The Pirate Queen
By Ariel Lawhon ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10 ""Murder an Irishman, and it will cost you your life. Slaughter an Irish child, and they'll make you beg before they let you die. But rape an Irishwoman, and they will take your manhood before..."
By Ariel Lawhon
★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
484 pages
What’s it about?
Grace O'Malley is an Irish folk heroine who lived in the 1500's. This is her story as reimagined by Ariel Lawhon.
What did it make me think about?
Women, and historically, how little control we had over our own lives.
Should I read it?
I really enjoyed The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, and this book was equally as engrossing. Some people may not love how the story jumps back and forth in time, but it worked for me. The author has chosen to tell the story in consecutive chapters titled Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch. We move from Grace's childhood to her early years as a mother, then to her later years, and repeat this pattern throughout the book. In this way, the story of Grace is parsed out to us in bits until the end, when we have a fuller picture of her whole life. In the Afterword, the author says you would read the book differently if you read all the Maiden chapters consecutively, then the Mother chapters, and lastly the Matriarch chapters. I just might have to do that one of these days. I wouldn't mind spending another week with Grace O'Malley....
A passage I marked
"Murder an Irishman, and it will cost you your life. Slaughter an Irish child, and they'll make you beg before they let you die. But rape an Irishwoman, and they will take your manhood before cutting out your tongue."
