I cannot describe this book in any other way than "surprising". In fact, my expectations around it were really high, because the extract read in the "Book of books Ne/oN" had intrigued me particularly and, above all, had made me fall in love with the protagonist. Nevertheless, what I didn’t realize and understand about this novel, is that it is presented as a realistic story, albeit fictionalized, of a woman whose life has been anything but simple and quiet, a woman who has faced great loss and pain, who fell in love but in a reality where in the first place there was always the sea and the ship. In short, I did not imagine that this story would feel so straightforward and direct as I discovered, and, although I greatly appreciate this stylistic choice that represented very realistically the hardness of the pirate life, it has also often made me feel uncomfortable. Therefore, I do not feel like giving 5 stars to "Saltblood", but this does not necessarily mean that it has disappointed me. Indeed, as I said at the beginning, it surprised me in many aspects and, although the plot per se can not be defined full of plot twists, it managed to male the revised biography of Mary Read compulsive readable, despite the rather slow and descriptive nature of the text.