We Are Pirates

We Are Pirates
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!

A boat has gone missing. Goods have been stolen. There is blood in the water. It is the twenty-first century and a crew of pirates is terrorizing the San Francisco Bay.

Phil is a husband, a father, a struggling radio producer, and the owner of a large condo with a view of the water. But he’d like to be a rebel and a fortune hunter.

Gwen is his daughter. She’s fourteen. She’s a student, a swimmer, and a best friend. But she’d like to be an adventurer and an outlaw.

Phil teams up with his young, attractive assistant. They head for the open road, attending a conference to seal a deal.

Gwen teams up with a new, fierce friend and some restless souls. They head for the open sea, stealing a boat to hunt for treasure.

We Are Pirates is a novel about our desperate searches for happiness and freedom, about our wild journeys beyond the boundaries of our ordinary lives.

Also, it’s about a teenage girl who pulls together a ragtag crew to commit mayhem in the San Francisco Bay, while her hapless father tries to get her home. 

GoodReads synopsis so as not to give anything away today, I'm afraid! I'm terrible at being all spoilery when I do my own synopsis! 

I was a huge fan of Lemony Snicket when I was a kid, I remember being given the first two Unfortunate Events books as a Birthday present and from that point on being totally hooked, although don't talk to me about the movie adaption, I can't be dealing with that! So I was super excited to get my hands on a copy of the authors latest offering, an adult offering at that! 

You may not know this, but I'm a smidge obsessed with pirates, if you watch a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie with me you'll probably want to smack me one because I sit there and quote along under my breath I seriously know the majority of the lines and I'm so pumped for the next movie! But yes, pirates...love em! 

So it's pretty obvious that I loved all the references to pirates, fictional and otherwise, in the book and all the piratey type books! I think my TBR has swelled from this book! This book and the pirates in it where a total laugh! A laugh with a huge dose of WTF?! and all the strangeness and weirdness of Unfortunate Events, which was fantastic for me as a fan of the Unfortunate Events books, and I loved that the author doesn't lose those qualities about his writing when doing adult books, it gives adults a chance to have some fun too! I should say "us adults" but I'm 21 and still convincing myself I'm not an adult yet, I'm merely a YOUNG adult, so sorry. 

Handler has a distinct way of writing and it was evident here in the book with the whole "at this point in American History" bits, so readers waaaaaaay in the future won't get confused, was reminiscent of the Unfortunate Event books when he would clarify words and their meanings. 

I'm not quite sure how to review this book, I loved it, really I did, but I don't want to spoil what awaits you, and I'm loathe to try to explain the wonderful weirdness of the book! The book sunk it's grappling hooks into my brain, boarded, and pretty much stole it. When I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about it. 

I think because the book seemed so real. None of the characters where perfect, like real life humans, most book characters are all perfect and not at all like a real human, but these where characters that made plenty of mistakes and had a lot of shit going on that they had to deal with. They grew, they changed and they adapted and the characters where so natural, real and organic. I connected with Gwen easily, and she was my favourite, I think she made me think more, and she affected me more when reflecting on the book. 

I enjoyed the point of view of both Gwen and her father, I thought the change was seamless and each change made sense and came at the right moment. I feel some readers may struggle with the prose, or atleast some of the wording, like I already mentioned the narrative and the whole "at this time" thing, it may be hard for people to get around, as well as the general strangeness of the book. 

I found the book entertaining, intriguing, different, original, I mean a bunch of kids and other accomplices being olden days pirates in modern day America?! When we think of pirates these days we often either picture the modern kind (usually involving illegal downloads or possibly Somalia) or Johnny Depp and multitudes of guy liner, it's rare one would think of the real Blackbeard or any other fictional pirate, and I loved the characters following the pirate rules from books and history, and trying to be a crew to experience some sort of bond, or create their own family. 

I think after reading this book, you pretty much could become an old school pirate if you wanted, the book tells you everything you need to know about pirates! You watch these characters struggling with their lives, trying to go on an adventure like in the books. Although I will say I was a lot more interested in Gwen and her crew than in Phil....sorry Phil. 

The characters are all entwined, even the ones you wouldn't expect, and it's a.....guys I really don't know how to properly explain! Sorry! You just need to trust me, and go and read this, and enjoy it like I did, and bask in the strangeness that is awesome! 

We Are Pirates is real, strange, different, original, fun, entertaining, and even a smidgen heartwarming at the end, it may not be some people's cup of tea, but you need to give it a chance! It's not often us adults get to read fun books! You will come to love the strangeness!