This books takes you on a journey to a little fishing town in the 1800s into the life of Jean, our main character. It is full of mystery, love, and fantasy as Jean meets and becomes friends with her neighbor Muirin. I really liked the mystery surrounding Muirin and her marriage to Tobias as well as the budding relationship between her and Jean. Theirs is definitely a slow burn that keeps you coming back as well as what’s gonna happen in Muirin’s marriage. The need to know the ending is what kept me reading during the slow middle section. While the beginning sucks you in and you keep reading for the ending, the middle dragged on for me and felt too slow. It was full of Jean’s day to day and inner monologue and felt repetitive with little moments between her and Muirin or Tobias. I just wish more had happened during that part, but was quickly brought back into the story as I got to that last quarter of the book.

Overall, this was a good but slow read that I do recommend.

Read if you like…
•wlw
•mystery
•mythological creatures
•historical fiction

In this engaging and well-paced debut novel, a queer take on fantastical folklore is grounded in a vividly depicted setting whose remoteness contributes to the undercurrent of menace that permeates the tale. The tone of the narrative does not shy away from the violence inherent in its source material, but there is also ample room for joy in the characters' lives. The ending may divide readers; as the main and secondary plots drew to a common resolution, there were too many coincidences for my liking, but others may find those parallels to be graceful. In any case, this is a pleasurable read; the appealing characters and intriguing locale more than compensate for any quibbles about the ending.

The cover of this book really put me off. I didn't even remember requesting it when it showed up on my kindle. Outside of that it's a book I really enjoyed.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a gorgeously written, sapphic retelling of the Selkie Wife folktale. Readers are pulled into the story from the very first chapter and it does not let up from there. Details about Muirin’s and Jean’s separate pasts are teased out throughout the story creating deep, compelling characters that you want to see happy when all is said and done. The supporting characters of Laurie and Anneke add to the narrative and Jean’s story while also highlighting Nova Scotia’s history and its people. Honorable mention to Jo and Del, characters introduced late in the book, but who have an important role to play in their respective roles.
This was a quick, enjoyable read that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of historical fiction and retellings with a twist!

A Sweet Sting of Salt is one of my top reads of the year FOR SURE. I want to reread it already! 1800s Nova Scotia. Jean, the local midwife living on the outskirts of the village, discovers a woman about to give birth in her backyard trying to go into the sea. Jean soon realizes that it's her neighbor's secret wife and there is something fishy going on. Sapphic retelling of the Selkie Wife!! One of my favorite folktales.

I don't think any words can explain how much I loved this book. I was texting my sister live updates of my reading journey becuase I could not keep it to myself HAHA. But actually, I am telling everyone I know to read this book. There were times where I was so scared for the characters that I read ahead to make sure they were okay before going LOL the suspense was INSANELY GOOD!! And the sapphic yearning made me want to cry!!

I'll be honest, it took me a long time to get this started. but once I got about ~50 pages in I was hooked and could not put it down!! I recommend anyone who wants to read this to give it a chance and you won't regret it. 5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC~~

I was preapproved to read this book a year ago, but I can’t believe how long I waited to read this because I ate up this book in just a few reading sessions. I was not actually familiar with the folktale of the Selkie Wife when I picked this up but was still intrigued as it being a sapphic reimagining. The relationship that grows between our protagonist Jean and the mysterious Muirin is so sweet in contrast to the tension between Jean and Muirin’s husband Tobias, which get to deadly levels. I also loved the interactions between Jean and her mentor Anneke, along with her best friend, Laurie. Laurie and Dal’s relationship also fascinates me and would love a book about that as well.

The seaside setting was also cute and almost idyllic if it weren’t winter and if you weren’t slowly unraveling the horrific mystery of Jean’s neighbors. Even while knowing that the mystery centers around selkies, the mystery and the character relationships really pull you through the book almost playfully. I fully enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to anyone looking for a sapphic story with a bit of thrill and a touch of fantasy.

Jean is her small fishing town’s only midwife, and although she feels very isolated out in her shoreline cabin by herself, she takes great pride in her work despite the townsfolk’s opinions of her personal life. When she encounters a mysterious woman on her property in need of her help, she’s thrust into a precarious situation that will change her life in ways she couldn’t have ever imagined.

This was a beautiful piece of folklore with some fantastically engaging writing and a great gothic maritime atmosphere. Some plot points were a little obvious given the thorough foreshadowing and the fact that I knew it was a retelling from the beginning, but I don’t think it hindered my reading experience in any way. The final confrontation does ultimately feel a little anticlimactic considering the build-up, but it is fairly satisfying how it plays out, and it’s a small nitpicky issue in an otherwise near-perfect story. My favorite aspect was the thought and care put into the queer and indigenous representation and the obvious love the author has for the setting which made the read a pleasure. This book was a delight to read and I look forward to what the author does next!

I saw this book tagged as a queer rendition of the Selkie Wife. I was not familiar with the Selkie wife so I really had no idea what to expect. I didn't even know what a selkie was. I thought the cover was cool and decided to take a chance. I am so glad I did.

This book is set in 1700s Nova Scotia and the main character, Jean, is a midwife. Right there, I'm into it. I love a book about midwives. It reminded me a little bit of The Frozen River (which I loved), even though the storyline was completely different. Jean unexpectedly delivers her neighbor's baby in the middle of the night and though they speak different languages, she understands that something is off with the woman. She knows better, but she can't help inserting herself into the situation to make sure the woman is okay, much to the displeasure of her husband. I really enjoyed the storyline and was surprised by the ending; however, if you are familiar with selkie mythology than you may not be,

*I was provided a digital galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I very much so enjoyed this! it's nothing revolutionary in terms of plot, but it did the story justice and was just what I was hoping for. the setting and characters were interesting, i enjoyed the development of Jean and Muirin's relationship and the build up of tension. there are some things that weren't quite believable, but hey -- it's a fairytale.

A Sweet Sting of Salt is a quiet, unhurried kind of book with a mystery and a romance that each unfurl slowly. Jean is a midwife in a small coastal town who lives on the margins of society. Her first love was swept away in a whirlwind marriage before the story begins, leaving Jean to deal with the town's suspicions and gossip alone. She keeps to herself, serving the women of her town with firm but gentle guidance and skill, content to spend her days living quietly and independently in the cottage her father left her when he died.

Late one night, Jean is awoken by a woman's pained cries outside her window. She runs out into the stormy night and finds Muirin, a laboring woman who is wandering lost in the dark. Although Muirin doesnt speak English, Jean manages to convince her to come inside and deliver her child in the warmth and safety of her home. They become fast friends despite the language barrier, and what follows is a tender love story.

The writing is threaded through with Jean's determination, her stubbornness, and her aching loneliness. As an ADHD reader, I have a tendency to reach for more fast paced, high action types of fantasy books, but I'm so glad I made the time to read this one. It's beautiful and well worth diving into.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing a digital galley for me to review.

Jean finds a young woman in labor in the middle of the night during a terrible storm. The woman is barely able to speak English and apparently is Muirin, the new wife of her neighbor Tobias. Muirin's behavior changes around him, sparking Jean's concern and growing feelings for Muirin. She doesn't stay out of it and finds out more than she meant to. Has she endangered herself, Muirin, and the baby?

Jean is relatively isolated from the rest of her fishing village in 1830's Nova Scotia. In part it seems to be from her mother disappearing and dying a month after she was born, then later on for whispers about her and her best friend Jo. Her mentor in midwifery doesn't care that she likes girls, and being dependable has slowed the whispers in town. She worries about Muirin after her sudden appearance and rapid birth, as well as the fact that she barely speaks English, makes no effort to talk to Tobias, and seems to shrink in his presence. Just as they had no words for postpartum depression or lesbians back then, there was also no open talk about spousal abuse in those days. Those of us savvy to myths will take it into consideration that seals are so prominently featured in the story.

I like Jean's tenacity. She truly is interested in friendship and Muirin's well-being in the beginning, and doesn't even have a crush on her until afterward. She cares so much about others, even as she feels ostracized and alienated. Her family is not blood-related, but very much has the bonds of family and is there to counsel her and support her through all of her worries. Even as they didn't understand her reasoning or how stubborn she could be, they were still there for her. The bond between Jean and Muirin gradually deepened, and as it did, so did Tobias' hatred of Jean. The conclusion of the novel is suspenseful, and then we have the full story laid out to understand. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and the characters in it.

Thank you to the Penguin Random House for an ARC of A Sweet Sting of Salt in exchange for an honest review! This is Rose Sutherland's debut novel, a Sapphic reimagining of the Selkie Wife folktale- and while I'm not overly familiar with the story, I enjoyed this retelling! I haven't found myself in much of a retelling mood lately, but I did find myself immersed in the story and curious about what happened next. I definitely think that anyone who enjoys folklore retellings, especially of the ~sapphic~ sort, would enjoy reading this.

My only reasoning for giving this book 3 stars rather than a higher rating is simply because this is not the kind of story I find myself reaching for lately. I think this story was well written and well thought out, but I don't think I'll be purchasing a copy to own! That being said, I am so grateful for the opportunity to have gotten to read this story! A Sweet Sting of Salt releases on April 9th, so keep an eye out for it soon.

🌊🌹✨ Rose, you absolutely ENSNARED me with this story. A Sweet Sting of Salt is a must-read for fans of feminist retellings and queer fairy tales.

A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland is an enchanting tale that weaves together sapphic yearning, Gothic intrigue, and a touch of magic. From the very first page, I was drawn into the book. I had no prior knowledge of The Selkie Wife, but that didn’t matter. Sutherland brought me to a world where secrets whispered through the wind, and love bloomed against the backdrop of stormy seas.

Jean, our resilient midwife protagonist, stumbles upon a mysterious woman in labor during a tempest. The stranger, Muirin, speaks little English, yet her eyes hold a depth of emotion that Jean can’t ignore. As their connection deepens, so does the mystery surrounding Muirin’s past and her enigmatic husband, Tobias.
Sutherland’s prose is like a delicate dance -each sentence a step toward unraveling secrets, each paragraph a brushstroke on a canvas of longing. If I could give this book ten stars, I would! It is a captivating debut that lingers in the heart long after the final page.

Thank you to @randomhouse & @netgalley for this eARC to review!!

Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a mermaid. Thanks to Ariel and other mythical tales I heard of when I was younger, I was one of those girls that always wanted to play mermaids in the pool. I tried to emulate them in any way I could, so much so that it was engrained into me so much I still swim like one. I’m 24.

I, however, didn’t learn about different types of mythical water creatures until I was older. Sirens, selkies, et cetera. Mythical creatures of any kind are right up my alley, but when it’s also gay, it catches my attention.

“A Sweet String of Salt” is a sapphic retelling of a folktale called “The Selkie Wife.” A midwife named Jean finds poor Muirin, the mysterious new wife of her neighbor Tobias Silber, laboring just outside her home near the sea. Upon taking her in to help her give birth, Jean quickly learns that Muirin doesn’t know a word of English and has animalistic tendencies. Even the son she births is animalistic, as he has webbed fingers. Jean finds herself entranced by Muirin, and slowly falls for her. The problem? Muirin’s married to a man that’s willing to fight for what’s “his.”

I love this book. There is one thing that I have issue with, but it’s minuscule in comparison. I was surprised to learn that Sutherland is a debut author because she creates amazing characters and atmosphere. I felt like I was in the book the entire time.

The first thing I really love are the characters. They’re so likable. Jean did give me massive bouts of anxiety, but that was obviously on purpose. I couldn’t help but feel horrible for Muirin the entire time, and I seriously wanted to sucker punch Tobias on more than one occasion. She does such a good job of breathing life into these characters and I can’t wait to see her do it in her next novels.

Second: the atmosphere. I love atmospheric books like this. I feel like I could feel the wind ripple through my hair, the salt in my eyelashes, the snow crunch under my feet. It was incredibly poignant and I didn’t have much trouble imagining what the area looked like.

Third, the yearning. You could feel the love Jean and Muirin had for each other and all I wanted was them to have a happy ending. They both deserve it for what they went through.

And lastly: the tension. Sutherland is incredibly good at it. I could feel a pit in my stomach almost the entire third part of the book. I was rooting for them the entire time, and it was hard not to hold my breath as I read. It’s hard to get me so engaged because my writer brain is constantly turned on, so when I can just lose myself, I know I’ve come across a good book.

The only things I really took issue with was this: the switch in dialect. At first, it felt like the book was trying to emulate 19th century writing (akin to Austen and Brontë), but it switched from phrasing like, “Four and twenty” to using words like “shat.” It took me out ever so slightly because of the shift, but that’s really the only big gripe I have about it.

Otherwise, it’s a beautiful story that I have happily preordered to have on my shelf. Thank you, Sutherland, for such a story and I hope to read another book of yours!

I unfortunately had to DNF it because it contains so many things I hate reading about. its put me in a reading slump and I just need to move on.

I'd personally say this is more of a historical fiction than fantasy. I'm 60% in and nothing of a speculative has happened yet. I know what the "fantasy" aspect is only because its spoiled in the books description.

Next up on my hates is the anti-queerness nature of the story. Our MC is a lesbian and she has been all but ostracized from her community for being queer. The only thing that allows her to stay in the community is that she is an amazing midwife, which brings me to the next thing I hate reading about --- children.

Then the entire point of the story our midwife finds a woman giving birth outside her house and she quickly determines that this woman's husband is abusive - thats the whole story. Trying to get this woman away from a man who kidnapped, impregnated, and further abused her both mentally and physically but woman have no rights or agency.

If I'm reading fiction for escapism I want queer people and women (and any other marginalized persons) to be happy, not oppressed. There is enough of that in real life.

Everything above is based on my personal preference and if those things don't bother you then you may like it. My last complaint is that I found the story so repetitive. I was told where the story was going in the synopsis, why is it taking so long to get there?

This is a lyrical novel. Sutherlant’s descriptions invite, no insist, that you be drawn into her narrative. Set in Nova Scotia in the 19th century, the main character, Jean, is a midwife and mostly a loner. Her only friends are the midwife who trained her and the midwife’s son. She is mostly shunned by others because, as a teenager, she loved a other teenage girl. Still, the pregnant women of her area call on her because of her great skill. She has saved many babies who might otherwise have died, and their mothers too.

One night, Jean finds an unknown pregnant woman in front of her cabin, seemingly delirious and not speaking English. She takes her in and delivers the baby. The next day, the woman’s husband comes to find her, but Jean can tell there is something wrong. Jean keeps the woman for a week under the guise of caring for her and the baby. But eventually, the husband insists she come home. When Jean tries to see the woman Muirin and the baby Kiel, the husband, Tobias, drives her off and threatens her.

The situation escalates and there are some scary moments. Jean wants to help Muirin escape but she will not go without something Tobias has taken from her. We don't know what. You really will have to read the nook to find out. It's an enchanting ale and worth your time.

I have to get this out of the way first: I can't stand this cover. It doesn't match the book at all in my opinion. This cover says "sexy YA romance," and doesn't say "queer historical fantasy" to me at all, and folks looking for sexy YA romance will be disappointed, and folks looking for queer historical fantasy will have a hard time finding it. But my feelings about cover design aside, I did in fact look closer at this book, and decided to read it, and loved the hell out of it! A very charming pearl inside an oyster, which is not a great metaphor because oysters are more aesthetically pleasing than this weird cover.

This was a lovely book! It's set in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia, which I know nothing about, but that didn't actually matter to my enjoyment. It's not really about the history of the time, aside from the way of life and social mores of this little town by the ocean. Which is a plus for me personally because I'm bad at/not terribly interested in historical Events, I'm always more compelled by the characters and their relationships. So I was very compelled here by Jean, unmarried twentysomething lesbian midwife; Jean's mentor/surrogate mother Anneke and her friend/surrogate brother/fellow queer Laurie; especially compelled by Muirin, the "mysterious" Scottish wife of Jean's neighbor.

I say "mysterious" in quotes only because it takes Jean quite a while to figure out what's going on with Muirin, on several levels--which is not a problem! Sutherland does an excellent job of keeping Jean's gradual understanding believable, while also giving the genre-savvy reader everything we need to see the story under the story. The dramatic irony is delightful. The slow building love story is delightful. The dips into historical queerness was delightful, well-balanced and given with nuance. The climactic tension was tense as hell, the resolution made me weepy, and best of all...selkies!! Surprise, this is a selkie story, which was very clear to me within the first few pages of the book, but does not seem to be mentioned in blurbs about it. This seems a little silly to me, because the selkies are the main draw of a selkie story, and also kind of necessary to at least have a hint of in order to appreciate all that pleasing dramatic irony.

This was a really fun read, I couldn't put it down at first. I'm rating it 3 stars because I do feel like it was a bit too long and could have been shortened. The first and last third were great, but the middle dragged a bit. I loved all the characters though, and the relationships. I loved the love story and the mystery and would still recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for the ARC.

HIGHLIGHTS
~midwives get RESPECT
~know! your!! myths!!!
~not all men sure but DEFINITELY this one
~the MC is Too Logical
~sapphic selkies ftw

A Sweet Sting of Salt is what I think is called low fantasy – there’s not a lot of magic at all, and what there is doesn’t try to explain itself. But it’s also a fantasy in the sense of, this is almost a historical fiction novel, but it’s one where queer characters get their happy endings without too much homophobia; where women escape and make lives for themselves outside of the patriarchy, again without nearly as much trouble as people of the time period probably would have experienced. It’s fantasy in the same way a daydream is fantasy, in that one aspect, and I really appreciated it.

There’s enough queerphobia in the real world, I don’t want to read about it in my fiction, okay?

But though it’s low-magic, don’t think this is a low-stakes, low-tension novel, because it most certainly is not. Anxiety for the characters had my guts in knots for a good half of the book, and there’s real, and really awful, violence, with the threat of worse hanging over the heads of the MC and her love interest.

It’s not a chill time, is what I’m saying here. A Sweet Sting of Salt is, well, sweet, but it’s also heart-in-your-throat nerve-wracking when it’s not giving you heart-ache – or both at once! Don’t curl up with this one expecting a calm cosy read, because that is NOT what you’re going to get!

Jean was outed by the spiteful mother of the girl she loved years ago, but earned back the respect of her neighbours by becoming a very skilled midwife. (This is not a coincidence; Jean’s amazing mentor, the half-Indigenous Anneke, deliberately set Jean to learning midwifery because few people are so bigoted they’re willing to ostracize the person their lives, or those of their female relatives, will almost certainly depend on someday.) And as the blurb says, the story gets moving when a heavily pregnant woman Jean didn’t even know about (what kind of pregnant person wouldn’t make sure the local midwife knew about their condition?) appears on her land late at night, only to go ahead and have the fastest and easiest delivery Jean has ever seen.

The mysterious woman is Muirin, who barely speaks a word of English – and yet, Jean is able to pick up on something between Muirin and her husband, Tobias, that makes her insist Muirin and the newborn stay with her for a while ‘just to make sure all’s well’.

I despise the lack-of-communication trope, where things could be cleared up so easily if characters just talked to each other clearly and honestly – but in Sweet Sting of Salt, the issue is that Muirin legitimately can’t communicate, as she knows very little English. And although the reader knows – or at least strongly suspects! – that Muirin is a selkie, and that’s probably why she’s so (charmingly) odd and doesn’t speak English, Jean reaches very logical conclusions to her own questions about Muirin’s nature and origins. A whole lot of assumptions are made, but they’re well-reasoned given what Jean knows of the world. This isn’t one of those stories where the supernatural is staring the MC in the face the entire time and they almost wilfully refuse to see it; although I was frantic for Jean to figure things out and get to helping Muirin, I could absolutely follow her reasoning when she came up with explanations for Muirin’s lack of family, her ignorance of the local culture, and even her strained relationship with Tobias. It was – kind of amusingly frustrating, that Jean was so rational? That there were so many perfectly obvious, perfectly reasonable explanations for all of Jean’s questions? There was just no way for someone in Jean’s position – in life, in history, in geography, even in the patriarchy – to put it together that Muirin isn’t a foreigner in a bad position, but an honest-to-gods selkie.

Part of that – and this is really my only critique of the book – is that selkies never come up in Jean’s thoughts or any other part of her life. I was really surprised that Sutherland never took the time to let the reader know what a selkie actually is – especially given that there was one scene in particular, when a child is asking for water-legend stories, that would have been the perfect moment to introduce the concept and make sure the reader knew the myth of the selkie. If you don’t already know what a selkie is when you go into this book, there’s a good chance you’ll be pretty confused when the reveal does come, as the book is written as if it’s taken for granted that every reader knows about selkies.

I mean, I do? But I’m a myth-nerd born in Ireland, where selkie stories are traditional. I’m not sure how or why Sutherland – or her editor – expects most readers to know what she’s on about. Selkies are not a type of magical creature that show up a lot in fantasy fiction; everyone knows what a dragon is (debates about how many limbs they should have aside) but selkies? Joane Harris’ The Blue Salt Road is the only selkie book I can think of from a reasonably-big-name author, and I don’t think it made enough of a splash (hah!) to put selkies on the map, as it were.

But as I said, this is a very low-magic historical fantasy, where the selkie reveal is a comparatively minor plot-point near the end of the book. Infinitely more important is the relationship that develops between Jean and Muirin, how trust becomes friendship becomes another kind of love; and there are definitely feminist themes, as the blurb promises, but Sweet Sting of Salt never feels like an IssuesTM book – I never felt like I was being preached at, or that Sutherland was stating the obvious and rubbing my face in it, as other heavier-handed storytellers have done.

I think it helps that the focus of the book is so intimate; it’s not an IssuesTM story because it is Jean-and-Muirin’s story. And a big part of that story is the legal powerlessness of women in this time period; is the specific danger most women and femmes face from most cis men, ie the threat of someone who is bigger and stronger than you; is the slowly growing horror of just how awful Muirin’s situation is – one that she is only in because of supernatural means, but that plenty of human women have experienced through history, and still do today. But I appreciated that these were all treated less as themes and more like real, practical problems faced by the characters, if that makes any kind of sense. It’s not about lessons for the reader, it’s about the stumbling blocks and hindrances and outright dangers the characters have to overcome to get their happy ending.

Sweet Sting of Salt is told from Jean’s perspective, and I think that was an excellent call. One of the things that drives Jean wild with worry as the book progresses is that she just doesn’t know what’s happening to Muirin – who is trapped with her ‘husband’ in a house even further away from town than Jean’s, somewhere even more isolated from other people. That tension, that worry, that fear, is one that builds in the reader too, as we – along with Jean – slowly start to put together that Tobias, Muirin’s husband, is not the caring and loving partner he initially appears to be. The more we realise that, the more we worry for Muirin, the more I was vibrating out of my skin with the need to know if she was okay and also to get her the hell away from him. Sutherland is an absolute master of pacing and tension – and at creating a character who wins our hearts so completely, despite having relatively little page-time.

Because it’s so easy to see why Jean cares for Muirin, why she falls in love with her. Muirin is captivating from the first moment she appears; odd, yes, but bright, shining through the pages. Her imperfect English isn’t enough to hide that she’s not just intelligent, but curious about everything and eager to learn. She is innocent, not in the shy-delicate-pure sense of the word, but innocent like a wild animal, unafraid to touch or hug or nuzzle, unashamed of her body and its workings, sometimes frustrated with her ignorance but not blaming herself for it. With Jean, she is frank and direct, making no attempt at demureness or being ‘ladylike’, free with her laughter and her feelings. She is fiercely alive, present, vibrant. She lights up the room. I’ve rarely come across a character who stole my heart as fast as Muirin did!

It’s no wonder Jean is drawn to her, then. But it’s something specifically, uniquely Jean that makes her care, care enough to push and push at the boundaries of propriety as she tries to put her finger on what it is about Muirin’s marriage that bothers her. It never reads as insta-love; instead I got the very clear sense that Jean is a person who is compelled to make sure others are well, that she wants to right wrongs when she can regardless of who’s involved, and that she is not willing – and maybe not able – to look away when she knows something is wrong. Yes, it gradually evolves into something more personal, into feelings that are specifically for Muirin, but long before that it’s clear that Jean is a pretty amazing person even when not motivated by love. She’s much more grounded, more down-to-earth, than Muirin is, but that’s one of the things that makes them so complementary, such a perfect fit for each other.

Of course, there’s Tobias in the way, and dear gods, just as I’ve rarely come across a character who stole my heart as fast as Muirin did, I have not often encountered villains I wanted viciously dead as badly as I did Tobias. Perhaps because Tobias’ evil is so disgustingly, terrifyingly mundane, too real and every-day. The gradual – I honestly don’t know whether to call it a transformation or a reveal, because for all that Tobias initially appears overprotective but very loving…he’s been a kidnapper and rapist from the moment he stole Muirin’s sealskin. Even while he still passes for a ‘normal’ husband, he’s anything but. So is it his true colours showing, when he becomes more controlling, more violent, more overtly dangerous? Or is it a change, a poisoning of his personality by jealousy and possessiveness and hate, the way a reasonably normal man can be swayed by, I don’t know, incel rhetoric or the like, and turn into a toxic version of his old self? I’m inclined to the former; I think if you believe it’s fine to kidnap someone via magical compulsion – if you don’t see how sex with someone who cannot (and for the record, fucking does not and would not) consent is rape – then you are already a terrible person, and it probably doesn’t take much ‘pressure’ at all for you to become more obviously, overtly cruel and violent.

I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Sutherland wanted me to take away from Tobias’ arc within the story.

This is the commentary on the selkie myth I have always wanted; an acknowledgement, a pointing-out, that capturing a magical shapeshifter and forcing her to be your wife and bear your children is fucking fucked-up, not any kind of romantic! That there is something deeply wrong with all the fishermen in all those stories who stole a selkie’s sealskin so that she would have to stay with him; that the ending of those stories, wherein the selkie gets her skin back and runs the fuck away back to the sea, is not tragic in the least, and the fisherman isn’t the one we should be feeling sorry for! The half-selkie children – often the ones to inadvertently return their mother’s skin to her, in the myths – sure, I feel really sorry for them. But their dad? Can take a long walk off a short pier, as far as I’m concerned.

(This book also manages to address something else that has always bothered me about the selkie myth; namely, what about those half-selkie children??? I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that the answer delighted me!)

Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t think I had enough thoughts for a proper review when I sat down to write this?

Sutherland has taken the grain of sand that is the Selkie Wife myth and built upon it, layers upon layers of incisive insight, thoughtfulness, honesty, history, secrets, and love – familial, platonic, romantic, toxic, true – and the result is a pearl, precious and wondrous and perfect in your hand. If you’re willing to brave a deep dive into All The Feels, you will find yourself richly rewarded. It’s certainly going on my Best of 2024 list!

4.25 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.

If you’ve ever heard the tale of the Selkie wife, you might enjoy this book. Based in Nova Scotia in the 1800s, this novel about love and myths and marriage is not for everyone, but I loved it.

Jean is a midwife in a small town in Nova Scotia. She’s 24 years old, quite adept at what she does, but feels ostracized by the community due to one woman’s sharp tongue and misplaced anger. Jean lives a bit out of town, next to the sea, in a small cabin. Her mother passed many years ago, and her father more recently. Other than her mentor Anneke’s family, Jean feels very much alone.

Late one night she awakens to the sounds of someone wailing outside. Jean runs out to try to find where the sound is coming from, and finds a woman very pregnant in the marsh trying to go out to sea. Jean convinces the woman to come to her home, as she is clearly in labor. Before morning, they will welcome a new child into the world.

The child is unusual. This woman speaks very little English, but they find a way to communicate. Her name is Muirin, and she’s married to the man who has the property alongside Jean’s. Jean travels up to his house to let him know that she has his wife and newborn at her home. He comes along, but when they arrive back at Jean’s cabin, Muirin’s personality changes immediately, and Jean is concerned for her safety. She convinces Tobias, the husband, to allow Jean to care for the woman for a week.

During this time, Muirin starts to learn English and how to do things around the house. Jean and Muirin develop a special friendship. When it comes time for Muirin to go back to her home, Jean is sad, as she will miss her company. Muirin does not want to go, but she gathers her things and child and leaves, obediently, with her husband.

Jean knows that there is not only something different about Muirin, but she also feels that something is wrong. Over time, she will unravel the mystery of Muirin and her husband Tobias. Things are definitely not what they seem.

As I said, I really enjoyed this novel. Jean is so likable and competent, and fiercely protective of those she loves. Muirin is such a mystery that it’s really fun to unpack her secrets over the chapters. I would definitely recommend this book. Beautifully written, you can truly picture the coast of Nova Scotia, the small town, the people. I would read it again.