Francesca De Tores has created an amazing debut novel with Saltblood.

Following Mary who is made to live her life as a boy, Mark, to receive money from her family to keep her and her mum afloat, we see how she hurries herself in a life that would otherwise be out of reach. We see Mary working in the ladies’ grounds, then onto the navy, moving to the army, and eventually being called back to the seas as a pirate.

This was unlike anything I have ever read with it being (somewhat) historically accurate. Out of each of Mary’s sections of life, I enjoyed the pirate life the most, but overall the writing put Mary’s life parallel to the sea’s. Reading about a woman belonging to the sea and only feeling at place aboard a ship was enthralling. This was further enhanced by De Tores’ writing, giving Mary no sense of man or woman, but sailor, which added to my reading experience.

The cast of characters was great, especially Mary’s friend and lover Anne who has led a similar life to Mary. Each set of characters tied to the different parts of Mary’s life complimented her journey perfectly, with the book exploring loss and grief and the ghosts that can haunt us.

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for further works by this author and recommend this to those who love character-driven novels that defy the norm.

Although a bit bit of slow burner, it is well worth sticking with this book. Beautifully written and truly a masterpiece.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing, for a digital ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily.

Saltblood is a fictional retelling of the life of Mary Read, a real-life female pirate who lived in the late 17th century and operated during the same era as the notorious 'Blackbeard'. Disguised as a boy by her mother in childhood, Mary continues the charade as an adult, serving in the army, the Royal Navy, and eventually becoming a pirate in the Caribbean.

Saltblood caught my attention because I had been enjoying other fictional stories about women pirates. Nevertheless, it's crucial to understand that Saltblood is not the usual swashbuckling pirate escapade. The protagonist doesn't assume the role of a pirate until the book is halfway done. Rather, it gives a fictionalised portrayal of her entire life.

From my perspective, it falls under the genre of literary fiction with an emphasis on exploring a fictionalised existence rather than following a traditional plot. It was challenging for me to engage with because it lacked plot conflict and didn't provide a true story either.

The story does effectively create a strong sense of place and time, with detailed descriptions of life aboard the ship.

'Gender' is a central theme that the author examines in the book, as mentioned in the promotional blurb. It bothers me when women from history are analysed through the perspective of modern ideologies and including gender in this book seems forced to attract specific readers.

For those that like to know the content warnings, this includes, executions, cancer, death of children,

An absolutely brilliant book about the pirate Mary Reed.who was born in 1685
It tell her life story and how a girl who was brought up as a boy by her mother kept this persona into adult life where she enlisted in the navy without any of the crew realising her identity and then went on to become a soldier in the battlefields of Flanders.
After finding love and heartbreak she was drawn back to the sea and the life of a pirate.
This is a wonderful read that especially how a woman broke all the role model rules in an era that was dominated by men

‘Saltblood’ by Francesca De Torres is the story of real life historical figure Mary Read, who is born in Plymouth in 1675 and leads a remarkable life that sees her joining the navy and the calvary, before she becomes a pirate - all as a woman pretending to be a man. What a life and what an epic book.

In order to ensure that an inheritance continues from the family of her deceased husband, Mary’s mother raises her as a boy - Mark, which is also the name of her deceased infant brother. This ‘secret’ identity continues into life as a servant and then the navy and cavalry.

In the main they call me Mary Read.

As for my true name?

Go ask the sea.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the story, just to say that the first half has a cracking pace as Mary/Mark makes her way in the world. It’s a proper page turner, her story beautifully told. The second half, while not continuing at the same breakneck speed of her earlier life, is just as compelling.

I do enjoy a good nautical book. ‘Madhouse at the End of the Earth’ by Julian Sancton was a nightmarish but compulsive read set on a ship trapped by ice in the Antartcia. ‘Saltblood’ is mostly set around the Atlantic Ocean and later in the Bahamas, and nowhere near as claustrophobic, but there’s still the small crew on board that you get to know, and it is fraught with danger.

It’s very much a book about identity - Mary lives a life as a girl, a boy, a man and eventually as a woman. And it’s about starting anew - not only does Mary slip between genders, but she reinvents herself constantly, and the sea is new each day.

‘For myself, I have long since understood myself as something altogether more spacious than the narrow port of either woman or man.’

It asks the question - what is our identity based on? What defines us as a person, and when we realise our identity is built on the shifting sands of gender/occupation/family/childhood/favourite football team/whatever you build your identity around - what are you left with when that crumbles?

It’s also about freedom - Mary dreams of a Republic of pirates, where man and woman are equal and all the riches, and love, are shared.

‘How can I make in words the sea, or the singing of the ships? Such things Iearned not through language but through my hands on the lines and my bare feet braced against the deck, my eyes squinting against the salt spray. I have swum deep, the sky a distant thing beyond the veil of the sea. What words could tell the truth of this?’

‘Saltblood’ is based on the historical figure of Mary Read, but it also made me think of another famous Irish female pirate from history, known as Gráinne Mhaol, who routed the English in the 1500’s. She’s also known to Anne Bonny in this book, who recounts how she commanded twenty galleys, and birthed a child one day before rising to fight fiercely against the Corsairs the next. I can’t imagine human resources or health and safety being too impressed with that.

Mary is great narrator, completely believable throughout. She has fierce loyalty to those around her, especially colourful characters such as Calico Jack and Anne Bonny. At times her life is a struggle for survival, and she suffers a lot of loss -it’s a life that has taught her much. It’s down to the skill of the author that you sense Mary’s growing confidence, as she becomes comfortable with who she is, especially as a pirate. She’s great company throughout.

I loved the prose in this - it has an earthy lyrical flow, crackling with wit and especially wisdom. So many beautiful descriptive passages, especially about life on the sea, and the perilous life of a pirate is vivid and vital. The storytelling is totally immersive and so well paced -my interest never flagged in this book.

And a word to for the historical research from the author (there’s a lengthy list of sources at the end) - it’s never top heavy, and blends in seamlessly with the narrative.

What a superb debut novel from Francesa De Tores, a swashbuckling adventure story that’s also about gender fluidity and identity, full of interesting characters and a fascinating narrator who lead an extraordinary life.

Given the subject matter, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a series/film already in production - it’s made for these times.

‘For years I felt myself a stowaway in my own life. But the sea has taught me this: such days as I was granted, they were mine’

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

I absolutely couldn’t resist this retelling of the life of Mary Read - I studied both Mary and Anne at university and so was absolutely all over this. I really enjoyed that this was from the perspective of Mary rather than Anne and the story was a great historical retelling of her life.

The book was very faithful to the history of Mary and I thought it was an excellent character driven take. I liked the amount of focus given to Mary’s life pre Anne, though I did maybe expect more to have been made of the time they spent pirating together.

Overall a must for fans of feminist historical fiction - definitely offers something a bit different from the usual witchy themed feminist stories.

Excellent novel, a well plotted historical fiction that brought to different places and read about adventures and fabolous characters
Excellent storytelling and character development
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would from the blurb, it was written in a style that didn’t always appeal to me however the subject matter was really interesting. Knowing it was based on a true story made it even better for me.

A well researched, detailed, excellent read.
The writing here is amazing, especially for a debut novel! Really descriptive and detailed and such a vivid style of writing. It was very evocative in its story telling.
Our main character mary has a great many roles and we get to see her journey through these all to ultimately a pirate and her life at sea. The historical setting felt very well done, and you could tell a lot of work had been done to make it accurate to the time and exploring themes that were relevant then, but that in reality are sometimes still prevalent today. I really felt immersed in this story, and mary was such a wonderful character i felt myself needing to know what was going to happen to her next and really caring about her snd her actions. Such a page turner!!

I love that as the book goes on we get so much more depth and information on marys character only making her more appealing as the story conitnues, and id honestly recommend so highly. I dont even normally read historical fiction but enjoyed this so much!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Saltblood is the fictional version of Mary Read, a female pirate in the early part of the 18th century, a contemporary of Blackbeard and Calico Jack.

Saltblood is one of those novels is one of those novels that is hard for me as a reader and a reviewer to judge as a whole, the reason being there were times in the story that worked really well and had me captivated throughout,

However at other times the novel seemed to drag, though as a reader this could have been because i am not sure what Francesca De Tores was trying to do with the book.

Was it trying to be the story of a female pirate during its so called golden age in the Caribbean, Or was it the tale of a woman who was unsure of who she was because of the era she was born in or her upbringing.

There is another way this novel could be played as situational LGBT, although i am not sure if this was by design or accident.

This could come out if we take Mary Read who throughout the story changes public roles form being Mark or Mary depending on the role that she shows to the world.

At the start she is portrayed as her brother Mark who has passed away so her mum can keep receiving payments from his grandmother. And after her the elderly woman's death to earn money first as a servant then as a sailor or soldier.

Before becoming a women and marrying, than swapping back and forth between conventional roles for a man or woman at the time.

If this was the case just on the main character i would have said, maybe that is just the story however, while on the ship there seem to be a way of the LGBT issue being what goes on ship stays on the ship, not specifically stated this is especially the case with the ex priest on the ship.

However as this issues fitted in with the story itself it never distracted from the novel in fact it enhanced it more then either a negative or detrimental effect

While enjoying the book as a whole for me as a reader the synopsis was all about it being a tale of a pirate however it was not until the 50% mark when this became the main point of the story, and it did feel like Francesca De Tores, was never going to get to that point,

For me the novel would have worked better as a 2 book series with the books being split at the 50 percent with both sides being expanded.

So is Saltblood, worth reading I would say yes for the right reader because at the end as Francesca De Tores’s writing had me filled with emotion at the end.

‘Saltblooded, wholehearted, I choose the sea.’

I have so many good things to say about ‘Saltblood’; it is exactly the book I want to read. I felt whalloped right into the story, reading ‘Saltblood’. And what a Shakespearean story it is – an enraged mother (‘[My mother] will not forgive her life for what it has dared to become.’) and a daughter role-playing a gender-swapping kind of masquerade:
‘[My mother] has raised me to be a boy, and she says it is for the money, but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t also so the world will treat me kinder than it has treated her. But that means she hates me too, now that I am a boy and on my way to becoming a man. The older I get, the angrier at me she becomes, and I never know if it is because I am not good enough at playing a man, or because I am too good at it.’

This novel tickled the back of my mind in the most gratifying manner. Francesca de Tores moulds her novel around archetypal source material, the fascination with which we have all mostly internalised: the shapeshifting of women (‘This is the way of it: women making space, and men taking it.’). I love it when contemporary fiction calls allusion into play and re-shapes or adds onto what we already hold in the collective ‘read’ shelf of our consciousness. Yet what I thought would be a tragi-comic spectacle, actually revealed itself quite early on as a more sensitive discourse on what it means to claim an identity:
‘Tell me your crow name. Tell me the name you will wear to the bottom of the sea. Tell me the name shaped to fit every part of you, instep and underarm and the exact curve of your ear. Tell me the name you hear someone calling in a dream, and wake with your mouth already open to reply. Tell me the name that the crows would say, black-voiced, because everybody knows a crow cannot lie.’

And with this gorgeous image, I thought of Ovid’s Crow, who – in the ‘Metamorphoses’ – illustrates the necessity of holding your tongue, of keeping a secret.

Putting these things together, as a reader I appreciated the tale told of keeping who you are a secret, or changing who you are into something other:
'I believe all bodies are as loose as the bodies in [ancient myths]. Zeus changes into a swan [...]; Daphne changes into a tree [...]. I figure there is a truth running through these tales like a thread of gristle through meat: that you can be one thing, and then another. Sometimes it's a threat; sometimes it's a promise.'

In fact, far from melodrama, ‘Saltblood’ is a finely wrought inquiry into emotional being. Mary Read, our protagonist, is as much a shapeshifter as any of Ovid’s figures and she unabashedly calls upon that most iconic of Ovid’s metamorphs, Daphne:
‘For an hour, as I clean the drawing room fireplace, I keep the [cherry] stone in my mouth like a dislodged tooth. In the end I swallow it. For days I dream a cherry tree will grow in me. I think of Grandmother’s book of myths, and the picture of Daphne, half woman and half tree, taking refuge in her own branches. I think of the hardness of women and the softness of wood. I remember the sour-sweetness of the cherry and how it split under my tongue. At night, in my narrow bed, I clench my hand then unfurl it like a leaf, and imagine how boughs might grow from me.’

As for Tores’ writing style, every phrase here can be mined, nothing is flimsy or surface-level; there is craft and gravity borne out in her style. With each piece of technical wowzery and with each looping-back to earlier established imagery, Tores builds upon the reading pleasure, and I found her work elicited a kind of primal satisfaction in me.

For comparisons, I’d say if you enjoyed ‘The Night Ship’ by Jess Kidd, or if you’re a Julia Armfield devotee, I’d highly recommend ‘Saltblood’.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

"All manner of things are possible that we do not know until we do them."

It's 1685 when Mary Beard is born in Plymouth. After her half-brother, Mark, dies, her mother names her after him so she can continue to collect his inheritance money. And so, Mary learns to be a boy as a servant at a manor, and a man, first, as a sailor in the royal navy, and then, a soldier in the war against France and Spain.

But it's the sea that will always call Mary, and after leaving the army she returns to the waters, this time as herself. Most captains won't take her on board, despite her competence as a sailor and when she finally does get a commission, she'll have to take great care. Because in a world made for men, she is always in danger. And, when the opportunity comes to sail without restrictions, she makes a decision to become a pirate, hunted by the Crown.

Mary Beard is a real historical figure, who came to infamy during the so-called Golden Age of piracy. She's absolutely fascinating. The author uses her to explore gender identity, and themes of love, loss and fierce independence. Mary made her own way, her own luck, at a time when women were mostly chattel. I loved reading about her. At times I felt a bit lost with the nautical terminology and had to look up a lot of words, so I feel the author could have dumbed that down a bit.

Otherwise, a great read.

his is a new author for me. I loved Saltblood. I’d like to read the author’s other books some day because I enjoyed this so much. The book recounts in part the live of Anne Bonny, a father famous pirate whose story I’ve come across before. Her paths cross with Mary’s and the relationship between them is the core of this novel. I loved their story. This is well-written and engaging. I got sucked into Mary and Anne’s life every time I picked up the book and didn’t want to leave. I loved this book and would recommend it.

Sticking closely to the few facts known about Mary Read, Saltblood is a fictionalised account of her childhood, life, military service and Piracy!

From being forced to live life as a boy, her deceased older brother Mark to keep her and her mother fed - to becoming a footman, enrolling in the Navy and later taking to the seas as a pirate with the notorious Anne Bonny - Mary lived an interesting and unusual life for an 18th century woman.

She found love but lost him too soon and couldn't settle to a life without adventure - Mary was used to living life on the edge of being discovered as a woman in a world where a woman, especially a poor woman, were rarely ever allowed to be more than a wife, mother or lady-of-negotiable-affection.

The narrative is vivid and descriptive and I felt a strong connection to Mary's need for independence and to be accepted on her own terms.

Travelling the seas, disguised as a man in the ‘golden age’ of piracy

Francesca de Tores has written an absorbing, believable fiction, weaving together the known facts of the lives of two female pirates of the early eighteenth century, Mary Read and Anne Bonny, who were part of ‘Calico Jack’s’ crew.

It is Mary who is the major character in de Tores book, and we follow her, disguised as a boy and then a man, in her journey through the navy, then joining the army, and, later, going back to sea on a merchant ship and privateer, plying trade in the West Indies, before eventually joining a pirate crew.

De Tores really evokes the period well. My only challenge (and dropping of star) is that, because inevitably de Tores wants us to understand and have some empathy with her central characters, some inevitably horrific history is glossed over. This was well within the period of the slave trade, which features very little, and de Tores makes ‘Calico Jack’ opposed to the slave trade, and Mary befriends one black pirate who has escaped slavery. There is no other reference to any of her earlier sea history within the merchant navy trading in anything other than goods, and this includes the privateers who were making their own side hustles.

Maybe Mary, Anne and Jack were all incredibly enlightened people, well in advance of their society, but the extremely slight reference to the fact that people were being traded seemed somewhat odd

I was delighted to read this as an ARC and will certainly want to read more of de Tores writing

I'd heard the name Mary Read before, but have to admit I'd never really given much thought to the lives of female pirates. I've obviously been missing out though, because it turns out the Golden Age of Piracy was a fascinating time. Saltblood is a fictionalised account of Mary Read's life: her childhood in London (where she was raised as a boy), the time she spent in the army and navy (disguised as a young man), her journey to the Bahamas, where she eventually joined John 'Calico Jack' Rackham's pirate crew, and her relationship with Anne Bonny (another infamous female pirate based in the Caribbean). It's well-researched and well-written, and has lots of interesting commentary on womanhood and gender in the 18th century Atlantic world, alongside everything else you'd expect from a novel about pirates (daring, duels, and adventures on the high seas). I'm excited to read more from Francesca De Tores. Thanks NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the e-ARC!

Saltblood is a brilliantly written debut novel. This historical fiction is so descriptively written and the author does a brilliant job of transporting you into the various scenes, making it all feel very realistic. It covers in great detail the extensive life of the character Mary/Mark and their many adventures. The pace is a bit slow in places and I found myself struggling to connect with the character at times but overall this is a fantastic historical fiction. It explores a number of themes including gender, sexuality and family dynamics to name a few. A really interesting read that fans of historical fiction will enjoy.

Great historical novel the characters were well developed and the book had a mixed cadence which kept interst u til the end

This was a masterpiece of historical fiction. I had a vague idea of the lives of Ann Bonney and Mary Read, but this book literally brought Mary to life. I was surprised at first how much of the book dealt with her early life before she went to sea, but it really helped flesh out her character and why she ,right have chosen such an unusual way of life. It reminded me of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a book I loved as a child for its maritime setting and satisfying female characters. Literary but enjoyable!

This book grabs you from the beginning! You know how the story ends from the start, but you are invested from the first chapter. I really liked it and I'm glad that pirates are becoming a new trend in fiction!