"The Changeling Sea" review

Overview

Title: The Changeling Sea

Author: Patricia A. McKilip

Subgenre: High fantasy, Slice of life, Romance

2021 Bingo squares: Backlist

Recommend: It’s a pretty quick read, so why not

Stars: 3.5/5

Review

I didn’t love The Changeling Sea as much as I was hoping. It’s a sweet slice-of-life, fairytale, romance story set by the sea. Peri’s mother is swallowed by depression after her father dies, and so Peri goes to live with an old woman instead. When the old woman disappears, she lives alone. She decides to hex the sea because it has taken too many people from her, and she hates it, and the novel is about her learning to find connection to people around her again when strange events start to occur. I’m not sure if I would have liked it more if I’d read it when I was in a different mood, or if I was just never going to love it, but it just didn’t quite give me the feelings I knew it was trying to.

Still, it has lovely characters and lovely relationships. It’s whimsical, and fairly short - maybe a bit longer than novella length, but you can still read it in a day or two pretty easily. If you want a melancholy, reflective, moody, sweet story, then pick this up.