Hey bookworm friends! May is almost over but before Wyrd & Wonder wraps up, I need to celebrate all things Pirate-y! And if you ask me, the best way to do that is by making my favourite type of post: A bookish playlist! So please enjoy this treasure hoard of pirate songs & books that are sure to shiver your timbers!
Please note: my list is a mix of books I’ve read and those on my TBR.
Link-ups
Thanks to the Wyrd & Wonder Hosts:
Imyril from There Is Always Room for One More
Lisa from Dear Geek Place
Jorie from Jorie Loves a Story
Ariana from The Book Nook
Annemieke from A Dance with Books
Fantasy Pirates
On These Black Sands
by Vanessa Rasanen
New Adult Fantasy Romance. The first book of a series about pirates and deceit. In one month Aoife Cascade will turn twenty and take her seat on the Council of Cregah. But when she decides her people would better off without her and runs away, she meets a pirate captain in need of help.
🎵My Jolly Sailor Bold
Ashley Serena‘s haunting rendition of this old sailor song gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it. Since it’s a love song about a sailor from the perspective of his lover, I thought it was a good match for a fantasy romance.
⟡🏴☠️⟡
Bloody Jack
by L. A. Meyer
YA Historical Fiction. Mary ‘Jacky’ Faber lives in 18th century London, where she has to fight to survive on the streets. She longs to sail away on an adventure! So she finds a way to join a crew as a ‘ship’s boy’ but she’ll have to keep her wits about her if she wants to keep her identity a secret.
🎵The Longing
When thinking of pirate songs, this was among the first that came to mind. It’s by German pirate-folk-metal band Storm Seeker and features Patty Gurdy. This song is about longing for the sea, for adventure, and for returning as a hero!
⟡🦜⟡
Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth
by J. V Hart, Illustrated by Brett Helquist
YA Historical Fantasy. A Captain Hook retelling written by the screenwriter of the movie Hook. The story traces the evolution of J. M. Barrie’s classic villain from an eccentric outcast to the scourge of Neverland.
🎵The Islander
This Nightwish song might not be explicitly pirate-y but it’s an acoustic folk-inspired tune about an old sailor. At the end of his days, ‘The Islander’, is thinking back on his life and is haunted by his past. The song has dark themes and vivid ocean imagery that means I simply couldn’t leave it out.
⟡🏴☠️⟡
Tress of the Emerald Sea
by Brandon Sanderson
Fantasy book inspired by A Princess Bride. Tress is happy living in her island home on an emerald-green sea. But when the boy she loves goes missing on a voyage, she finds a way onto a ship to sail the dangerous and pirate-infested seas. Because who else is going to rescue him?
🎵Pirates of the Caribbean Live in Miskolc
The Pirates of the Caribbean theme is an obvious inclusion in this list and I really like this live cover by symphonic metal band Epica. It’s nothing short of epic and really gives the feeling of being thrust into adventure!
⟡🦜⟡
Running Close to the Wind
by Alexandra Rowland
Adult Fantasy Romance. Avra Helvaçi has
accidentally stolen the most expensive secret in the Araşti Ministry of Intelligence. Obviously, the open sea is the only safe place to run to but to do that he’ll have to ask his ex, the Pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār, for help. If they can find a buyer they’ll be rich, that is if they don’t get caught first!
🎵You Me and the Devil Makes Three
The folk rock band Ye Banished Privateers make music inspired by sea and piracy history from the 17th and 18th centuries.
“Aye here we be, on the bottom of the sea
Oh somewhere in the Southern Caribbean
Together with each other for eternity
You and me Bonnie, and the Devil makes three”
⟡🏴☠️⟡
The Drowning Eyes
by Emily Foster
Adult Fantasy Novella. When the Dragon Ships began to ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the archipelago turned to the Windspeakers. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders’ sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers’ magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.
🎵Legion of the Seas
Symphonic Metal band Visions of Atlantis have a couple of Pirate-centric albums and this song is from the first one. As the title suggests, Legion of the Seas is about dominating the seas.
Historical Fiction & Non Fiction Pirates
explanation/disclosure
Bonny & Read
by Julie Walker
Historical Fiction. Set in the Caribbean in 1720, it re-imagines the extraordinary stories of pirates Anne Bonny & Mary Read – trailblazing, boundary-defying, swashbuckling heroines.
🎵Anne Bonny
This song by Karliene is the reason I discovered Anne Bonny existed and the inspiration behind this playlist. One day I stumbled upon it and fell in love immediately. I dare you to resist the catchiness of this song 😜.
“Oh, I’ll tell you a tale of a pirate queen
A she-wolf who reigned the Caribbean Sea
With a pistol-a-ready and a cutlass keen
The villainous, infamous, Anne Bonny”
⟡🦜⟡
Under The Black Flag
by David Cordingly
Nonfiction. The subtitle (The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates) explains the purpose of the book well. It tells the histories of infamous real-life pirates and the stories of fictional pirates such as Captain Hook and Long John Silver.
🎵Beneath the Black Flag
Miracle of Sound is a musical project by the Irish musician Gavin Dunne and he primarily creates songs based on video games. Beneath the Black Flag is inspired by Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and it’s such a high energy metal song.
⟡🏴☠️⟡
Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas
by Morgan Llywelyn
Historical Fiction. Set in the 16th century, this novel tells the story of Irish chieftain Grace O Malley. As Grania (Grania is Gaelic for Grace) rises as her clan’s unofficial head and learns to love a man, she enters a lifelong struggle against the English forces of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen intends to destroy Grania’s piracy and shipping empire and to subjugate Ireland once and for all. Grania has no choice but to fight back.
🎵Gráinne Mhaol, Queen Of Pirates
Originally, I wasn’t going to repeat artists but when Miracle of Sound has a perfect song to match Grania, why wouldn’t I share perfection?!
“Daughter of the dún
Terror of the west
Sailed the coasts of Ireland
With O’Malley on her crest”
⟡🦜⟡
Cinnamon and Gunpowder
by Eli Brown
Historical Fiction, Romance. A Scheherazade retelling with a twist. The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.
🎵Wellerman
And to finish off ,why not the song that started the Sea Shanty craze?! We have Nathan Evans‘ cover of Wellerman to thank for the Internet’s obsession (and mine) with them and so it deserves a spot on the list. Plus, I’m pretty sure the ‘ol kidnapped chef could use some 🎵sugar and tea and rum🎵 for his culinary adventures.
Did you like this post? Check out my other playlists here.
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read any of these? Or, are you familiar with any of these songs? Feel free to tell me about pirate-y books and songs that you love!
Yay as I said the other day I love these kind of lists and I’m impressed by how many pirate songs you know. Which did you think I’d recognise? Because if it was the POTC theme I failed for some reason. I don’t know if it’s where it’s a cover or if it just played a random bit because I definitely know that song in general. Pretty sure I’ve had times when it got stuck in my head and I started humming it 🙈
If not I’d guess it was the last one? Which I’m pretty sure I do recognise. I’m guessing it’s probably in the Fishermen’s Friend movie 😂
I also think the first song is very haunting and am impressed you found a few songs about actual historical pirates.
Book wise I was already eager to check out Tress but I’m going to add a few more to my TBR now too 😂 as someone who always loved the movie Hook I need that retelling. The last book on the list sounds pretty unique. And I’m curious about the ones about female Pirates in the past, plus the one that covers real and fictional ones. I’m also pretty sure I have the Black Sands ebook 😂
I’m not sure if I’ve read any pirate books 🤔 but I do have a few retellings about then on my TBR. And I can’t wait to finally read Amina Al-Sirafi. Fantastic list 🥰