We Are Pirates

We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler, 269 pages

Gwen feels like she is trapped in her life, as do most of the character is in this story, including her parents and the girl who becomes her best friend.  This story is mostly told from either Gwen’s or her father’s perspective.  Gwen decides to run away and become a pirate.  With a small crew, including two adults and two other kids, she steals a boat and they take off.  Phil is out of town when he gets the news that his daughter is missing.  He immediately rushes home and we, as readers, are faced with the feeling that everything is falling apart.  I didn’t feel like this story worked.  It seems like it’s taking place in the real world and everything that happens in the story is something that could feasibly happen in the real world and all of the characters interact with each other as people really would, except that the idea of this particular group deciding to steal a boat, and succeeding in carrying out the plan, and the actions that follow are so ludicrous within the setting that the whole story just fell apart for me.  I didn’t like it, although I’ve liked others of Handler’s books, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.