The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye

by Briony Cameron

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye is a very well written historical adventure based on a purported historical pirate written by Briony Cameron. Released 4th June 2024 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 368 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is, at the end of the day, a very realistically rendered story about a queer black female pirate from the Caribbean set during the reign of Louis XIV. The racism, sexism, inequality, and danger of daily life during the time period are prevalent and not sugar coated, but it is unquestionably a ripping yarn about pirates, naval battles, looting, pillaging, and mayhem (against a factual historical background which was interesting and immersive).

The story itself is compelling, and the protagonist, 20 year old Jacquotte, is ferociously intelligent, strong-willed, clever, and lucky. She leads her band of ragged adventurers (formerly indentured to a brutish captain) to success for a time, but always fraught with danger and a certain inevitability. 

The settings and descriptions are often stunning, the prose adept and honest. The sea battles are on a par with top shelf nautical history adventurers (O'Brian & Cornwell, for example). 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 36 minutes and is masterfully narrated by Angel Pean. She has a rich alto voice and does a good job with the disparate characters of both sexes and a range of accents. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read. 

Four stars overall, it would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home use, or book club read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.