Saltblood by Franscesca de Tores

I feel no guilt about this taking that we do. I give no quarter, for I have been given none. Nobody ever gave me anything. Not even a name – I had to live in my brother’s name, just like I lived in his leftover clothes, once we were back in Plymouth and Ma had boiled the fever out of them. I take because the world has taught me to take. Because the only steady witness I ever had was the crow, and the sea. Was I more virtuous when I made my coin from wars, in the navy and army, and killing was my business? Or when I earned my living from trade, from tobacco and sugar harvested under whip by slaves? Where there is money, blood will always follow – or perhaps it is the other way round. I am a pirate now: a thief and a bandit and perhaps a killer. Perhaps I am become what I always was.
Page 199

In a nutshell

Saltblood is Based on the story of Mary Read, one of history’s most remarkable figures. Born in a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, while her half-brother is dying, Mary becomes Mark to allow her mother to collect his inheritance money. This dual existence of being a girl raised as a boy sees her taking on many roles – from footman in a grand house, to sailor in the navy, soldier in the army, dutiful wife, to her most dangerous role – a pirate – the role in which Mary is finally able to be true to who (or what) she is.

Book Club Notes

I picked up Saltblood thinking it would be like The Ghost Ship. I remember thinking that both books had almost an identical storyline. But while they’re both works of historical fiction, both deal with women pretending to be men and pirates – they read nothing like each other. Saltblood is the incredible story of Mary Read, a woman I first learnt about in Kate Mosse’s Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries. A woman who was forced to live as a boy and later made that choice herself in order to allow her to move in the world the way men do – with confidence, safety, opportunity and space. Saltblood delicately and thoughtfully tackles the notion of gender identity, fluidity and norms. As the book progresses you get to witness Mary coming into herself, feeling secure in her own skin, owning her womanhood and being a badass that could take on a ship full of pirates. Saltblood is a wild adventure of a book that vividly paints the picture of what the life of Mary Read (and Anne Bonny) looked like and stands as a reminder that limits only exist in our minds.