Book Review #23: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Hello Dear Reader!

Welcome to the first book review of 2021! I am really excited and also very anxious for what this year will bring, so for now I’m just gonna take it one day at a time. Today brings a book review of a novel I finished several days ago and enjoyed a lot! So…

Let’s get into the review!

The Wicked Deep is a young adult fantasy book that incorporates paranormal and romance elements, a combination I personally have never encountered before.

And it’s also set in the real world! A plus!

So, if you like the above combination of book genres and setting elements, this book might be for you. But before I get into that, here is the synopsis of the book (from Goodreads):

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

End back-cover summary! Review time!

The main character, Penny Talbot, is the narrator of this story, and she is a very relatable character. Considering herself average-looking, Penny is definitely more of an introvert, and she hates social events and being in big crowds. She’s also pretty observant, and she’s got a lot of strong walls built up around her because of events of the past. I won’t be talking about said events because spoilers are very much a thing. Even though she’s a borderline hermit because she lives on an island off the coast of the mainland and only goes to said mainland for school and groceries, she’s got a fantastic best friend who’s almost the exact opposite of her named Rose. I love their friendship dynamic, mainly because I can relate to it because I have friends who are way more extroverted than I am.

The main cast of characters in The Wicked Deep is rather small, with even the more important key characters showing up sparsely throughout the book. Still, the author does a great job of making every interaction matter and make it fit into the mystery Penny is trying to solve. The most important main side character is Bo, who eventually becomes Penny’s love interest and is one of the main focuses of the story. The rest of the characters are all very different from each other, which I love. Everyone has their own unique voice, and I’m all for that.

I also love how this book takes place in the real world. Now, I don’t think the village, Sparrow, is real, but it does take place on the coast of Oregon. In this cursed little town, every summer, the ghosts of three sisters who were wrongly drowned two centuries ago come back to steal the bodies of three girls so they can vengefully drown boys in the harbor surrounding the town.  It’s this curse that drives the story, and I absolutely love it. The lore is so mysterious and fascinating, and it’s expanded upon in the occasional third-person chapters scattered throughout the book, telling the story of the Swan sisters and how they came to Sparrow and were drowned by the townspeople. These short chapters that looked back to the past were really refreshing while reading the book, and I always found myself looking forward to the next one.

There were a lot of things I really loved in The Wicked Deep, but there were a few things that did get to me. The romance was cute, but it wasn’t the best in my opinion. I knew there was gonna be some romantic spark between Penny and Bo, but there wasn’t much leading up to it. I also eventually found myself liking the shorter chapters that covered the Swan sisters’ past a bit more than the actual story. Still, I enjoyed the main story, and the writing was beautiful.

So, The Wicked Deep’s rating:

8/10 and would read again. The thing I love the most about this book is the lore. The lore pulled me in and kept me interested throughout the entire story, and if that’s something you like, then I highly recommend this book.

That’s all for this review! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I really do hope you give The Wicked Deep a shot.

Thanks for reading!