A review by kellysavagebooks
The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Lonely Rollrock Island is home to hard fishermen and their ordinary wives.  But it is also home to a young woman who can bring forth women from the sea. Dark-eyed, bewitching women. A man need only hide away her seal coat to keep her to himself—no matter what it costs him, no matter whether she wills it.

I found this book in my search for selkie stories, and it did not disappoint. The brides of Rollrock will haunt you as they haunt their island. The brides are the embodiment of women’s suffering in silence. They are the result of another woman’s resentment. They are desired but cannot be fully known. They are objects of scorn and jealousy, but they deserve pity.

This book is all the melancholy, gray, squally splendor I hoped it would be and so much more. The characters really stole my heart in no time at all, and I wasn’t expecting to be as moved as I was. No spoilers, but I’ll just say, the end…wow.

If you’re into gray ocean books, quiet fantasy, or if, like me, you want selkie stories and find them impossible to track down, this is THE book. I could go on and on but I don’t want to say anything at all because I don’t want to steal a moment of magic from anyone who might choose to pick this up.