We Are Pirates

"“Gwen glared at everywhere,” runs one sentence in Daniel Handler’s latest adult novel. The author who brought baroque, morose vocabulary lessons to kids’ books as Lemony Snicket usually isn’t as wry and acerbic in his adult work. But he makes occasional exceptions, bringing a lightness and a sense of play to this story about an unhappy teenager who wants to be a modern pirate and her unhappy father, who has a more conventional plan for escape. Somewhere between a fable, a family drama, an issue-based YA novel and a dark comedy, We Are Pirates has unpredictability going for it. It glares at everywhere, then laughs at it too."