Pirates & Sea Faring 🌊
I recently realised I love all things maritime, especially in fiction. My favourite movies, museums, books, even childhood stories all contain pirates, outlaws and the sea! So I'm making a very loose list of books with this vibe as a guide for my self of past reads and TBRs! Please comment your recs!💕
created by Sunflower_Witch
last updated August, 2026
Comments
LOVE this!! I recommend To Kill A Kingdom for this list. It has pirates AND sirens (+ mermaids too but the focus is on the sirens)!
Ooh, it's like a Little Mermaid retelling?
Yup! But it's definitely a LOT darker
Darker than the Hans Christian original🤭 Oooh, I'm in for a treat!
Btw, by darker I mean there's definitely more violence and stuff. The Hans Christian original is, I think, more psychologically dark. It really just depends on your preferences and what your definition of dark is in a book! Hope this clears it up, since I didn't want you to misunderstand me ♡
A Pirates Life For Tea by Rebecca Thorne (Tea and Tomes book 2)
Pirates AND TEA??? How have I not read this?!😊 Adding!
All 4 are fun! Read them in order! 🙂
Yes sir😊
sorry to comment again, i don't think the original one went through
i have a couple recs to add!! 'mcglue' by ottessa mosfegh is weird and wonderful about a pirate in the 1850s (or so) and a super quick read. for kids books, one of my favs growing up was 'the true confessions of charlotte doyle' by avi. there's mutiny, ship diagrams, and all sorts of lovely detail. 'the pirates! in an adventure with scientists' is a fantastic movie AND book! reads a lot like pratchett or a novel form of horrible histories. 'the mountain in the sea' has a modern/sci fi take on pirates thats a bit depressing, but also really cool. plus, it has sentient octopods. are you interested in whaling at all? i can't remember if all of these have pirates, but they're concerned with life on the high seas! rapid fire: 'moby-dick' by melville, 'in the heart of the sea' by philbrick, and 'north sun' by rutherford are all really cool and great at adding detail to nautical life.
sorry this is a lot, thank you for the fantastic list!!
Can't believe I forgot Moby Dick! I've been reccomended it 3 times already this year, so I think I'll have to read it soon! Thanks so much for all the amazing recs and I will look into them all and add some soon!
Oh my god, McGlue sounds like The Secret History/ The Talented Mr.Ripley but pirates???! YES PLEASE!
eee yes to both of these!! moby-dick is a tricky read (so much detail!) but very worth it, and it’s a classic for a reason. mcglue is so weird and wild and ugly it’s kind of miraculous? the narration is intentionally confused in a way that very much feels like the secret history!
