Review of The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon

I was completely hooked on the imagined details of the life of Irish folk heroine and female pirate Grace O'Malley. I ultimately loved the novel's unusual structure, which tracked back and forth in time and revealed more about the strong female protagonist at each turn.

I fell hard for this slam dunk of a premise: A novel about a female pirate based on the life of Grace O’Malley, an Irish folk heroine who was legendarily willing to risk everything for her people. Yes, yes, and yes.

In Lawhon's tale, Grace is born to take to the sea and lead her people. But her family's noble expectations are that she marry well and have babies.

We follow Grace from her youth through midlife and into old age, as her life is upended by death, deceit, the insult of being an underestimated woman, male cruelty, and being kept from her true love. But Grace's uncanny sense of the sea and its moods, her undeniable fortitude, and her passion for and loyalty to her people allow her to lead her people through all manner of dangers.

Lawhon frequently tracks back and forth through time, orienting the reader at the start of each chapter with a "Maiden," "Mother," or "Matriarch" header, the year the chapter's events took place, and Grace's age during that period. I would have imagined that this structure would have been jarring and potentially difficult to dive into, but after the first few sections I was fascinated by finding out pieces of the Grace O'Malley puzzle as Lawson filled in details, context, and increased the reader's understanding of Grace's motivations, impulses, and convictions.

A few male characters are infuriating and easy to detest; Richard is worth swooning over (but Lawhon, thankfully, doesn't insert swooning into the story).

The tone felt perfect to me for the imagined, detailed story of a strong woman who inspired folk devotion, and I loved reading the book.

Grace's final moments were incredibly poignant; I loved her reflections on her very full, complicated, adventure- and challenge-filled life:

Today Grace feels as though she is every version of herself. Still the young girl running barefoot in the waves. The mother fighting for her children. And the old woman, wistful at the end of a long, vibrant life.

More Bossy Recommendations

Ariel Lawhon is also the author of The Frozen River. Her novel Code Name Helène wasn't for me; I didn't finish that one.

Check out these links for more Bossy reads about strong women, female pirates, or ocean voyages.