Kirkus Reviews QR Code
PIRATICA by Tanith Lee Kirkus Star

PIRATICA

Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl’s Adventure upon the High Seas

by Tanith Lee

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2004
ISBN: 0-525-47324-6
Publisher: Dutton

A glorious roustabout of a tale, full of yummy set pieces and terrific adventures, unbelievable in a most satisfying way. Sixteen-year-old Artemesia (Art) escapes via chimney from the boarding school her dastardly father has shipped her to, and finds her mother’s crew in the town of Lundon. Her mother was Molly Faith, a pirate queen, who never hurt a soul and won her booty by cleverness. The crew, however, reminds Art that her baby memories are of playing pirates onstage, not actually going to sea. Art whips them into shape anyway, gathers up a ship, and sets off for treasure in a parallel world similar to but different from our world circa 1802. There’s a taste of Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones, along with a fabulous parrot, a mysterious freed slave, set pieces with lost islands, treasure maps, storms at sea, and stagecraft. There’s even a boy with a silver tongue and shining hair who Art thinks is her enemy, but who is not. The language is rip-roaring or glides like a seagull, as needed. And the thrilling dénouement is romantic as heck. (Fiction. YA)