This is a brilliant fictionalisation of the life of Mary Read.
I loved how vivid the imagery was in this book as it felt like you were right on board of a ship with Mary and a crew.

This book is set in 18th in the golden age of piracy. If like me you were overly investing the in pirates of the Caribbean franchise then this is a much read. It incorporates all the same elements of adventure, piracy, life and love.

I now need to find more pirated related books to fill in the gap that this book has created.

4.25 ⭐️

📖 My very first ARC with NetGalley.
Thank you and Bloomsbury so much for offering me the opportunity to read this book before it’s out in the world! All thoughts are my own.

Now let’s get down to business. Did I start this book convinced it was gonna be a fantasy and quickly realized I was wrong? Yes, yes I did.
Do not let that Goodreads tag confuse you, my friends, as this is very much an historical fiction book, and a very good one indeed.

This book covers the very interesting life of Mary Reads, a woman pirate that lived in the 1700s, and how she came to be in that situation.

I really loved Mary’s story, it’s so fully of twists and turns, and I felt them deep into my chest every time. The author writes so beautifully and I have basically highlighted all my ebook because some sentences just hit so hard.
I am not usually a big fan of books narrated in first person present tense, as I believe they tend to simplify the story a lot, but Francesca De Tores does such a great job that she did really prove me wrong.
It’s still not my preferred style but I learnt to enjoy it.

Mary is a wonderful, complex and layered character that kept me guessing throughout her story and I am sure I will miss her and think of her a lot.

The only thing I feel I missed from this book was more pirate action. I was expecting big battles and drama but this book is for sure very character driven rather than plot. Nothing wrong with it, just my personal preference.

So: read this book if you like pirates and adventure and complex characters that don’t fit in their world and their thoughts process.
[Do NOT read it if you want to find magic and Jack Sparrow in it -there IS a character called Jack tho, and a Gibson.]

From the blurb around this new novel by Francesca De Tores I knew this would be right up my street. I was not disappointed. I loved the characters and the details of sailing life in the 18th century were very evocative. As I was reading I kept having to ask myself if the story was really true and why do I feel sympathy for Mary despite her being a pirate?

Salt blood is a fabulous fictional account of the life of Mary Read, a female pirate from the Golden Age of Piracy 🏴‍☠️
The book follows Mary from her hidden birth, where she assumes her deceased brother's identity, to her adventures as a pirate on the high seas.
Mary is a strong and resilient character and the book makes for a really captivating read in particular for readers who enjoy historical reads, reads that include strong female characters, or just well written stories about pirates… it’s a win-win situation really!!!

A beautifully poetic fictionalised recounting of the life and exploits of Mary - Mark - Read. Expansive and fluid, like the themes of gender, identify, and the bonds of loyalty the book explores.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free review copy!

The best way to describe this book is as a dramatised version of a memoir, which wasn’t what I was expecting going into it. It is based on the life of Mary Read, starting from childhood all the way to her death. The story has plenty of action and the pace is steady with a good mix of characters that keeps the story interesting wanting you to read on to see what happens next in Mary’s life. We meet a collection of other famed pirates that she crosses paths with, and see how each has an impact on her life.

My main issue with this book is how much time was spent on the first half of her life, the time before she became a pirate. During this part of the book it dragged for me a little, yet some important parts of her life and rushed through very quickly. Once Mary started her piracy I enjoyed the book more but overall it was still lacking for me. It’s written in a very matter of fact way and seems very detached from any real strong emotion.

Overall I’m glad I read it as it was interesting and I would recommend if your interested in her life, but not something I would reach for again

'Saltblood' is an utterly brilliant novel which follows the life of the infamous female pirate, Mary Read. De Tores has clearly done an extraordinary amount of research, and has successfully brought Mary to life on the page, in all her vivid detail. From Mary's childhood, where she was disguised as her dead brother Mark in order to secure an inheritance, through her years in the Army, the Navy, and then her days of piracy, de Tores has painted such a rich picture of such a little known woman. Mary Read's relationship with another infamous female pirate, Anne Bonny, is brilliantly rendered, with every character so well drawn, flawed but lovable. 'Saltblood' is vying for my title of 'best book of the year so far', and the story of Mary Read will remain with me for a long time.

I have read a few novels lately about Mary Read and Anne Bonny - they seem to have captured the contemporary imagination so strongly! Overall, this was gripping, beautifully written and immersive. The language is poetic and so carefully wrought, especially at key moments - including the final pages. This is the strength of the novel, that lyricism and deft capturing of a perspective, a moment, a character. What didn't work quite so well for me was the sheer impact of life aboard the various ships - it was told to the reader, not shown, as such. I didn't feel that life-threatening immediacy of the sea, though it was beautifully conveyed in a more distant way. I also wearied slightly of the time-compression, and being informed in shorthand of various voyages - as others have said, I think, something about the pacing and the birth-till-death storytelling approach? Having said that, all the main characters, especially Mary, Anne and Jack Rackham, were vivid and so well drawn, and the historical world-building was breathtaking.

This is a historical fiction book based on a true female pirate.
As the author herself says, “I am not a historian” and this is how this book should be read.
A beautiful yet fictional telling of their life of Mary Read.
A good read, I finished this in a day when kids were in swim camp.

This book is based on documented facts of pirates at the beginning of the 18th century.
Mary Read is brought up as Mark, her older brother who died at a year old. Put into service at
twelve where she stayed until 16, when she joined the Navy, still as a boy. From there she joins the army. After a brief marriage she manages to get a job on a ship. After sailing to the Caribbean she eventually becomes a pirate..
A gritty tale of only one of two female pirates ever recorded.
I loved this book, a great historical novel.

The author sets out to recount the life of notorious pirate Mary Read and the author does just that, but whether the story is particularly gripping is another matter. I enjoyed aspects of this book, for example Mary's time at sea from her early days as sailor and how she builds friends within a cut-throat period of war. However, the first person narrative is written matter-of-fact without any emotion or attention to world building and scene setting. Considering this is a historical fiction, I would have liked more immersive writing that encapsulated the golden age of piracy. The writing and plot structure of following Mary's life from birth to death reminds me of Orlando by Virginia Woolf that explored similar ideas of the main character undergoing life as a different gender - from male to female in a way to highlight the gender gap in society.

The plot tackles Mary's life as a sailor, soldier and pirate as well as discussing gender, but the plot is too quick for readers to truly understand how this impacts the character. This book is fast-paced and crams a lot into the book, but bypasses important character development and plot points. I think this would benefit from focusing on a specific period in Mary Read's life such as her piracy with Anne Bonny and dive deeper into their relationship and piracy in general at the time. That being said, this accounts Mary's life as one of loss, love and isolation that does shed light on Mary's rocky life and her attempt to find where she fitted into a male dominated world. The narrative continues to question who Mary is as her identity is ever-changing. Her identity becomes more solidified when Anne Bonny is introduced.

Overall, a disappointing read considering the potential of exploring a time in history that was very dark, fascinating and home to notorious female pirates. I think the author has tried to do too much and missed the mark slightly.

I liked what this story was asking about identity but I was disappointed with it overall. I just didn't find it as exciting as I expected to

A really enjoyable book about complex family dynamics, queer identities, pirates and the lives of pirates within the 1700s. Mary/Mark is a really interesting protagonist who uses their understanding of gender to survive in a world not built for women. She faces trials and tribulations as she develops that really develop her in a unique way.
The pacing is a bit off in this book but I feel like it works well for the character. The first half of the book is so rapidly paced but does slow down by the time Mary meets Ann Bonny. Narratively I felt it makes sense though as she is no longer running away from everything and escaping conflict but instead pining and reflecting on her life.

An artful historical fiction debut, and hopefully one to usher in more books concerning the golden age of piracy. De Tores writes with such care for her characters, and the development of Mary, Jack and Anne’s relationship in such a cruel and harsh world is poetic and gripping to the last.

I need to stop reading books about Mary Read and Ann Bonny because they never live up to what I expect. I was unsure about some of the author's choices - what was left out for instance, which would have indicated that Mary Read thought of herself as female but wanted to earn a man's wage. (It was not unheard of and often women lived openly on ships as women under male names - it was how they got paid as sailors). Otherwise this was fine but dragged a bit in places.

AHOY MY LADY.

Ah yes nothing like a good pirate story published in 2024 to set the year off in the right foot! Saltblood is a fancinating tale of a young woman who from her childhood even is forced to take the appearance of a boy in order to secure hers and her mother's survival. That masking continues into her adulthood when she as the book title and cover make quite clear becomes captain of her own ship. This is a fancinating book filled to the very core with sadness and injustice along with social commentary on the fmcs loss of identity as she takes up the name of a man and the treatment women received in the older times.

This is a fascinating read and I did enjoy it for the most part. However, for me the pace felt slightly off and it dragged a little.

That being said it is a wonderful adventure and an interesting take on Mary Read’s life. It did feel like I was reading an autobiography rather than a work of fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley, Francesca De Tores and Bloomsbury Publishing

This is a fantastic story of the most captivating adventure, gender identity and pure survival. The story starts with Mary Read, also known as Mark Read. Born into a world who expected her to be a boy and therefore she was raised as such, setting the way for an incredible story that transcends societal norms.

For years Mary continued their life under the identity of Mark, while making their way through a variety of roles. From serving a French woman, to the Navy and onto the battlegrounds of Flanders; we see the history of Mark Read being built brick by brick.

Through a constant yearning to be back at sea with the love and loss of life, taking this time the ghosts of Mark Reads past, now as Mary she finds herself aboard a ship as a pirate. The adventures of this are woven beautifully with the questioning of identity and sexuality; what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man. The poetic license shows that Francesca de Tores used the history of two female Pirates, Mary and Anne, making this story all the more compelling.

Tores’ writing is magnificently poetic, keeping you gripped to the page, and while it is not a particularly faced paced book, you cannot help but to keep reading. The exploration of gender identity is an absolute triumph within this novel, alongside the tales of grief and adventure makes the character of Mary Read one that you will never forget.

You know a book is good when you start recounting the plot to others. "Saltblood" by Francesca De Tores falls into that character. A very interesting historical novel about Mary Read who is raised as Mark Read and goes into service, the navy and then the army in the guise of a male but then goes onto become a female sailor and pirate. You encounter a few famous pirates along the way, get to know pirating from all angles and fall in love with Crow. Crow just makes this book. What a fab character.

First of all I love the cover of the book. It has the Crow and the sea the biggest love of Mary Read. The story was interesting and I really loved her obsession with the sea and the fact that she was a woman on board of a ship to work there like a man and the struggles she had to go through as a woman when other men underestimated her.
I wasn't that involved in her relationship with Anne, so I couldn't wait for more action with other pirates or the governor Rogers. I wanted more of this action and not that much of Anne.
I loved the introduction of Crow, that added a nice touch to the story.