A huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you, like me, have heard any variation of “The Selkie Wife” and were horrified by it and wished you could do something to save the “wife” - this book is for you. I’ve loved the idea of selkies for as long as I’ve loved fantasy and folklore, but that story has always struck me as cruel and violent - and it doesn’t seem to acknowledge it! In the story it’s shown as her being terrible for abandoning her husband and children, and the poor fisherman is left to wallow in his loneliness - as if you’re supposed to forget she was kidnapped and held captive! The selkie “wife” was never a wife - she was a prisoner - and this book absolutely lets you know it.

The tension building in this book is phenomenal - even when you (the reader) know what’s going on, while Jean (the character) doesn’t - it never drags or feels contrived. Like any character in a story - she doesn’t know she’s in one, and would you believe the beautiful woman who randomly showed up during a storm to give birth is actually a mythical creature? Of course not! Her issues with her husband stem from not knowing the language, being a new mother, and being more isolated than she should - all easily fixed and nothing to really concern yourself with. Why would you assume she’s a prisoner in her own home until all the dots start connecting in ways you never expected them to - and now you’re on a time limit to save her before the worst happens.

This book is great at slowly increasing the horror and stress as Jean goes about her day-to-day life. The slowly escalating horror is so well done it feels natural, and makes you anxious about what will happen next. At no point did I know exactly what would happen or how it would turn out, but I certainly hoped for one resolution and feared for the other. Once the horror aspect of the novel picked up I could NOT put this book down and had to finish it.

The characters and their relationships all feel natural and organic. Jean and Muirin have a natural chemistry that just makes them fit together - even through the language barrier. Tobias’ character is phenomenal for appearing like a worried husband - at first - and slowly showing you his true character behind his facade. Even on his best behavior, he brings a kind of uneasiness to the reader that you can’t shake. Jean’s relationships with the other main characters in the novel never feel contrived to move the plot along - it makes sense she’d be close to the midwife who birthed her and who wasn’t able to save her mother from herself, as well as forming a close friendship with her son. At no point when two characters were talking did I feel like I was reading words on a page instead of a conversation.

This book was everything I hoped for and more when I read the synopsis. There were multiple times near the end where I was crying and I had to quickly wipe my eyes so I could keep reading. This is the queer retelling of The Selkie Wife we have been hoping for, and I cannot recommend this book enough.