Image: HarperCollins Publishers
Teen Tuesday features Sea Witch by Sarah Henning. While I love a good fairy tale retelling, I especially love a good villain origin story. The very first one I remember is The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli, which explores the origin of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. More recently, I was captivated by Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which tells the story of the Queen of Hearts from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I cannot wait to read Gilded by Ms. Meyer as well.
Evie lives in Havnestad, a kingdom by the sea in Denmark with her fisherman father and elderly aunt. Magic and witchcraft are forbidden. Evie's aunt is a healer, rumored to be a witch, but left alone because she once saved the king's life. Evie is best friends with the king's son, Prince Nik and Anna. Evie has been an outcast ever since Anna's death by drowning three or four years earlier. Nik managed to save Evie but not Anna and Evie feels tremendous guilt over that. The townspeople whisper about the unseemly friendship between Nik and Evie, especially as Nik is about to come of age. Nik doesn't care and invites Evie to attend his birthday party on his father's new ship. Evie sees a face looking in a port hole that looks like Anna, but it's gone before Evie can take a closer look. A sudden storm blows in and Nik is swept overboard. Evie and Nik's cousin, Iker search frantically for Nik and Evie finds him washed ashore and alive, but not alone. It seems a girl has saved Evie's best friend, but then she disappears into the ocean.
The pace is quite leisurely in the beginning, which might deter readers who like action earlier. Evie is a conflicted narrator prone to dismissing herself as just a poor fisherman's daughter so much so that it became annoying. Still, the dynamics between Evie and the two princely cousins was cute and the mystery of Annamette was intriguing. Once all the pieces begin to click into place, the pace quickens to dizzying and the reader is left breathless at its conclusion.
The new-to-me narrator had a wide array of voices and was well-suited to the material. I'm interested in reading the companion, Rise of the Sea Witch soon.
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