Sea Witch
Virginia Kantra
Reviewed by Suzanne Brockmann
Virginia Kantra is a master storyteller. Her rich, warm voice is well suited for tales told around a glowing hearth. She writes of love and honor, of hope, of family, with characters who ring true — even when they're shape-shifting selkies.
In her latest novel, SEA WITCH, Kantra offers readers a look at a paranormal world that moves with the rhythm of the waves and the tide. It's a older, quieter, fairy-tale world — far more organic at its heart than many of the urban techno-thrillers that seem to be crowding bookstore shelves this year.
Set in the whimsical small town of World's End in northern Maine, this is the first book in a new series that has "elementals" living hidden from humankind. Margred is one of them — a selkie, an immortal child of the sea, appearing in human form as a beautiful woman, able to slip into seal form and escape into the ocean — as long as she has her precious seal pelt.
Without it, she must remain on shore, and will age and die as a human.
Kantra skillfully uses the age-old mariner legends of selkies, and spins the tension up a level, by creating an ongoing conflict between the elementals of the sea and those of fire — hideous and evil demons who wish to wage war against the humans.
When Margred is drawn to land by her relentless attraction to the solidly down-to-earth police chief, Caleb Hunter, one of the fire demons targets her, and trouble of an unworldly kind comes to World's End.
Caleb is a "Kantra hero" — strong and steady, but not without demons of his own.
Kantra tells Margred and Caleb's story with a lyric, haunting, poetic voice, mixing together the salt-of-the-earth townfolk of World's End — a wonderful cast of characters who come instantly to life, and who immediately feel like old friends — with the shimmering magic of the selkies.
Treat yourself to something different this summer.
The second book in the series, Sea Fever, will be out in August — and I can't wait.
(P.S. For another great paranormal read, see my review of Jessica Andersen's NIGHTKEEPERS.)
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About the Reviewer:
Suzanne Brockmann is the New York Times Bestselling author of over 40 novels. INTO THE FIRE, her 13th installment in her Troubleshooters series, will hit bookstores on July 22, 2008. Visit her website at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com.
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