#saltblood

[book-challenger]

Cool Cover Monday

Title & Author: Saltblood by Francesca De Tores

Summary: An Historical Fiction set during the Golden Age of Piracy from the point of view of Mary Read, following her life from when she took of her half brother’s identity, to the navy, the battlefield and beyond all the way to her life as pirate.

This book is filled with adventure, survival, passion and loss and transformation following one of the most remarkable historical figures of the time.

[found-fabricated]

A few moments from the last couple of days grabbing an evening wander by the sea and a swim to finish the day. Typically in all the weathers . #seaweed #vitaminsea #thalassophile #coastallife #wander #wonder #surfaces #observations #moments #shorelinemoments #seashore #sealove #saltonskin #sealove #saltblood #seaair #refresh #restore #thalassotherapy #seaswim #coastalmoments #coastallove #alltheweather #irishsummer #lovethesea #seacoast #lovetheseacoast #slowliving #northernireland https://www.instagram.com/p/ByvkmPQg5Q0/?igshid=qql2l0mo1mxa

[found-fabricated]

This evening by the shore, wander and swim. #vitaminsea #thalassophile #thalassotherapy #moments #observations #nature #seashore #lichen #rocks #shoreline #sealife #coast #coastallife #coastalliving #coldwatertherapy #seaair #saltblood #walk #wander #wonder #seaswim #natureshots #shotsoftheday #daydreamer #alwaysbythesea #northdowncoast #littlewonders #littlemoments #restore https://www.instagram.com/p/BxLXQO5Frza/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1n9grim33lzas

[found-fabricated]

Today’s shoreline wander, bright day. #shoreline #wander #brightday #april #seashore #coast #coastallife #coastalliving #shorelinewalk #naturelove #seaair #freshair #wonder #headspace #nature #northdown #northernireland #sunshot #sealife #saltblood #daydreamer #seaweed #beachfinds #moments #observations #shotoniphone #landscapecaptures https://www.instagram.com/p/BwApnLJlRC2/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vgt1yqgbebve

[found-fabricated]

Shoreline moments from this afternoons wander. #shoreline #moments #observations #nature #naturalworld #seashore #coast #coastallife #sealife #thalassophile #coastalliving #coastalwalk #wander #wonder #littlewonders #landscapecaptures #naturelover #sealover #saltblood #shore #surfaces #rocks #seaair #headspace #daydreamer #gooutside #rockpool #seashells https://www.instagram.com/p/BvsBQnPAh3O/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1o9ac4vypkxj8

[semper-legens]

51. Saltblood, by Francesca de Tores

Owned?: No, library Page count: 368 My summary: Mark Read has been many things. A sailor, a soldier, a wife, a mother, a boy, a man. Raised by a mother who wished only for her to keep up pretences for their allowance, Mark has had to find her own way in the world. Is she a sailor, a soldier boy, a wife, an innkeeper? Beneath the clothes, beneath the name, who is she? And in a world that is dangerous for women, how can she make her way and find that elusive something she is searching for? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

I feel like I'm constantly apologising and trying to justify myself when I read Yet Another Book About Pirates. Look, part of me is just searching for my perfect pirate novel, which doesn't exist, which is why I'm working on writing it, okay? But I have to say, this was a fair substitute. Long-term readers might remember I talked about Bonny and Read, way back when, a similar attempt to dramatise the lives of Mary/Mark Read and Anne Bonny, two real pirates of the Golden Age. That book was poorly-researched and boring. This one is far better, and far more interesting - it focuses specifically on Mary/Mark's life, which I think is the more interesting one. Not that we can trust old Captain Charles Johnson completely, but his account of Read's life is far more interesting than Bonny's. And given that we only have scant evidence of them in the first place, Johnson's writing is pretty much all we can base it on. Anyway. This book was really good, it's clear that the author did her research, and I'd definitely call it the superior novel about real pirates that I've read lately! Which seems like a niche category but, you know, this is me we're talking about.

Mark/Mary is an interesting character. I'm gonna be a little all over the place with how I refer to them in terms of name and pronouns, and that's intentional, because they're never really one thing or the other in a way that I will get to a little later. I was really sucked into the narrative voice here, the sort of melancholy introspective first person narrative looking back from just before her death across her entire life. It gives the whole thing a sense of foreboding, and is a good way to play with the dramatic irony that the reader knows Mary Read's fate - she died in prison in 1721, possibly from a fever, and was buried near the prison. As such, death follows Mark. She is haunted, literally, by the ghosts of the people she lost throughout her life, from the dead brother whose name she shares to shipmates from the Navy and comrades from the army to her husband and unborn child. A crow, an omen of death, also follows her around, though she seems to befriend her over the years, treating her like a companion - an apt metaphor. Mary is here portrayed as a very practical person, just looking to live and experience as much as she can. She lives through so much more and sees so much more than a typical woman of her age, and also more than a lot of men of her age too! I was really engaged with her voice, I loved it.

As far as historicity goes, this book sticks pretty close to what is known (or supposed) about Read's life. Much of it follows the path of Captain Charles Johnson's narrative, fleshing out and contextualising the biography given there. It's worth noting that Johnson's narrative of her is not corroborated by any other primary evidence we've been able to find. Most of the solid facts we've been able to glean come from her piratical days, like witness reports and trial transcripts - her early life, if you don't want to take Johnson's word for it, is unknown. Still, this is a very credible account of how someone like Read might have lived. Sure, going from war to war in the Navy then the army thrusts her into a position on the frontlines of history, but on the other hand, there was just a lot of war at the time, and joining one of the military powers was a way to earn a solid wage as a working man. What interested me here was how mundanely it was portrayed - the Mark/Mary of this book doesn't overly care for all the politics of it, they just want to stay alive and see the world and live a little, and if fighting is the best way to do that, then they'll do that. The author does make a few ahistorical concessions, which she even points out in the afterword, but on the whole I'd say that the breaks from reality here are acceptable losses in the grander scheme of storytelling.

I really like the way that this book portrays Mark/Mary's gender. It's a perfect fictional imagining of how the real person might have felt about their identity - Mark/Mary's gender shifts and changes throughout her life, never quite settling into one box or the other fully. Mark begins life being forced to be a boy by her mother (may or may not have actually happened, 'she's been dressed as a boy since childhood' is a familiar trope in historical transmasculine narratives) and then works first as a servant, then joins the Navy, then the army. During her time in the army she falls for another solider, and they open an inn together, with Mary assuming a female role. When her husband dies, she goes to sea again, this time as a woman openly. (This last bit I have some issue with, I don't know that a woman who is openly presenting as a woman would necessarily have been able to work at sea and command any respect among men, though granted this is portrayed as being on a merchant ship where the captain would have been more able to make his own rules.) This fluidity seeps into Mark/Mary's narration - they're never really settled on any gender presentation, they prefer more to be themself, whoever that turns out to be. It's an interesting conclusion for a historical person to make, and honestly it felt very real. No anachronistic terminology, but still a nuanced relation to gender. And the author gets the details of Mark might have passed at the time right - hiding evidence of menstruation (and the idea that bloodstained clothes would not have been unusual for a naval man), wearing a homemade packer, learning to walk and talk like a man, shaving a few years off their age so that they seem more plausible, that sort of thing. It's a sensitive and detailed portrayal, and I'm really pleased with it!

Next, Ireland's pirate past.

[joebloggshere]

Saltblood by Francesca de Tores

What a surprise. This is a super read. I knew nothing about the female sailor and pirate Mary Read and this novel is not only a good story but a fascinating revelation.

I don’t want to give everything away, even though it’s a true story and probably there is more summarised on the jacket than I give here, but born in England in the 1700s, Mary entered first the navy and then the army in the guise of a boy. She subsequently married and had a child in the Netherlands but then went back to the sea, first on a trading vessel and then as a pirate around the Caribbean waters.

Tores’ writing is lyrical and although she has had to invent a lot of the stories, they sit very well within the ‘known’ facts.

Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the proof.

[scifiandscary]

Saltblood by T.C. Parker #BookReview

Saltblood by T.C. Parker ~ a horror #BookReview by Tracy " Parker combines action and horror to create a book that will appeal to a variety of readers." - @tracy_reads79

Saltblood. A remote island. A group of prisoners. And an evil as old as time. Robin didn’t mean to break the law. Didn’t know at first what law she’d broken. And now she’s on her way to Salt Rock — a new-model prison for a new kind of criminal, way out in the remote Northern Isles of Scotland. On Salt Rock, she’ll meet other prisoners like her — men and women from all over the world, spirited…

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