A review by localbeehunter
Eelgrass by Tori Curtis

4.0

This book November's Sapphic Book Club read hosted by @sapphicliterature.

Rating: 3,5

When Bettan gets kidnapped, her best friend Efa is ready to do everything to get her back to safety.

Tori Curtis, with an amazing writing style, throws us into the world of selkies and fishwives. She uses the myth of stealing the selkie's skin as a metaphore for a rape culture. The story does a great work of showing it along with accompanying it heteronormativity; however, it was not explicit enough with condemning it and at times I was left thinking it contributes to harmfull tropes.

The driving force in this story is friendship and it was refreshing to see a narrative focused on the importance of non-romantic relationships. Efa's goal to rescue her friend was her priority even after connecting with her love interest. All the main characters are relatable, interesting, and ranging in personalities. Nevertheless, all of them can be at times a bit annoying while struggling with some concepts which we assume as common truth. This makes the book a little harder to read but also shows that in the patriarchal society it is often hard to realise there's something beyond blindly going along with the injustice.

I found the romantic part really scarce but it's understandable since Efa's heart was mostly set on freeing Bettan as well as she has only began realising her attraction to girls.

As it is a first book in the series, I hope for the story, the relationships, and the characters to grow because there's a potential for sure.

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