The Pirate Queen

It's been nearly 500 years since Gráinne Ní Mháille—anglicized as Grace O'Malley—was born. Most documented details of her life have been lost to time, a consequence of the centuries that have passed, the male-dominated culture of her era, and the old adage that "history is written by the victors". Yet tales of her legendary exploits have been passed down through generations of Irish and preserved as legend. In The Pirate Queen, Ariel Lawhon takes the facts we do know, blends them with folklore, and reimagines large swaths of Grace's story to create one of the most compelling historical novels in recent memory.

Grace is a spitfire from the start. As a five-year-old, she openly challenges her father in front of his crew when he refuses to let her join them; when he claims her hair will get caught in the ropes, she promptly slices off her braid. Throughout her life, she is drawn to the water—even in an era when having a woman on the open sea was considered the ultimate bad omen. Despite early rebuffs, her father eventually relents, and Grace joins him aboard his ship, Niamh.

Lawhon crafts her tale across three interlocking timelines—"Maiden" (1535–1546), "Mother" (1550–1583), and "Matriarch" (1586–1603)—a nod to the Celtic Trinity Knot symbolizing the three stages of womanhood. Rather than presenting Grace's life chronologically, the novel cycles through a different timeline in each chapter. Chapter one introduces five-year-old Grace; chapter two jumps to 1550 with Grace as a young wife; chapter three leaps to 1586, where she is fully established as the "Pirate Queen"; and chapter four loops back to the "Maiden" line. It's an interesting device, that initially creates some confusion but ultimately adds richness to the telling of the tale. Lawhon masterfully aligns key moments across eras, helping readers directly connect the formative events of Grace's youth to her later decisions. In a purely chronological retelling spanning fifty years, readers might forget crucial details, but Lawhon's inventive structure does the heavy lifting for us.

Because Grace O'Malley's life is the stuff of legend, there is no shortage of high-stakes drama. She lived during a tumultuous period in Irish history. At the turn of the 16th century, English rule was largely restricted to "The Pale"—a strip of land surrounding Dublin—while autonomous Gaelic lords (like Grace's father, "The O'Malley") ruled the rest of the island. Over Grace's lifetime, England gradually asserted tighter control over the country, prompting fierce rebellion from local clans, with Grace squarely at the forefront of that rebellion.

The Pirate Queen has bits of everything: heroes and villains, romance and tragedy, humor and despair. It is more action-packed than I initially expected, and the story is reminiscent of Braveheart, if William Wallace were Irish, and a sea captain, and a badass woman. And it's really good. While the tall tales of Grace's legendary life provided a great framework, this shows Lawhon operating on another level from what I saw in The Frozen River (which was in my Top 20 of 2024, by the way); I can't overstate how well she builds a complete story around that unique life.

Lawhon sums up Grace beautifully and succinctly in her Author's Note:

"It seems unbelievable, doesn't it? A chieftain? A pirate queen? It is the stuff of legend. For a novelist, it is a dream come true. Grace O'Malley lived and died; she lived and fought. Bore children. Sacked castles. Captained ships. Stole ships. Killed men. Challenged an empire...

More than anything, I want you to remember this wild Irish girl was real. She really did these incredible things! How fitting that Grace forced her way into history—even when historians of her day purposefully struck her from their account."

Just a week after Under Story claimed the #1 spot in my 2026 rankings, The Pirate Queen might have already eclipsed it. This is one I will be universally recommending for years to come.