“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things: salt and magic.”

representation: lesbian mc (on-page), aroace side character (on-page), bisexual characters (on-page), poc side characters, twins.

[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 4 . 5 s t a r s *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Wow, what an impactful book. From the very start I was drawn in. The atmospheric setting, the characters, the subtle hint of magic - it was a recipe for success and let me tell you, it didn't disappoint. It was so easy to love these characters. I loved the twins, who are so different from one another (something I relate to with my own sister) and I felt for them so, so much. It had tiny little elements added in that made me smile, like that they have their very own book club and the maine coon cat called Horace (wish we had more of this baby angel!).

I've docked half a star purely because I found it quite predictable, but at the end of the day, that didn't have a huge influence on my enjoyment of the book. And is enjoyment even the right word? Because this book had me feeling so, so devastated and angry for the majority of it, but I loved it so much. The core message at the heart of this book had me putting a hand to my heart and nodding along with anger and solidarity -

Spoiler

“Because there was nothing in a girl’s history that might negate her right to choose what happens to her body.” and “I knew that he would use that gun, because that is what small, scared men did: they used things more powerful than themselves to make up the difference. They hid behind weapons of mass destruction: big guns and bigger bombs.”

i mean,,,,,,, wow.

read this book.

trigger warnings: drug use (weed), alcohol, death of a parent (in the past), graphic animal death, sexual assault, rape, toxic masculinity, gun violence.