Bookworm in the City

Saltblood / Francesca de Tores
What is it: an adventure like no other
Did I like it: aye!

To be honest, of all the categories left on this year’s reading challenge, this was not the one I saw being filled before the end of the year. But, life is unpredictable and so is my reading. This book was brought to my attention (and borrowed from) friend M and sheesh, was I happy about that.
This book tells the story of Mary Read. History knows her for two things mainly: she was a pirate, and she dressed like a man. I only knew she was a pirate, so I had a lot to learn. The story reads like a classic adventure and halfway through I had to remind myself that Mary was a real person; I completely got swept along with the story.

In the late 17th century, Mary is born as her half-brother dies. This leaves her mother with a problem because along with Mark dies the inheritance money he received. So, Mary is turned into Mark, making it possible to keep collecting money from his grandmother a couple of times a year. Mary learns to walk and talk like a boy and because she can pass, she is sent into service as a footman once she looks old enough. Her mother tells her to keep up appearances, because it is safer to be a boy than it is a girl, and boys earn more than girls. (Depressing how little has changed in 300-odd years.) After a few years, Mary makes her escape from the stifling stillness of the house by way of enlisting in the navy, and while the other boys who are enlisting add years to their age to earn more, she shaves a couple off to explain her smaller figure and higher voice. She finds her calling in the navy, enjoys her time aboard the ships more than anything, even though it is a dangerous place to be found out as a woman. After a couple of years at sea, she moves to the army and is sent to the battlefield. The longer she spends on dry land, the more she misses the sea, and she’s desperate to survive her enlistment so she can return to the water.
When she does have an opportunity to return aboard a ship, she no longer hides herself and presents as a woman. The merchant ship she works on, finally ends up in Nassau, the Bahamas, the pirate capital of the world at the time. Here, she meets Anne Bonny, and is mesmerized by her. Anne at the same time, is intrigued by Mary, who learns she herself is something of a legend, known as the “sailing woman”.
When she has the chance to join a pirate crew, she takes the opportunity with both hands and realizes she never felt so free before. She’s an equal member of the crew and as such gets to earn as much as the men, gets to vote, and is appreciated for her knowledge of sailing and dealing. It takes being a pirate to be considered equal. But piracy isn’t a career that offers longevity and there is a dark cloud hanging over the story.
And wow, what a story. The story is about gender, about survival, about making choices, about discoveries, and about an incredible woman. And the wonderful writing only added to it and left me turning page after page after page. I was so into this book, that I missed my stop on the metro, and I didn’t mind one bit as it gave me extra time to read as I made my way back.
If you want to read an amazing adventure story that features strong main characters, this book needs to be added to your read-list.