may decide to DNF this, but it is a GOOD book, just not for everyone.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a thoughtful portrait of the real-life Chinese pirate queen Shek Yeung. This book was unfortunately woefully mis-marketed, as it is decidedly NOT fantasy, nor is it much of a "riveting, roaring adventure novel" as the blurb claims. It's very well written and compelling, I was just confused by the fantasy misnomer, and then a little let down by the lack of fast-paced adventure. This book is straight-up historical fiction, which is a respected genre in its own right, so I'm not sure why Bloomsbury felt the need to embellish. None of my complaints are the fault of the author, though, so I'm still giving it 4 stars. But publishers really need to stop doing this!

I thought this was a great idea for a book with a very interesting main character--though I do wish she were a little more complex beyond "life has been unkind to me so I'm gonna kill people and loot to survive, but look, I can be nice to this one girl!!" I think Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten is a great example of how to write a female character who can be brutal in her struggle to survive, but in a realistic way and not in a too try-hard "women can be ruthless and violent too" way. I also wasn't a huge fan of the writing style--it felt far too casual at times and formal at others given the historical period--, but that's down to personal preference. It felt like a long third-person monologue, with some prose that felt like a movie monologue narration, if that makes sense.

Another unfortunate reality is that even though the pressure for women to give birth to sons is historically accurate, it just makes for a boring storyline. I'm really tired of these types of books in all honesty. Maybe it's just the IR nerd in me, but I really wish I got more history about her fleet and how they rose to power rather than just some battle scenes and parlez interspersed with details about her pregnancies. I also felt that some of the negotiations were way too simple/quick and found them unfathomable.

Overall though, I thought it was really cool to see a book tell the story of a woman in history we don't often hear about, and I applaud the author for all her hard work and research in putting this together.

Thank you to Bloomsbury for the advance digital copy of this book!

I was so excited and intrigued by this title, but I was pretty disappointed. I found the pacing to be off, it left me reeling and with little time to catch my breath and connect to the characters. There was so much going on but for me, plot has to be secondary in a book, and characters first. This book tackled a fascinating woman in a fascinating situation and, for me at least, made it into something meh. Thank you to the publisher for the copy, I was glad to have a chance to try it, and I am eager to see what Chang-Eppig writes next, I feel like experience could soothe all my woes regarding this work.

Beautifully written and paced, with a compelling main character who was easy to root for. I appreciated the historical background and that the author didn’t shy away from making the protagonist morally gray at times. For anyone who likes historical fiction, lady pirates and folklore.

I find it interesting that this book is marketed as a fantasy when it is very much a historical fiction with fantastical elements at best. The most fantasy like it gets is the spirituality/religion usage, telling stories of gods/goddesses and having the characters pray to them or seek guidance from seers. Other than that, very much just real-world events.

I was very excited to see that I received this ARC (thank you to NetGalley and Bloosmbury) because I had always been entranced by this powerful real life pirate figure that also happened to be a woman! I never took the plunge to research her before, so I was more than thrilled to read a novel based on her life.

The story basically just follows the life of Shek Yeung starting from her pirate husband's death with occasional flashbacks to life before then (how she got to where she is today) and short passages chronicling the goddess' life.

I loved to read about her journey and how she built herself up to success. How she used skills from her previous experiences to assist her as a pirate. How her deceased husband still has such a presence even after passing, how much he shaped her to who she is. I enjoyed getting the inside scoop on Shek Yeung's thought process.

This isn't an adventurous pirate story, but the story of how this pirate queen came to be, a character study if you will. I would still recommend this book regardless of the lack of action. 4/5 stars.

Rita Chang-Eppig unleashes a spell binding tale of a swashbuckling, pirate queen-in-waiting ready to seize her empire. Will she be able to hold on? To win the power struggle? Or are the days of Chinese pirates coming to an end? Love, war, and political intrigue abound. Please note I received an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea shocked me with its poignant reflections on motherhood, womanhood, and identity. I was immediately drawn in by the gorgeous cover, then intrigued by the premise of a female Chinese pirate, and then utterly blown away by Rita Chang-Eppig’s beautiful writing.

The blurbs about this book seem to over promise on the moments of action and adventure; while those things certainly exist in pockets of the story, this is much more of a character study of Shek Yeung. As a young girl, Shek Yeung thrilled at the idea of a life at sea, helping her father and brother on a ship. This dream is brutally ended when pirates murder Shek Yeung’s family, then sell her into a life of prostitution. After years of this reality, she meets a powerful pirate who is impressed with her intelligence and observational skills. He decides to marry her and make her apart of his crew, and slowly Shek Yeung becomes a key player in the world of piracy.

There is so much to love in this book. Shek Yeung is beautifully developed throughout the story as she reconciles with the life she was forced into, and her desire to someday be free. We see her go through so many stages of life, and Chang-Eppig really is intentional at making us understand the character journey. I felt for Shek Yeung so much.

The book did feel a little slow in some places, and I do wish some of the side characters had been brought to life a bit more, but ultimately this was a gorgeous novel that tackled really intense, often dark themes of womanhood.

As I was nearing the end of this I was trying to think of what I’d write for the review, and I don’t have a ton to say about it, I guess?

I enjoyed reading it, a pirate adventure with a female main character who is pretty bad ass and does what she needs to survive and holds her own against all the men. 100% she could have been leading that fleet by herself.

I felt like a lot of the story moved along too quickly, usually with adventure novels like this we’re getting a lot of detail. This didn’t need a TON more, but it would skip full months. Normally I love a quick to the point storyline, but for this type of novel I think it needed to slow down.

Also the ending felt super rushed. I was at like 95% trying to figure out how this was going to get wrapped up and thought maybe they were considering a sequel? But it appears to be a standalone novel.

Overall, I thought this was good. I enjoyed it and it was fun to read, but it didn’t blow me away. HOWEVER, 10/10 for the cover, it’s stunning 😍.

I love stories with strong female characters who are unashamed of their grasping for power in a world that is against them from the start. This gives a lot of the same energy as She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

"All this world is, is people exacting their will on others. The sooner one understands that, the sooner one can move on. Otherwise, you spend your whole life grieving."

A beautifully rendered story of early 19th century maritime rebellion, the fallacy of power, and motherhood's unique position to temper the tides of war. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a historical fiction that seamlessly weaves in magical realism and transports readers from the Manchu Qing-ruled Canton, to Taiwan, to Maynila (modern day Philippines), and all the deep and dark expanses that lie between.

We follow Shek Yeung, a historical pirate queen who, to this day, is still lauded as one of the most (if not THE most) influential and powerful pirates who ever lived, and her journey from being violently ripped away from her fishing family to being turned over and used for chattel among the nefarious "flower boats." And let me tell you—that term is NOT what I had envisioned. But it is the flower boats where Shek Yeung learns to listen and observe and develops her sense of wits and knack for strategy and information, which ultimately elevates her to serve as the wife of respected (and highly feared) Black Banner Fleet commander and enforcer of the pirate alliance, Cheng Yat. It is a few years into their marriage (Shek Yeung is 31 years old when we meet her), when the story begins.

I couldn't put this book down and finished it a day after I picked it up. The writing was brutally vivid, the protagonist embodied—at best—shades of gray, and yet the story somehow managed a more hopeful ending than I could have anticipated. I found Shek Yeung to be a really complex character and was yelling for her to make different decisions throughout, but that's part of what made her story so compelling. She is ruthless and strong and we get to watch her grapple with what it means to be soft and maternal—if she's even capable of being those things—and would that compromise her position of power?

This is a book heavy on seafaring politics, espionage, and skirmishes, which I enjoy, but I perhaps was more invested in Shek Yeung's evolution at the end. I was very pleasantly surprised and felt the book posed so many important ideas to mull over. The writing and character work were excellent, and I greatly enjoyed the story's themes!

"How full of nothing all humans are, just bits of substance drawn and held stubbornly together by will, animal habit, and the fear of what comes after."

This was good, but not excellent. I liked the main character but it felt a little forced. Was a fine read, but probably wouldn't purchase it for myself!

Historical fiction about pirates is not usually my thing, but Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a genuinely exciting novel. Based on the life of real-life badass female pirate Shek Yeung, we follow this courageous woman through her many tragedies, as she uses all her expertise to survive in a violent, male world.

Shek Yeung’s story is devastating; the novel begins with the murder of her husband, and we learn quickly that she lost her brother in a similar way. She has also endured a life of enforced prostitution, working on “flower boats”. But one of her customers recognizes her potential, and recruits her onto his ship. It is then that her reign of terror begins, under her own terms.

Yeung is so relatable it’s almost depressing. Her challenges of motherhood, misogyny, and unrealistic societal expectations still ring true today. I loved following her journey; she was such a smart, fearless woman.

I’m not usually a big reader of books that contain battles, but the action in this is incredibly well-written.

The elements of the story containing the Chinese sea goddess Mazu are really interesting, and add a little sparkle of magical realism to proceedings.

For fans of historical fiction with an incredibly strong female character.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA.

I really enjoyed this book, it's pretty different from what I would typically read. I usually like to read a lot more fantasy or mystery books, but when I read the description of a Chinese woman pirate, I needed to know more. It did not disappoint!

Kind regards to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea did not disappoint. The cover of this historical fiction novel is as beautiful as the tale that unfolds throughout this adventure on the high seas. The novel focuses on Shek Yeung , one of the most famous Chinese pirates. It is full of adventure including naval battles, hand to hand combat, power, and a bit of magical realism. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written historical fiction novel.

When Shek Yeung’s husband is killed in a battle, she takes immediate action, marrying his second in command (with the promise of bearing him a child, a son, to be his heir, despite having thought herself past the time in her life), in order to maintain her power and position within the fleet. But even with that quick thinking, the fleet remains on the edge of disaster in the face of myriad outside threats. Shek Yeung must navigate through a Chinese Emperor who seeks to eradicate all piracy in the most brutal manner, European powers who are tired of losing resources to the pirates, and an inter-fleet alliance that is shaky at best. Plus, as she faces the vastly different challenges of new motherhood, she begins to question what price she is actually willing to pay to retain control and leadership.

I am not sure why, but I thought there was going to be magic in this story…and there is not. I want to set that out to start, as, since I didn’t know where that impression came from personally, maybe other people are thinking that too. That has no bearing on my enjoyment of the overall reading experience whatsoever, I just felt it necessary to clarify. I will say though, there is a definite vibe that supernatural forces *could* be in play, through fate and fortune-telling and the influence of gods (similar to books like The Fortunes of Jaded Women, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, The Cloisters, Plain Bad Heroines, etc.). So, it kind of reads like a magical historical fiction in vibe, if not in actuality. And that’s a style I can get behind.

Plot-wise, this was spectacularly written and paced. There was, absolutely, all the ruthlessness and violence one would expect from a novel about pirates, but as it was sprinkled in with stories about Ma Zhou and mythology and beliefs around her godhood, that was balanced out in a way that made it feel less intense or overwhelming. This was aided by the background on Shek Yeung’s life that was developed as the story went, giving us context not only about her own journey to piracy, but for the greater world within which her story takes place. It was tragic, as I believe all “I didn’t set out to become a pirate, but ended up here anyways” tales must be, compounded by her role as a female during this historical time period in Chinese history (but also, as a female in any time period ever, if we’re being honest). Getting to experience the story from her perspective, her own decisions, and with insight into her own thought processes and feelings, was exactly what I wanted. Finally, in regards to the plot, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge how wonderful the complexity of the political machinations and power maneuvering were. I always love when those aspects are done with the kind of deftness that Chang-Eppig had here.

A few final thoughts. First, I was thrilled to hear that Emily Woo Zeller was narrating – I enjoy her voice talents and this was no exception. I thought it was great, the way Chang-Eppig showed how mythology and folklore take on a life of their own depending on the teller, and how every story is just that because all tales grow and change in the telling. This was demonstrated both though the tales of Ma Zhou and in the ways Shek Yeung chose portray herself and her life.

Overall, what atmospheric and original historical fiction. It was swashbuckling and violent, but also culturally and politically nuanced. Perhaps a slightly slower read than the blurb might suggest, but once I adjusted, it was such a good reading/listening experience.