Lintang in many ways is the archetypal mg heroine--the feisty sort who rejects domesticity and gets into trouble as a result. She longs for adventures in the world outside her island home, dreaming of becoming a slayer of predatory mythies (magical creatures ranging from small annoyances to huge terrors), just like her idol, Captain Shafira, the so-called "Pirate Queen." When Shafira actually comes to visit her island (a south Asian-like place), Lintang sees the chance to make her dreams come true--an islander is needed to ensure safe passage from a monstrous mythie who prowls the ocean off the island.
Shafira's crew is an unusual collection of women, and one trans boy; the only thing they have in common is their loyalty to their captain. But obedience isn't Lintang's strong point. When she finds that her best friend, a boy named Bayani, has smuggled himself on board in a desperate attempt to reach the empire that controls much of the known world, she keeps him secret, even though he won't explain himself to her. Shafira is forced to punish Lintang when Bayani is discovered, but when she disobeys again, she finds herself put ashore in the empire along with Bayani. Shafira supports Bayani's mission once she finds out what it is, but can't risk herself to help him (there's a price on her head). There in the empire Lintang faces an almost impossibly test of her loyalty to the pirate queen, and passes it.
But that, though it's exciting, isn't the high point of the story. The two kids, back on board, must face an even more dangerous adventure...one that changes Lintang's understanding of the mythies forever...
So on the surface this a story of monster hunting and adventure, and there's plenty of that sort of fun. But at its heart this is a story of Lintang's growth, and the internal struggles that entails. She's not really likeable, but she's interesting, and Bayani, the kind, level-headed member of their duo, is a good counter-weight.
The story is also given depth by the geo-political framework of an empire looking to expand, withholding life saving medicine from non-absorbed lands. And the truth about the mythies is a bombshell both for the characters who've grown up thinking of them primarily as dangerous, or at best annoying, monsters (pages from the Mythie Guidebook interspersed with the story add pleasant interest).
In short, though it's a rollicking adventure that will please any young reader who longs to explore the wide wild world outside their home, it's also a story of friendship, and learning how to choose to be the person you want to be. I myself not wild about pirates and sea voyages and monster hunting, and wild, disobedient girls having adventures, but even so I enjoyed this plenty.
nb: in a rather nice touch, the transgender boy's gender identity is so real that he, like any other boy, is in danger from the lure of the siren mythies. There aren't many trans characters in middle grade fantasy so it's good to have him included in a matter-of-fact, this is who this person is and it is not remarkable, sort of way.
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Ooh, I do like pirates and sea voyages and normalized trans characters in MG, haha. This sounds like something that should be getting more attention! I'll check it out.
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