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.

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/

This wasn't quite the book I thought it would be. I definitely understand why many people have issues with this book. There's a lot of homophobia which, at times, made me uncomfortable. My main issues are that both of Mary's relationship really aren't that healthy, that the start of the book might have warranted a bit more explanation or build up and the homophobia/sexism/rape. There were a lot of triggers here. But I did like Mary. She has issues, sure, but if you'd spent your whole life pretending to be someone else, you'd have issues too. Plus I really liked how her character developed. I would've liked an epilogue, to see where the characters were years later. And how hopefully some of them got what they deserved.

1.5. I was really looking forward to this but it was so boring. It hardly had moments of excitement and nothing that really qualified as swashbuckling.

I had high hopes for this one. I mean, when the synopsis promises me a "swashbuckling, smart novel" about queer lady pirates, how do you expect me to not prepare myself for a knock-my-striped-pirate-stockings-off read?? Unfortunately, it just didn't deliver for me. It's basically a romance, with very little swashbuckling and not a whole lot of anything else going on either. And that makes my pirate stockings sad.


Summary:
Mary has been disguising herself as a boy for most of her life, pretending to be her brother Mark since his death (at her alcoholic mother's insistence) so that she could inherit her grandmother's riches. No one but her mother knows her secret - not even her best friend (/her secret crush) Nat, who shares her dream of escaping their poor and rather terrible lives by sailing the high seas together.

The story is told in alternating timelines between Mary's present and her past, so without revealing too much of her past which is revealed as the story goes on, let's skip ahead to the part where she has made her way onto the high seas, but her ship is overtaken by pirates and she sees - gasp! - a lady pirate standing with the pirate captain, looking strong and beautiful and awesome. Mary shoots her ship's not-so-nice captain in hopes of gaining the pirates' favor. It works, and she's invited to become one of them. She becomes involved in their lifestyle, involved in their politics, and involved with the captain's mistress, Anne Bonny, the one she had admired when they took over her ship. She ends up on an island in the Caribbean with the pirates, and who should she meet there but Nat... So now she has to decide between Anne and Nat, between continuing to be "Mark" or becoming "Mary" once again...


What I liked:
I thought telling Mary's story in alternating timelines between her past and present was a great way to write this one. As some other reviewers have mentioned, it gets a little iffy towards the end when the past catches up to where the book began and it feels a little repetitive, but otherwise I thought it was well done. I had no trouble following along as the timelines switched back and forth, and it seemed to reveal key moments from her past at just the right times.

I am a cis person, so my perspective on this may not be worth much, but I thought the exploration of Mary's thoughts and feelings on whether to continue to be Mark or whether to become Mary again, whether to dress in "boy's" clothes (pants) or "girl's" clothes (dresses) was handled pretty well. She goes back and forth, feeling pressured by friends/society/religion to act and dress like a girl... but she seems to feel more comfortable and more herself when she's Mark, or at least wearing her "Mark" outfit... but could she be "Mary" and still wear "Mark" clothes?...... I felt like I had a good peek into her head about it all, anyway.


What I didn't:
The characters. Not a "didn't like" so much as a strong meh. There was no one that I really liked or disliked. They were all just... there... going about their business. I didn't feel particularly connected to any of them. Even Anne, who I expected to really like, came off as whiny and immature and, well, kind of annoying. So that was super disappointing.

The plot. "Swashbuckling," says the synopsis?? There is swashbuckling for about the first 10% of this, and then THAT'S IT. The rest is pirates talking about whether or not to keep pirating, sitting on one island discussing this, and then sitting around on another island later. ... I'm sorry, but personally, I need a bit more "swashbuckling" going on in a book for it to be sold as a "swashbuckling" novel.

Speaking of the plot, there are so many coincidences that I had a hard time accepting. The first one I was like, okaaaaay, I guess I can accept that the stars could align -just so- to make this one happen: (SPOILER: Nat *just happens* to be the one who attacks her on the beach as all the pirates are being raided. Alllll those raiders vs. alllll those pirates, and he somehow finds Mary on the beach?? *sigh* ok, I guess...) But then, Mary meets up with literally almost everyone from her past on the second island. Whoa, really?? All the islands in the Caribbean and they all happen to converge on this one at the same time? ... I don't know. Maybe it's just me. I just... argh, I have a hard time when things happen really conveniently for maximum dramatic effect.

And yeah, this should be billed as a romance rather than a swashbuckler, but even then, the romance was not my favorite. Or I should say, Mary was not my favorite in the romance department. She is totally into her relationship with one partner, lots of physical attraction and is-it-getting-hot-in-here-or-is-it-just-me, and then jealousy and hurt feelings when that partner pays attention to someone else, so like ok, she must be really into this person... But then as soon as she decides she's mad at that person, she's onto the other partner SO FAST and it's equally as intense and steamy... Buuuut then that partner makes her angry, so it's back to the first partner right away and all oh-no-way-you-are-my-one-and-only, don't-ever-leave-me... Buuut then of course she gets mad at that one again, so baaaaaack to the other one... I was just like, ugh, MARY, seriously girl, have some devotion. Like, I fully support your exploring your bisexuality but I don't support your bouncing back and forth between partners whenever it's convenient for you. Relationships take some work - pick a partner and try to make it work with them, and make a clean break with the other one. You can't have your pirate-lady cake and eat your handsome-childhood-friend cake too. (I... I don't think that worked out as cleverly as I wanted it to, so... erm... let's just... move on, shall we...)


TL;DR: Just... meh. I think I might have liked it better if I hadn't been promised a "swashbuckling, smart novel" in the synopsis. That immediately sets my expectations up for an adventurous, plot-driven book... and that was just not what this is. At all. This is a romance novel, but it is definitely not a swashbuckling novel. And that promise in the synopsis vs. what was delivered was just way too far off for me, unfortunately.


Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars

At first look, an attractive YA read. It is a great idea to write a fictionalized account of Mary Reade's life, but sadly the story came across more fan-fic than historical fiction. Maudlin, superficial, but with great characters in Mary and Anne. The short chapters and jumping back and forth through time left an unresolved feeling after I finished the book.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review,  so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
This was my first book by this author, It was okay. It was slow paced but it was alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a
2 star rating!

I've spent some time mulling how on earth a wlw pirate book didn't do it for me, and this is what I came up with. This isn't an-depth intellectual or a sociocultural examination of it (I'm so not the right person for that); this a dirty, unrefined super-spoilery, "let's English major this up" breakdown of my own reactions that would appall my alma matter and my high school English teachers.

<b><u>[Spoilers, spoilers everywhere.]</u></b>

After some serious reflecting and analyzing (i.e. I tried to tell my bff about it and then I thought about it while waiting in line at jury duty for ages), I think it comes down to three things, none of which were appealing when combined for me. If maybe one of these three things had been different, I might've ended up liking or loving it. (I so wish it had been because I am still so in love with the idea of you, book. Only rating you two stars killed me a little.)

<b>Thing #1</b>: The plot falls into a consistent pattern, which is a repeated cycle of:
<blockquote><li>• Mary is hiding her true identity—what horrible, scary (and likely violent) thing will happen when the truth comes out?
<li>• Gee, Anne is so cute with her hair and her swishes and how she's a lady pirate in the way that she exists on a pirate ship in a dress, but she is also a horrible person who you probably shouldn't trust to watch your snacks when you go to the bathroom, let alone with a life-threatening secret or your feelings. Mary recognizes this, yet is shocked when she does something horrible. Mary continues to pursue her, anyway.
<li>• Mary's been used, abused, and defined by others all her life. Who is Mary really: a woman, Mark, or someone in between?</blockquote>
Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Now, those aren't bad plot points, necessarily. I would've loved an adventure pirate book that touched on these. I would've loved a book that emphasized Mary exploring who she was with a side of the others. A steamy pirate romance book with a morally ambiguous Anne, even if Anne weren't necessarily likable, sounds cool. Considering the time period, I expected at least some mention or moments of danger Mary would likely be in for not fitting into gender norms or if she were caught posing as a man.

But damn, the pattern in this was painful, because it felt like it was a constant pattern of threat to Mary because of gender issues (What will it be this time? Killed, raped, sent to prison, just plain killed?), with an unrewarding side of unhealthy romance and then a dash of interesting identity issues repeated in various degrees with different levels of effectiveness. Even that might've been okay, if not combined the others.

<b>Thing #2</b>: The overall tone and how disproportionate the struggle/empowerment ratio was:
<blockquote>I don't think I really had a solid "Oh, hell yeah, Mary!" moment until about the 93% mark (I literally went back and checked, because I marked it), and even then, I had my reservations—it was more like a "Well, there you go, Mary. That's better, I guess."</blockquote>
Before the 93% mark, however, it was a great deal of pain, cringing, and brief moments of "Well, maybe Mary finally has the upperhand... A little? Nope, not at all. Screwed again."

In most of these cases, that meant: maybe Mary will be killed or raped or thrown into prison or forced to live a miserable life. In some of the cases, it meant that Anne was the one causing those circumstances (yet Mary was still like, "oh, I wish she wasn't so cute because that betrayal kind of dampens the mood.") or Anne was throwing a tantrum or just being mean. Speaking of which, then we have Anne. We're introduced to her as this dynamic, striking lady pirate whose mere existence is a game changer for Mary, and then you discover that she's less "lady pirate" than she is "pirate's girlfriend on a pirate ship." Which, okay, major disappointment, but life's complicated, right? She should be a very sympathetic character, who's trapped in this horrible predicament where the only weapon she sees herself as having is offering her sexuality to men, and the only way she'll ever be safe is to find a man. That could've been really interesting to explore. Instead, she comes off being... kind of cruel, shallow, and flat all at the same time?

The weird thing is that I love angst. I'm ridiculous about it. You can throw all sorts of obstacles at a character and I'm into it; I'm huge fan of painful, uneasy stories without much reprieve. But I think having the plot element and this ratio combined, plus almost no actual pirating or Mary kicking ass otherwise in a pirate book, snuffed all the enjoyment out of the book. You're introduced to Mary/Mark, the "boy who shot the captain," and then nothing else happens to empower Mary until the very, very end. The few gains, minus Mary finding a job (which I did like), are mostly people having mercy on or saving Mary.

Then, at the end, you Mary running off with Anne and hoping that Anne doesn't end up betraying her or leaving her for something better or she's just using her, or they don't run into the same damn problems they did for the entire other 97% of the other book. So, you finally get Mary the Kick Ass Pirate and Anne the Pirate, maybe? at the 97% mark. Woo-hoo?

<b>Thing #3</b>: There is no fail-safe.

Even with the first two things, I might've liked it with the right narrative voice, a rich setting, nuanced side characters, or the vivid details, but those were all nopes. Initially, I liked some of the side characters, but Jack just fizzled out, Paddy (who is maybe the only decent person) dies, the villains sucked, Nat turns out to be a douche to no one's surprise, and dude, everyone is an absolute ass to Bill. Like, seriously, maybe he's not the most sunshine-y sweet of people, but can no one stop and empathize for a minute that maybe the dude is concerned about being kidnapped against his will and enslaved into bondage again, and that's understandable?

As far as the pirating goes, I'd have to go back and look, but I think there were two barely described raids, they go to an island, they have some meetings, Jack and some others do some stuff off-page, they describe maintaining the ship, and then they decide to take advantage of the pardon being offered, and that's it until Mary and Anne steal a ship at the end. So, you have this static plot and stale setting without any real motifs working. You could've had Mary posing as Mark, a worker at a shipyard and basically had the same book.

As far as narrative voice goes, I felt for Mary. I really did. But she wasn't a particularly captivating narrator. Mostly, I felt like sitting Mary down for a long talk over some hot beverages and talking about life choices, especially in regards to cutting poisonous people like abusive mothers and manipulative love interests out of one's live.

<b>Pros</b>: Paddy (before he dies), some of the time jumps were good, I still really love the concept and the fact that it was done, and I did enjoy some things about it, honestly. Most of all, I love that it was actually published. That sounds stupid, I know, but I love historical non-fiction and non-fantasy historical fiction and it's so hard to find anything that isn't about cishet white people and the same stories you've heard a million times before. I hope there are tons of writers out there busy at their keyboards, notebooks, typewriters, chalkboards, or whatever, getting busy writing realistic historical fiction stories that are about the people who never are mentioned in any history books, because historical fiction needs it, both with YA and adult fiction and non-fiction.

<b>Neutral/Possible Con</b>: Some of the gender thoughts and non-binary musings—some of Mary's thoughts in general were interesting and I think you could possibly identify Mary as genderqueer in today's standards, and I do like the concept that maybe what started out as a practicality is now more about Mary's actual self to Mary. As a cisgender woman, however, I can't talk about how well everything was portrayed. With all the violence and danger associated with it and the violence, I don't know how a non-cis person would feel about this book.

<b>Cons</b>: Um, well, if you've made it this far, I think you probably got the gist of it.

<b>tl;dr review</b>: This was in no way the kick-ass pirate adventure story I hoped it was going to be, or even a steamy pirate romance or an identity story with pirate adventuring on the side, and some things bothered me a lot.

I was so excited for this book! Pirates and a f/f romance! What could go wrong?.. Well.. a lot apparently.

Frankly there were very few things I actually enjoyed about this book. I liked Mary and her backstory had a lot of heart. It certainly made me feel closer to her than I did to any other character. However, that doesn't mean that the I actually liked her. She was weaker than I expected, which in itself isn't a negative thing, it's just that when you take her situation and her past into consideration you'd want/need her to show that she's learnt from past experiences and show how she's managed to overcome issues. Basically she lacked growth, which made her weakness frustrating.

I also did NOT like Anne. At all. She needed to be tougher, stronger and more hard. I couldn't understand her and how she'd managed to make it so far.

My dislike of these two characters leads then to the other great disappointment of this book, which was the romance. It was.... bland and boring. The characters had no real connection and I never once really rooted for them.

Overall, I am disappointed that this didn't book didn't do it for me. I so badly wish that it had.

I really love pirate stories and this one was no different. Though I felt as though it was lacking in the ploy and I was expecting a little bit more.

[Deep sigh] This had so much potential, and there were parts that were quite good. But, mostly not.

I really do love that there's a book about these girls and that they fall in love, just like in real life. But really the premise only goes some way to save it. Overall I just don't have any overhwhelming feelings, just vague annoyance.

The writing style was at times very descriptive and lush, and then at other times it was sparse and filled with dialogue. I started off liking Mary and Anne's characters but by the end they just got annoying. Mary would jump to assumptions which caused a lot of drama. I appreciated the attempt at making Anne feminine and a badass - Always a plus, and I totally understood why she felt reliant on men and the point the author was making. It was an important point to make. But Anne ended up being a bit of a drip really. There's a line between being reliant on men because society has made it so and then not really standing up for yourself and she crossed it a couple of times. I just didn't actually find the girls that likable in the end if I'm being honest.

It was ok, and I love that more diverse books are coming out, especially historical lgbt stories. This had the right sense of hope and had bright girls at the centre. It just didn't quite have the energy to pull it off.