Sea witch - Sarah Henning

"Everyone knows what happens in the end. A mermaid, a prince, a true love’s kiss. But before that young siren’s tale, there were three friends. One feared, one royal, and one already dead.

Ever since her best friend, Anna, drowned, Evie has been an outcast in her small fishing town. A freak. A curse. A witch.

A girl with an uncanny resemblance to Anna appears offshore and, though the girl denies it, Evie is convinced that her best friend actually survived. That her own magic wasn’t so powerless after all. And, as the two girls catch the eyes—and hearts—of two charming princes, Evie believes that she might finally have a chance at her own happily ever after.

But her new friend has secrets of her own. She can’t stay in Havnestad, or on two legs, unless Evie finds a way to help her. Now Evie will do anything to save her friend’s humanity, along with her prince’s heart—harnessing the power of her magic, her ocean, and her love until she discovers, too late, the truth of her bargain."

Okay, first of all can we just look at the cover for a moment. Isn't it beautiful? Ahhh sigh. 

Well anyway. I just need to say one thing: this book is probably not what you are expecting. It's really a question of how much patience you have, and how easily you can sit through maritime chapters without falling asleep. It's a very slowly-paced book, especially during the first two thirds of the story. Any exciting witchy The Little Mermaid goodness you might be expecting happens in the later chapters, and even then it's pretty subdued.

Though, in many ways, Sea Witch is much smarter than I expected for a YA The Little Mermaid retelling. The story is set in 19th Century Denmark, Andersen's country of birth, and is woven with hundreds of years of Danish history. The Danes, especially under King Christian IV, put many "witches" to death in the 16th and 17th centuries. Henning combines this real fear of witches on land with the story of the sea witch we all know from the Andersen tale (and the Disney remake). I really loved this historical grounding and I found myself googling quite a lot of extra info, especially about the Lithasblot Festival. 

Most of the novel has a small-town atmosphere, the main characters of Evelyn, the witch, and Nik, the prince, were sweet but very typical YA. There wasn't any originality to their characters but they where by no means bad. Much of the story is focused on Evelyn's struggle with her low birth and her friendship with the prince Nik. However this didn't really hit the emotional mark as it was all told, never shown. Not once are the people really shown to be mean to Evelyn so I am left feeling that she is really overthinking it. 

My main disappointment was the plot. I am all for a slow burn book if exectuted well with an original plot but...I was really looking forward to an original story but the story largely unfold the same way as the original tale: a mermaid saves a prince, then goes on to land to try to win his heart in four days. If she fails, she'll be turned to sea form. Evelyn narrates the novel, with third-person chapters recounting the past. The mermaid Annamette bears a striking resemblance to Evelyn's best friend who drowned four years ago and she naturally wants to persevere Annamette's life. However Annemette being evil was pretty obvious and didn't serve as much of a plot twist, certainly not enough to save the lack lustre plot. 

One of the main reasons I loved reading these origin stories for villains is to watch their slow decline onto madness. What events make them, usually innocent and kind, become cruel and sadistic? But that is never explored. Evelyn becomes the Sea Witch but isn't shown to be evil or cruel, just a little disillusioned. Which makes a pretty boring villain origin story. 

Overall an promising take that falls a little short of the mark. However a good typical YA, definitely not going to waste your time if you read it. 

Age Rating 11+.