Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from KidLitExchange and Sky Pony Press. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3/5

Genre: YA Historical Fiction

Recommended Age: 16+ (homophobia, transphobia, sexism, abuse, sexual assault)

Pages: 336

Author Website

Amazon Link

Synopsis: There’s no place for a girl in Mary’s world. Not in the home of her mum, desperately drunk and poor. Not in the household of her wealthy granny, where no girl can be named an heir. And certainly not in the arms of Nat, her childhood love who never knew her for who she was. As a sailor aboard a Caribbean merchant ship, Mary’s livelihood—and her safety—depends on her ability to disguise her gender.

At least, that’s what she thinks is true. But then pirates attack the ship, and in the midst of the gang of cutthroats, Mary spots something she never could have imagined: a girl pirate.

The sight of a girl standing unafraid upon the deck, gun and sword in hand, changes everything. In a split-second decision, Mary turns her gun on her own captain, earning herself the chance to join the account and become a pirate alongside Calico Jack and Anne Bonny.

For the first time, Mary has a shot at freedom. But imagining living as her true self is easier, it seems, than actually doing it. And when Mary finds herself falling for the captain’s mistress, she risks everything—her childhood love, her place among the crew, and even her life.

Breathlessly romantic and brilliantly subversive, The Unbinding of Mary Reade is sure to sweep readers off their feet and make their hearts soar.

2018 is the year of the YA sea-faring books so I found another sea faring book to review! I found this book to be an interesting read. The main character was very complex and I’m still not sure what to think about her. I also thought that this book was unique in that it showed a cross-dressing female.

However, I’m very concerned with how trans and genderqueer people were shown and portrayed and treated in this book. There was a lot of abuse and hurtful statements towards them and it was really hard to read. The way the book was written was also really jarring and it took me out of the book each time it shifted. The plot was also really weak and the pacing was super slow. I didn’t feel the romance in this book and honestly there was a lot of it for what I thought would be an awesome sea-faring book.

Verdict: I’d really like to know your opinion if you are LGBT+ on this book. I honestly feel there are some really upsetting parts about this book and I fear that it will be hurtful to people in the long run. In my opinion, I think it can be hurtful and I even got upset reading the book. But I’d like to know your opinion about it.

The synopsis of this book sounded interesting. Pirates? Check. Adventure? Check. Badass girl? Check. What it actually was was boring. How can you make pirates boring??? There was no action just angsty love that lacked any chemistry whatsoever. Overall, disappointed. Not much else to say about it.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as an arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest reviews.

I didn’t care for this all that much. I couldn’t connect to the characters at all and the plot was a little boring for me. I really wanted to love this book. The synopsis sounded amazing. Unfortunately it fell very flat for me.

THE UNBINDING OF MARY READE is a book that I really wanted to love, and by all accounts I should’ve. Historical fiction featuring queer lady pirates? Sign me the hell up! Unfortunately, I struggled to care about the characters and found the story itself quite lacklustre.

Mary Reade grew up in the slums of London, barely making it by under the less-than-watchful eye of her alcoholic mother. Forced her to pose as her deceased brother to secure his inheritance from their wealthy grandmother, no one in Mary’s life knows she’s a girl, not even her best friend Nate…which is a bit of a pickle, since she’s in love with him. Fast forward a few years and Mary’s now on board a pirate ship trying to reunite with Nate, now a pirate hunter, when she meets the beautiful and mercurial Anne Bonny. Mary’s quickly captivated by the other woman, and falls in love with her hard and fast.

Watching how Anne manipulated and used Mary was infuriating, especially because Mary knew exactly what the other woman was doing. Why didn’t she stand her ground and insist on better treatment from her before the last 15% of the novel? It’s impossible for me to love a character like Anne, who was the worst combination of selfish and poorly written. McNamara tries to paint her in a sympathetic light but I found her attempts heavy-handed and awkward. I know I was supposed to sympathize with Anne and root for her and Mary but I just loathed her and the pair of them together.

The one thing I did really like about this story is McNamara’s depiction how difficult it was to be openly queer in the 19th century, especially as a pirate, an occupation steeped in machismo. McNamara also does an excellent job illustrating the fluidity of sexuality and gender presentation. Despite her feelings for and attraction to Anne, Mary is still drawn to Nate; her desires aren’t an either/or proposition. And although Mary pretends to be a boy because she has to, Mary feels like her true self when she wears masculine attire, even after all her friends and comrades know she’s a woman.

Readers looking for good queer representation in historical YA may want to read THE UNBINDING OF MARY READE, but those seeking likable characters and good writing may want to look elsewhere.

I went into this book hoping for a lot of Pirate-y action and instead I got a lot of romance. Don't get me wrong, I like a little bit of romance... mixed in with badass pirates. You dig? I ended up not finishing this about halfway through but I totally think this is the right book for someone who loves their romance with just a bit of action, and not the other way around.

Here’s what I liked about this book: it started right in the middle of action, as pirates boarded the ship Mary/Mark was on. That was pretty cool, and I admit to being as intrigued as our main character was upon seeing a woman in a dress seemingly an equal with the rest of the pirate band.

But first impressions can sometimes be wrong, and nothing is really as it seems with this story. Honestly, in a number of ways I felt sorry for Mary, for the life she basically had forced on her because of her mother. Mary spent a majority of her life pretending to be Mark, and that constantly acting like a boy seemed to have altered how she thought and acted a great deal of the time.

Mary’s secret was revealed to the pirates rather early on in the book, and I was expecting that tension of keeping such a huge secret would have held out a bit longer, and the revelation left me wondering just what would happen for the rest of the pages.

Sadly, the deeper I got into the story, the less interested I became. Many of the characters felt fairly shallow to me, and I could not stand how whiny and wishy-washy Anne was. The relationship between Mary and Anne never felt like there was any sort of deep romantic connection, just two people who were together when they had no other options. Anne consistently went back to Jack, and Mary kept pining for her best friend Nat.

I wanted more action, more pirate-y adventure, and I certainly wanted a great romance. Sadly this book did not meet the expectations I had built up for it based on the summary. So I’m sure there will be people out there who really love this book, and who will connect with the characters and the story. I think overall it is worth a read, purely for the Mary/Mark story and portrayal. That was well done, and probably the most intriguing part of the story.

Oh, this is exactly what I have wanted for so long! Not only queer historical fiction, but queer historical fiction based on real people! And from what I've read (which is admittedly not much), a lot of the events on the book are based on real events.

It was a bit hard for me to get my bearings at first. I love stories told in multiple times at once, but there was enough ambiguity at the beginning of both of the stories that I had some trouble figuring out exactly what was going on. Once I did, though, I was fully engrossed in Mary's adventures and very excited to find out what would happen.

One thing I really loved about this is that Mary and Anne didn't always do things that I could root for. Even with that, I always wanted to root for them, and it really helped them become fully-developed characters. It also made it so that I never quite knew what was going to happen next, even when I had a general idea of where the story was going.

If you're looking for more queer books, or more historical fiction, I would definitely recommend this book!

I was pretty excited to read this book because the premise sounded so interesting and right up my alley, but overall I was pretty disappointed with the story and characters.

I feel there wasn’t much of a plot at all. I tried reading it more than three times but I ended up DNFing it because I was so bored. Nothing interesting was actually happening, and the interactions between the characters didn’t sometimes add much to the story.

I was also hoping to se a cute f/f romance, but there was something about those characters that made that relationship rushed and even a bit forced sometimes. The characters weren’t my cup of tea, and the slang of the book was confusing at times.

I had some issues with the writing style. I was expecting much more from this book, and frankly it was a bit anticlimactic.

I had to stop reading this book at around the 50% mark mostly because I got really bored. I was expecting a fun adventure story with gay female pirates but it was just not that at all. There was a lot of waffle, the pirates barely did anything and the focus of the story was on the negativity in the time period against homosexuals, transgender people and just women in general. I mean I know it's how it was in those times but it seemed to be emphasised at every single point. Also the main character felt far younger than she was and it made for uncomfortable reading at times.

The Unbinding of Mary Reade is a young adult novel written by Miriam McNamara. I was very excited about the opportunity to read this book because I love historical fiction; I don’t read as much Georgian fiction as Regency, but its still an era that I enjoy. In addition to one of my favorite settings, the premise sounded fascinating.

Circumstance has forced Mary Reade to live as a boy named Mark for almost her entire life. As the story begins, Mary’s ship has been attacked by pirates. She chooses to align herself with the pirates, mostly because she sees a girl pirate and imagines being able to go through life as who she is, not who she has to present herself as.

Mary soon discovers that her fascination for Anne the pirate girl is developing into infatuation. There are several problems with this- Anne thinks that Mary is a boy named Mark, and Anne is the pirate captain’s girlfriend. Mary’s safety depends on her ability to keep her secret hidden, and there is no room for negotiation here.

The narrative shifts between Mary’s current predicament and the past, where the reader discovers Mary’s origins, her reasons for living as Mark, and how she ended up in the Caribbean in the first place. This isn’t the most action-packed story- far from it, in fact. However, this is an utterly fascinating look at gender identity and all it entails in an era with some of the most clearly defined gender roles.

Mary is a likeable protagonist who was forced into a situation that she had no choice about, and I found it easy to empathize with her. After such an aggressively active action at the beginning of the book, Mary spends much of book being passive, a prisoner of her unique circumstances, if you will. The supporting characters have fairly static personalities, and there is not a lot of development over the course of the book, but nevertheless, I enjoyed their story arcs and the events that led up to their interaction with Mary.

I would recommend The Unbinding of Mary Reade. This is a fascinating look at life in the 18th century through the eyes of a rather unique protagonist. The book’s conclusion is rather open-ended, and I really hope that there is going to be a sequel. I’m certainly looking forward to more from McNamara in the future!

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I'll be honest, the first thing that drew me in was the cover. I mean look at it! It is beautiful! But, then I read that it was about pirates and I was hooked!

Overall, I enjoyed Mary's story. It was very interesting to learn the origins of why she dressed as a man, Mark, and how that both helped and hindered her. I also enjoyed how McNamara explored the practical problems this might present: binding her breasts, trying to hide her period each month, learning how to pee standing up, etc. These are things that I think about a lot when I read a book where someone is posing as something/someone that they aren't, so the fact that they were addressed in this novel was fun for me!

I also was a big fan of the love triangle that McNamara created between Mary, Nat and Anne. It was done in such a way that I really didn't know which way the story was going to go, which is always fun. I also enjoyed Mary's internal struggle over whether she should be attracted to Anne or not. It really was two-fold: should she live as a man or a woman, and therefore, should she be attracted to men or women. In a time where it was illegal and punishable by death to pose as the opposite gender, as well as to engage in a same-sex relationship, it was an incredibly intriguing story.

I really loved the overall story and message behind the book, however, I had to knock off a few stars. I, for some reason, had a hard time staying engaged with the book. The pacing wasn't excellent. It jumps back and forth between the past and present quite often. I understood that this was the author's way of giving us the relevant backstory to what was happening in the present-day part of the story, but it would pull me out of the flow and pacing of the story. It made me keep wanting to set the book down.



My Rating:
3.5/5.0

I gave The Unbinding of Mary Reade 3.5 STARS. I really liked Mary and her story, and I loved the attention to historical detail. It was a good book. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoys pirates and LGBT literature.

I would like to thank Skyhorse Publishing and NetGalley very much for the read. I respect the writing style of the clever Miriam McNamara, and was very excited about reading this book - pirates, swashbuckling and romance on the open seas. I had anticipated loving it, and it certainly has its appeal, but as much as I tried, I lost the fascination and could not finish it. Regretfully, I will not be recommending this for our library.

I love a good pirate story and the blurb of The Unbinding Of Mary Reade sounds just as fantastic as the gorgeous cover, so I've been really excited to finally read this one. And with its f/f romance, I thought it would be a perfect story to read during pride month as well. Alas it seems like it wasn't ment to be. I didn't check the reviews before starting this one, or at least I would have been warned... Because The Unbinding Of Mary Reade unfortunately turned out to be quite a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I still love the idea behind this book, the possibilities of the setting, the f/f romance, the characters... But the execution was just completely off for me. I will try to explain why this book didn't work for me below. First of all, I struggled with the writing style, which felt halted with dialogues that didn't seem natural. The use of 'bad grammar' in the dialogues only distracted (aka annoyed) me instead of adding the right historical atmosphere. Also, the constant switching back and forth in time was really distracting and made it hard to stay focused on the main plot. Especially since the chapters set in London basically didn't add anything substantial to the story and were extremely dull. In fact, I found the story in general quite boring, and how is that possible for a story with gay pirates in it?? For a book about pirates, there were almost no action scenes or even scenes on a boat included in the plot. And that was quite a disappointment, since there was basically nothing of note to fill this huge hole of lack of action. Ok, characters. The characters in general lacked development and were rather bland. Anne almost felt like a caricature and while Mary had all the potential of being a fascinating character, she mostly fell flat for me and I wasn't able to believe either of their feelings or actions. This lack of credibility extends to the other characters as well. Also, trigger warnings are in place for homophobia, transphobia, (sexual) abuse and sexism in general. I get that we are talking about an 18th century setting, but this was just too much. In short, while I still love the idea behind this story, the execution was rather poorly and The Unbinding Of Mary Reade turned out to be a rather chaoticly written, dull and not credible love story. Did I expect this reaction? No, but unfortunately I can't change the way I feel about this one.

I keep repeating: I still love the idea behind this story and I truly wish I could have enjoyed The Unbinding Of Mary Reade better. Unfortunately, I found the execution lacking in various ways, and I had a hard time finishing this one. Between the chaotic writing style that didn't flow, a rather dull plot, bland characters, lack of action and a not so credible display of emotions, I can't say I was impressed. Where were the pirates, were was the action? Why did we have to read so much about Mary's past in London, if her life on the Caribbean Sea is what really counts for this story? Why wasn't there more focus on Mary and Anne? Why the excessive amount of sexism, homophobia, transphobia and sexual assault? The tone for this supposedly YA rated story was completely off, especially since Mary felt younger than the age group during most of the story. All in all not the story I was hoping for.

The Unbinding of Mary Reade is an early 18th century tale that features a young woman experiencing her sexual awakening and struggling with her identity. Mary Reade has long masqueraded as her deceased brother, Mark. First, as a way in which she can sustain a living for her and mother, then as a way to inherit her rich grandmother's fortune, and finally to take to the high seas where eventually she meets up with pirates.

As the chapters switch back and forth between 1717 and 1719-1720, this story seems to be bent more on social norms; specifically how women are treated, sexual identity, and Mary's conflicted feelings for her childhood friend, Nat, and the pirate Anne Bonny. So, if you're looking for a swashbuckling tale, you won't find it here. It's a lot of angsty feelings for Mary, who has a deep feeling that she's never quite fit into the feminine world. Throughout the book, disguised as Mark, her "strange ways" direct Mary to much scrutiny and judgement and this gets even worse when she is discovered. Spoiler alert, acceptance is not part of 1700's vocabulary either.

Both Mary's "love interests " Nat and Anne are both fairly selfish and I saw zero chemistry between them and our gal. Sexual Frustration-yes! Great love- Nope! They both used Mary/Mark for their own needs and I am quibbling about whether or not I can really accept the ending this book provided. This is most defintely a 3.0 stars for me.

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 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.

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.