A friend recommended this a bunch of years ago, and I was like "a dog book, no thanks." Me of the past is an idiot, because the dog stuff is pretty minimal--this is mostly about how a sweet Irish girl becomes a swashbuckling pirate, and the girl she later becomes. All with a dash of magic realism, though a much smaller dash than King's books have grown to have. 
 Still, for a first novel this is really solid, with hints of the surreal twists her later books will bring. 
 As an aside: I debate tagging this as glbtq as the gay characters are almost exclusively terrible people. it's not any kind of statement--just something I noticed.