Item: The Pirate Queen
Rating: 5
Author: Catherine

The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
Published by Doubleday
Publication date: September 8, 2026
Genres: Book Clubs, Fiction, Historical

Hello, fall! It may not be here officially, but in the book world this week is one of the busiest for new releases. And this year looks to be huge with fall novels coming from popular authors like Hernan Diaz, Barbara Kingsolver, Jodi Picoult, Elin Hilderbrand, Emily St. John-Mandel, Bonnie Garmus, and Kate Atkinson. I’m happy to add Ariel Lawhon to the list. I was late to the party for her novel, The Frozen River, not reading it until years after its publication, but I loved it so much I knew I wouldn’t make that mistake again and so made reading her newest novel, The Pirate Queen, a top priority. Historical fiction about the infamous Irish pirate, Grace O’Malley, it didn’t disappoint and solidified my opinion of Lawhon as a consummate storyteller.

To structure Grace’s story, Lawhon draws upon the Celtic Trinity Knot, said to symbolize the three stages of a woman’s life: Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch. Rather than following a chronological progression, The Pirate Queen moves back and forth among these three stages. As a maiden, Grace is the beloved only daughter of Eóin O’Malley, chieftain of the seafaring O’Malley kingdom, with an uncanny affinity for the ocean. But in 1500s Ireland, a woman has no place on a ship and Grace’s duty is to marry into the right clan, regardless of what she wants. As a mother, she is trapped in a violent, loveless marriage and forced to navigate a society that expects women to stay home and remain silent. In her 50s and 60s, Grace becomes a matriarch, finally living as her true self among her people, but being hunted as an outlaw by the British.

Initially, there is some disorientation as the timelines abruptly shift from childhood to the later years, but Grace is such a hurricane of spirit, loyalty, and bravery that ignoring her is not an option. Lawhon acknowledges that much of The Pirate Queen is extrapolated from her imagination as there is little historical record of O’Malley. A common occurrence for any woman anywhere at the time. What is known is from her enemies the British and is therefore suspect; including her name which is actually Gráinne Ní Mháille. Lawhon’s imagination is the current running through the slender bits of information that are the filament lighting the incandescent Grainne. From the opening scene in her childhood to the final pages, The Pirate Queen is a story that I avidly returned to anytime I could abandon real life obligations. A wonderful, immersive beginning to my fall reading.

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