Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #401267 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 396 pages

Customer Reviews

SISTERS ARE DOIN IT FOR THEMSELVES
As a child, I had always heard of pirates as savage, brutal, crude and cruel, especially the women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Riley's story brings these two to life like I had never imagined. The book is filled with action and as well details character stories as well, to the point where I was gripped with sympathy for them both. Riley doesn't spare any of the gritty details of the sex or violence, instead she's written a realistic tale that seems both well researched and well crafted. Many points during the book I was overwhelmed with the intensity of the storytelling... the imagery lingers long after I finished.

The thrill is lacking
The saga of 18th-century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read is worthy of a big-budget film boasting an A-list cast and top-of-the-line special effects. However, if Sandra Riley's novel were used as the basis of a screenplay, we'd be looking at a B-movie treatment for which the majority of the buzz would undoubtedly focus on which hopeful starlet would be baring all as Bonny.

This is a pirate story, and thus above all else we have a right to expect plenty of cutlass-and-cannon action at sea. But Riley somehow managed to pen a tale in which most of the action passes by unnoticed. Instead, we get lots of stilted period speech and a great deal of grubby sex, including a voyeuristic peek at each girl's sexual awakening.

Riley certainly does a lot of character development in the novel, and she created elaborate backstories for her main characters. That much is to her credit. However, it's a shame she sacrificed the meat of the story: the excitement of piracy itself. Riley doesn't seem sure if she wanted to craft a romance or a pirate adventure, something she probably should have sorted out before she completed the text.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor

Solid history, fun writing
This was my favorite fictionalized account of Anne Bonney and Mary Reade ever. The author manages to do Johnny-Depp-style pirate humor, while not ignoring the actual history or the gruesome realities of pirates at the time. There are graphic and brutal depictions of slavery, poignant descriptions of interracial love, and hilarious pirate anecdotes. I fell in love with her Anne Bonney. I wanted to be her Mary Reade. She does take one historical liberty, relocating the career of a notorious pirate captain by 10 years. However, I forgive her that for her inclusion of almost every bit of the Bonney/Read legend, right down to pleading their bellies for a stay of execution and the final bitter words of Bonney to Jack Rackham, after he left her and Read to defend the ship alone. ("If you had fought like a man, you would not now hang like a dog." Brrr.) So, though I must add the obligatory caution about "historical fiction != history", the book really is rather good, and I will be chasing down some of Riley's other books.