This intriguing novel about pirate queen Clementine and her daughter Thea begins by toggling between "then" and "now" -- in Clementine's girlhood, when she isn't allowed to explore her scientific potential because of her gender; with Thea jumping from a whaling ship to swim three miles to shore; with an argument about whether the volcano on Valonia will erupt, killing everyone on the island. As the narrative progresses, the reader is able to assemble the timeline -- how the sexism that stifled Clementine's research and the pre-eruption tremor that killed her husband finally push Clementine to piracy just ahead of the cataclysm; how Thea is her reluctant accomplice until she runs away on a whaler with her crush Bauer; how Bauer rapes Thea, leading to her escape and the three-mile swim. Thea ends up in a settlement of Valonian survivors, including her childhood companion Wes, who's trying to turn himself into the settlement's doctor. A good portion of the narrative is Thea's survival story; another portion concerns her unfinished business with Clementine, where Thea will have to decide once and for all whether she belongs on the side of the law or of her mother. The quasi-New England setting, with its own geography, mythology, and economy, adds another puzzle for readers to determine how it departs from our own world. An adventure story with an exceptional amount of emotional growth, this original creation will keep readers surprised and engrossed. Anita L. Burkam September/October 2022 p.99(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Amid the ruins of Astoria, a coastal country shaped by both mythology and natural disasters, a pirate's daughter blazes her own path. Thea's mother, Clementine, was a scientist until her research indicating the threat of an impending volcanic eruption in their island region was dismissed by male peers--with devastating consequences. Rather than risk becoming a "reproductive commodity" for the survivors who fled to ancient Astorian ruins along the coast of a nearby continent, Clementine built herself and Thea a new home and legacy at sea. Three years later, 17-year-old Thea struggles to be more like her namesake, the goddess of cleverness and rationality, and to embody the brutal, pragmatic strength Clementine considers necessary for survival. After an opportunity to leave Clementine's fleet swiftly turns nightmarish, Thea seeks peace and solitude near the settlement where childhood friend Wes now lives. Amid the slowly building tension and visceral immediacy of trauma and its aftermath, moments of adventure and discovery shine, reflecting the transformative potency of being seen and believed. Lyrical and wry by turns, Thea's first-person narration deftly draws sophisticated connections between masterfully plotted past and present timelines and interstitial excerpts of myths as she finds her own ways to survive and slowly rejects patriarchal definitions of strength, control, and credibility. Most major characters are presumed White and straight; Wes is described as having darker skin and is cued as bi. A perceptive, kaleidoscopic, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful meditation on what it means to survive. (Fantasy. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.