So, funny story-around the same time I purchased Winterwood and The Wicked Deep mostly due to their covers and basic descriptions. There was a big gap between when I read Winterwood and The Wicked Deep and I didn’t realize until just now that they are both by Shea Ernshaw! I must just be really attracted to her aesthetic.
The Wicked Deep is about a small coastal town that lives under a curse-every summer three sisters who were drowned as witches centuries ago come back to take over the bodies of three girls and to kill (at least) three boys. Now, yes, it was hard for me to suspend disbelief that anyone would stay in this town (let alone visit it as a tourist) during this time period. This isn’t a curse everyone has heard but no one believes-this is a real thing that really happens every year. The townspeople have a few tasteless traditions surrounding it and enjoy the bump in tourism it brings the town but doesn’t seem to care that their kids might be murdered. Okay, so, to enjoy this book you have to just get over that part. Accept it and move right along.
The majority of the book follows Penny as she tries to keep the people she cares about safe during “Swan Season” (named for the three Swan sisters who were drowned). The character development was a bit shallow, the description a bit lacking, I found it hard to create clear pictures in my head of what was happening. And the saddest part – the twist was extremely predictable. Now, I am a 37-year-old woman (how did that happen? yikes) who has read a lot and seen a lot of movies, so for me this twist was predictable very early on. But for a 15-year-old? Maybe not predictable at all. For the true YA audience I think this book is probably amazing. I would recommend it to teens if I knew any.
Bent Shelf Book Reviews 