The Legend of Anne Bonny is a 2020 Historical Fiction novel by Robert Q. Hoyt that centers around the 18th-century pirate Anne Bonny and expands upon her life both before and after her disappearance from recorded history.
The story begins in 1717 when young Anne's beloved uncle is hanged by the British Navy. As she assists her father in smuggling while disguising herself as a man, she attempts to make her own fortune in The Caribbean, where The Golden Age of Piracy is nearing its end.
This book provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Robert Maynard plainly lusts after Anne, who absolutely hates both his hypocritical personality and his act of hanging her uncle.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Anne is recorded to have been a Fiery Redhead, which most of her fictional portrayals are faithful to. She has black hair in this story, while Mary Read, who is usually depicted as a brunette, is the one with red hair.
- Adaptation Name Change: Mary Read's fake male name was Mark Read. It's Mardee Read in this story.
- And This Is for...: When Anne confronts Robert Maynard for the last time, she attempts to shoot him while saying it's for hanging Fitz-Riley and raping her, but she misfires. When she burns Maynard's man-of-war following his death, she says its for her father Feargus.
- Animal Motifs: The twisted Navy officer Robert Maynard is often compared to a bulldog both in appearance and his personality of a bully.
- Arch-Enemy: Anne holds nothing but contempt towards Lieutenant Robert Maynard who hangs her beloved uncle, lusts after her to the point of raping her, and threatens to take away her spoils. She cannot really retaliate against him in any meaningful way whenever he shows up during her life until she manages to kill him in 1740.
- Arc Words: The last words Anne's uncle tells her before his hanging pop up several times during the book:"Gold doesn't care who owns it."
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Calico Jack is blonde, Anne is brunette, and Mary Read is redheaded.
- Dead Guy Junior: Anne names her son Feargus Rackham to honor both his father and grand-uncle (who later is revealed to have been his grandfather).
- Deathbed Confession: Anne's father makes one to Anne near the end; he's actually her uncle, and his brother Feargus was her real father.
- Death Faked for You: This is how Anne escapes from the Jamaican prison-fortress. After she fools the guards by using her skill in holding her breath for a long period of time, Doctor Esteban – whom William Cormac convinced to help Anne and her baby – declares her dead and pretends to take her "corpse" for medical practice and to find a caretaker for her baby, allowing them to escape Jamaica.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: William Cormack reveals in his deathbed that Anne was born out of wedlock to William's clergyman brother Feargus Cormack and his housekeeper Molly Cahill. Feargus didn't want his daughter's life to be marred by the circumstances of her birth, so he pretended to be her uncle all the rest of his life while William – who had fathered with Molly a boy who'd died without anyone's knowledge – took her in as his daughter.
- Fictionalized Death Account:
- The real-life Robert Maynard died in his home county of Kent in 1751. In this book, Anne kills him in 1740 when he attacks the French merchantman transporting her across the Atlantic Ocean.
- Governor Charles Eden died of yellow fever in 1722. His book counterpart is alive to reemploy Anne until the year 1740, after which he ends up becoming her clerk for ten years.
- Hanging Around:
- The book begins with Anne's uncle Feargus Cormack being hanged for smuggling as Lieutenant Robert Maynard presides over the Public Execution. The same fate later befalls Toddie Fitz-Riley, a carpenter accused of piracy, though he says he was forced to serve in John Martel's crew.
- Like in real life, Jack Rackham is hanged in 1720 and put on display.
- After Anne beats Maynard in a naval battle, she leads the crew of her French vessel to hang him.
- Historical Badass Upgrade: Anne's such a wily Action Girl that she accomplishes a few things her real-life counterpart didn't. After being forced to join Blackbeard's crew as a marksman teacher, she manages to escape with some of his treasure without Blackbeard figuring out her gender, and she manages to have Robert Maynard killed during his raid on the French ship she's traveling on.
- Historical Relationship Overhaul: Anne's life involves several historical men she never recordedly met. She serves Governor Charles Eden as a Sexy Secretary and gets away with stealing from Blackbeard after he forces her to serve onboard the Queen Anne's Revenge as a marksman teacher in male disguise. Most importantly, Robert Maynard is made her Arch-Enemy as the executioner of her uncle as well as her Abhorrent Admirer and rapist before she kills him during a raid. It's also Governor Woodes Rogers who marries Anne and James Bonny, though the latter does work for Rogers like in real life.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: A rather egregious one for poor Robert Maynard.
- Hourglass Plot: Anne works in the beginning of the book as the secretary of the corrupt governor Charles Eden. The epilogue mentions that after she gains a position in insurance business, Ex-Governor Eden becomes her clerk who makes tea and runs errands like she did for him.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Maynard hangs Feargus Cormack, rapes Anne and plays an indirect role in the arrest and subsequent deaths of Calico Jack, Mary Read and her unborn child without comeuppance, and gets promoted from Lieutenant to Captain. However, when he attempts to raid the French vessel Anne is traveling on in 1740, she mortally wounds him in combat and has him killed through hanging.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Calico Jack's mother is present at her son's trial, but after he's hanged for piracy, she shows up at Anne and Mary's trial where she accuses Anne of ruining her son whom she refuses to believe wasn't a proud sea captain loyal to England. Anne only notes that maybe all mothers are blind to their sons' flaws.
- The Mole: When Calico Jack is judged in Jamaica, Fenwick is revealed to have been a Navy spy all along.
- Pirate Parrot:
- Two of Calico Jack's crewmembers aboard the Burningham, First Mate Fenwick and Quartermaster Dobbins, both have a parrot.
- Mary Read owns a pet monkey.
- Rape and Revenge: Maynard rapes Anne in Nassau during the year 1718, which gives her one more reason to hate him. When he attacks the ship she's traveling on in 1740, she defeats him and has him hanged as revenge for raping her and other things.
- Scrubbing Off the Trauma: After Anne gets raped by Maynard and escapes, she hides in a marsh pond where she vigorously cleans herself up.
- Sex Slave: A teenaged mulatta called Capn's Chile is sexually used by Blackbeard and his crew onboard the Queen Anne's Revenge until Anne helps her and her blind little sister Li'l Polly escape.
- Sexy Secretary: Anne works in the beginning of the book as Governor Charles Eden's secretary. She uses her position to steal some of the merchandise Blackbeard gives Eden and uses Maynard's unwanted interest in her to get info out of him.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Anne gives birth to Calico Jack's son following his hanging.
- Teeny Weenie: When Maynard rapes Anne, his equipment is revealed to be no longer than a finger.
- Venturous Smuggler: Our spirited protagonist Anne is already making a profit out of smuggling before she even joins Jack Rackham's crew.
- Widow's Weeds: After Calico Jack is hanged, his mother shows up at Anne and Mary's trial while dressed in black.
- You Killed My Father: Anne holds a personal hatred of Robert Maynard and the British Navy for hanging her beloved uncle Feargus. It turns into a more literal case after Feargus is revealed to have been her father, and Anne ultimately manages to avenge him by killing Maynard.
