***3.5 Stars***

Overall,
I did enjoy this book, especially the POV and the main characters challenges with her womanhood and what it means in her current world. I will say there was not as much action as I would have thought there would be. Some parts were a little difficult for me to follow (however this may be due to just listening to the book vice reading it). While this is a time in history I am very interested in, I am not sure that this hit the mark as much as I would have liked it to.

Narration,
This is narrated by Emily Woo Zeller who I love. I think she did a great job putting a voice to the main character..

***I received this audio arc from Netgalley and Blackstone publishing in exchange for my free and honest review***

I had heard about Shek Yeung in an Atlas Obscura article years ago as the most successful pirate in history with her fleet of 1800 ships and 80k men and I was really excited to pick this one up. In her novel, Rita Chang-Eppig set out to bring Shek Yeung to life as a multifaceted woman. Not just someone's wife, and not just a feminist icon.

I really enjoyed Chang-Eppig's take on this! While most pirate stories are in the fantasy genre, I absolutely loved that this was historical fiction. I would not have thought about the logistics of being a female pirate, commanding a fleet, having children all at the same time. I liked the audio for this one the story makes for an easy to follow audiobook and the narration was great!

Based on the beautiful cover, I expected this to be a YA fantasy set in Asia. The setting was Asia, but it was not YA nor fantasy, but I think I liked that even better.

The story is about Shek Yeung and her journey from her working class family, to poverty, to becoming a wealthy pirate. Her struggles as a working mother, with a leadership role that isn't conducive to motherhood, is relatable. The choices she makes to retain her power and money, keep her children safe, and protect her crew illustrate the life of a complicated woman who has to decide what is the right thing to do vs. what is the ethical thing to do.

This is not a fluffy, feel good story of a powerless person who finds happiness, but the story of a life that is a continuous struggle and the lessons learned by choices made.

I love the audio narration! Emily Woo Zeller is one of my favorites.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. It’s not my usual genre (it leans more toward historical than fantasy romance) and there isn’t really any romance in this story, but I loved the characters. This book is for fans of pirates, history, and strong female characters who were paving the way for change long before change happened.

I also loved the narrator for this book. I’m pretty sure she also narrated one of the POVs in The Drowned Empire series and I love that series on audio.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This story follows Shek Young, a pirate queen as she is stolen from her fishing village, survives being put in a brothel, and gains power and political influence. The book is at its best when it is pushing against gender norms and questioning roles and exploring our main characters flaws as well as strengths. It is much slower paced and more literary and less magical than you may think with the pirate marketing, and is probably best enjoyed when read as historical fiction. If you go in looking for a fantasy adventure you will be disappointed.

Poetic pirates is how I would describe this book. It was eloquent and engaging. I especially loved the parts regarding the sea goddess.
The FMC Shek Yeung is strong in the face of adversity. She strives for power even at a cost. She is such a gritty character to read, making her a great pirate deserving the role of pirate queen.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes pirates but also to anyone who likes character driven narratives.
I read this as an audio and the narrator did a great job in making the experience immersive.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for an Audio ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I wasn't really into the book when I first started. I am really glad I gave it a chance. The story is very engaging. I enjoyed the character development and the plot twists. It felt slow to start, but the adventure is worth it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for this ALC!

- This was a little more intense than I was expecting, but I ended up enjoying it!
-It kept reminding me of two books I read recently: The Adventures of Amina al Sirafi (woman navigating how to reconcile being a woman and a pirate, as well as dealing with adding motherhood to all of that) and Babel (the discussion of Western influence, and the discussion of the opium trade throughout kept bringing me back to Robin’s experience on the trip to China to help with the political translations).
- While this book is about piracy, it didn’t romanticize it at all in the way a lot of other books have. The way Shek Yeung talks about why people are pirates was such a good reminder of the larger political and economic forces at play.
- I thought it was really interesting how the book shows that, while Shek Yeung was a pirate, her position in the fleet felt very much like a position of political leadership. The mention of her having to have someone manage the accounts, having to write speeches to motivate her crewmates, or deal with political maneuvering with her allies was a part of piracy I haven’t seen in the books I’ve read before.

This is my historical fiction fave of the year so far. Also, it's aiding the feminist manifesto! Because come on, there is a female pirate, running her own crew (yeah yeah sure she was married one of the dudes with power), giving birth, and ransack other ships.

Shek Yeung was one of a pirate queen. Struggles during her childhood and adolescence made her weary of the life in Canton, but she managed to find her way into pirate ships. If she had to marry the captain and bear his children, so be it. She was not only doing this for herself, but also for other women she took on. They need to have their place in this world and it could not be diminished to work on flower boats.

I liked that most of the book was Shek Yeung's chain of thoughts than what was going on in the sea. The critical events were explained, but I really appreciated to have insight into what this woman was thinking. I believe most readers will like her courage and character.

I did not find the character voice compelling as I expected to pick up with the main character's move to find more agency for herself in a male-dominated space. Instead I found her adherence to the patriarchal status quo - fine if her position changes throughout the book, yet I had neither the time nor the patience to sit through the patriarchal takes until she possibly finds this agency. I finished reading this book 7% in.

Deep as the Sky, Read as the Sea suffers from mis-marketing. Instead of the promised swashbuckling adventure, it offers a cerebral exploration of womanhood in the era of Chinese imperialism, focusing on a female pirate's unconventional life. It's more of a feminist historical/literary fiction, not a fast-paced adventure novel. The protagonist, Shek Yeung, rises as a legendary pirate queen alongside her husband, but when he is killed, she must protect her alliances and power. The book showcases extensive research on 19th-century Chinese history and culture, with insightful passages. However, the story lacks engagement, with minimal action and not a whole lot going on. While the examination of gender roles and historical accuracy is commendable, it doesn't make for a compelling read.
Thanks to Blackstone Publishing - Audiobooks and NetGalley for the chance to review.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a pirate story about a woman who was thrown into the life of a pirate. A strong woman known to acquire information and work deals through her charisma and eloquence. After her husband, their fleet’s leader, unexpectedly died at sea in battle, she convinces the new captain, her late husband’s trusted second, to marry her so she can maintain control of her half of the fleet. In exchange, she would bear him a son that would be groomed to take over the fleet.

In the meantime, the Chinese emperor will stop at nothing to get rid of the pirates. Haunted by the ghost of her late husband, every choice they make to keep the fleet alive has the risk of losing it all. Both live through the growing pains of his new position and her trying to manipulate to keep herself and her people alive.

Layered with betrayal and triumph, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea shows the workings and manipulations of a woman behind the scenes. In a fleet where the captain is a man, who is the leader? Who is the puppet?

As the two grow to trust each other, we begin to question if it’s a marriage out of convenience or one that grows out of mutual respect. Shek Yeung will stop at nothing to ensure the fleets success and survival. Sometimes in brutally ruthless ways.

I'm not sure that I went into this book with the proper expectations and as a result, I was disappointed with the direction it went. I absolutely expected more adventure and it was overall very political which made it feel slower for me. However, I think if you go into it with expectations of a politic-heavy historical novel, you'll be fine.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I anticipated a more action-packed and compelling reading experience, and I found it challenging to fully engage with and complete this audiobook. However, as a work of historical fiction, it possesses particular merits. Instead of a swashbuckling pirate tale, it offers a glimpse into the life of a courageous woman navigating a male-dominated industry, which is sometimes disheartening yet consistently admirable. The captivating cover art piqued my interest, and I plan to purchase a physical copy of the book in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance listening copy.

The cover for this book is what initially caught my attention. I mean, this is stunning! Even without having read the description I would have picked this up solely for the cover.

I'm always down for a good historical fiction novel, so I was really excited to get my hands on this one after reading that it's about a person I knew absolutely nothing about. Shek Yeung was one of China's most notorious pirates and lived a truly fascinating live and Rita Chang-Eppig did an amazing job crafting this story about her life. Shek Yeung is fearsome, but not entirely fearless and I really enjoyed how Chang-Eppig conveyed that through Shek Yeung's internal monologues. Those monologues were at times lengthy, and I could feel myself drifting away from the story, but provided great insight into the inner struggles Shek Yeung faced not only as a pirate, but as a woman who is well aware of how different she is. She chooses every day to overthrow society's gender roles in every conceivable way, yet embraces her femineity and uses it to her advantage to secure her place as head of the pirate fleet.

She's neither good nor bad, but I found myself rooting for her success to the very end. My only regret is that because I choose to engage with the audiobook, I found myself getting distracted and not truly paying attention to the setting, the language, and the characters. The narrator, Emily Woo Zeller, was fantastic though. Her voice matched the image of Shek Yeung that I had in my head, commanding and strong. Zeller really did great justice to this story and made it feel real. Almost like I was listening to a nonfiction account of Shek Yeung.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Audio for providing me with this advanced audio copy!

This is an incredibly original story. There’s been an uptick in pirate fantasy, but this one is a standout. It’s hard to describe, but I would categorize it as more historical fiction/literary than fantasy. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to more by this author.

Emily Woo Zeller is my favorite narrator, so I had to pick this up and it did not disappoint!

This is a fictionalized account of Shek Yeung, a notorious pirate leader, and her struggle to unite the other pirates against both the Chinese emperor and meddling Europeans. We watch her wrestle with her destiny as, haunted by her past, she struggles to love even her children and to keep control in a patriarchal world.

Looking for an adult story involving pirates? This is the one!

I had only skimmed the synopsis before starting this so I really hadn’t expected so much of this story to surround the lives and adventures of pirates. The POV is from a woman whose path led her to being a co-captain of a pirate fleet in the south China seas and all she had to endure through her life.

There are some battles but it was more of a character-driven story with some light action mixed in. I was completely engrossed in the story, so much so, that I started and finished it in the same day!

Thank you Blackstone Publishing for the alc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As always needs stated in an audio book review: Narration. I think the narrator did a great job with this book.

(I believe the main character, Shek Yeung, is based off the Pirate queen Ching Shih. I did not find this confirmed anywhere.)

We follow Shek Yeung, a woman we find out went from fisherman to captive to flower girl ("worlds oldest profession") to wife to pirate to fleet co-captain. Though when I say "follow" I do not mean this happens in a chronological or linear fashion, as the story unfolds you also get told pieces of Shek Yeung's history. This is further confused by also adding in stories or myths of the deity she worships, Matsu (Chinese goddess of the ocean). Other than this "jerky camera movement" of narrative everything about this book was quite enjoyable. Pirates, morally gray heroine, love, loss, betrayal, secondary characters you root for, etc.

TLDR: pirates, jumpy timeline, single (second) pov, not a HEA but ties off all the loose ends.

TW: explicit violence, gore, unaliving, foul language, systematic issues, famine, theft, drinking. Discussions of- or vaguely described occurrences of; selling people, smex, drug use, trafficking drugs, trafficking people, kidnapping, SA, child labor, forced marriage.

This was a beautifully written historical fiction about a time period that I do not see lot of fiction about.

A legendary Chinese Pirate Queen has to make sacrifices to maintain her power. An era where women are not usually in power, or are the power in the shadows-- Shek Yeung maintains her power through blood, grit, fight, and price.

The book also does a great job of weaving the mythology of the pirate queen throughout Shek Yeung's story.

My biggest complaint are the time jumps in the book. It goes back and forth throughout Shek Yeung's life without clear explanation, and there were times I was very confused.

Emily Woo Zeller is a brilliant audiobook narrator. If you are able to listen to this book you absolutely should!