Seven Tears Into the Sea by Terri Farley - Book Review (Reread)

Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Fiction

Spice: Mild

Summary:

At ten years old, Gwen Cooke was saved from drowning in the ocean after sleepwalking from her family’s beachside cottage. The mysterious boy that saved her vanished into the sea before anyone else arrived. This incident caused an explosion of gossip and rumors in her small beach town, steeped in Celtic traditions, and Gwen’s family soon moved from the town.

Seven years later, Gwen returns to her childhood home to help her grandmother at the Seahorse Inn. Staying in her old home, and nervous about returning to the source of her childhood embarrassment, she is still determined to enjoy her summer. Immediately, Gwen is drawn back to the ocean, where she meets a young man, Jessie, with odd mannerisms. He seems to know her, and even though she’s not sure who he is, she feels an unexplainable attraction to him. As Gwen’s grandmother recounts Celtic legends of Selkies, and mysterious things start happening to Gwen, she can’t help but wonder if Jessie is the boy who saved her seven years ago, and if the legends of Selkies are real.

Reaction:

When I was younger, I was obsessed with Terri Farley’s Phantom Stallion series. My adoration of that series is what led me to read Farley’s Seven Tears Into the Sea. I love that Farley writes in a very straightforward manner, then without any warning she flips a switch and writes a passage that feels mystical and whimsical. That happens multiple times in this book where Gwen will be doing something very ordinary and normal, then seamlessly the setting changes and the reader feels like it’s an isolated magical moment. In essence, Farley writes about a magical world that is just realistic enough to make you feel like it could happen. I would classify this book as a paranormal beach read. The oceanside setting is just as important a character as Gwen or Jessie, and every time I read it, I want to take a vacation to the beach, maybe to find my own selkie. It’s also a relatively quick and easy read – there’s no extreme setting or character descriptions to get bogged down by, just a smooth enjoyable story with a sprinkling of Celtic legend. This is one of those books that led me to the paranormal/fantasy genres as a young teenager, and for that it will always be one of my favorites.