Storm-wake by Lucy Christopher

A few weeks ago, I received my first ARC (Advanced Reviewer Copy) of a book by one of my favorite authors: Lucy Christopher. I was totally excited to read it because I absolutely loved her books Stolen and Flyaway.

Storm-wake is a novel loosely based on the Shakespeare play The Tempest. The story surrounds a young girl named Moss and her father who are living on a deserted island full of magical flowers. These flowers have the ability to heal and give a sort of high to those who ingest them. They also grant wishes and bring storms. One wish that Moss had was for a companion her age. The next day, a young man with fish scales for skin washes up on shore. Moss named him Callan and they became close friends. They spend most of their childhood together with Pa. Then we have a few years jump and Moss and Cal have grown up into teenagers. Pa was constantly telling them that the world flooded and that the flowers would grant their wish and recede the waters to bring back the outside world. When a boy named Finn from the outside world washes up on their shores, Moss starts to question everything she knows. She began to doubt her Pa more and more as evidence piled up showing that the outside world may not have perished as she had been told.

I really liked this book. It had a sense of adventure. I loved reading as Moss grew up and grew into her feelings for Cal. When they were children, it was a sweet sort of friendship, as innocent as the two children were. As they grew up, their relationship matured into love as Moss saw Cal as more of a person rather than the water spirit she believed him to be. On the back of the book, it mentioned that Moss had to decide who she loved. I thought that it would be between Cal and Finn, but there was barely any romantic ties to Finn. Instead, the love was between Cal and Pa. Moss had to decide who she trusted and, in the end, who she wanted to stay with. It was a sweet story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

My only qualm was also the thing that I liked. I found that, because of the way Moss and Cal’s thoughts and speech were written, it was a little bit hard to read. There were a lot of almost infantile words that were smashed together with a hyphen. I found that I breathed a sigh of relief when we were introduced to Finn and his more normalized way of thinking/speaking. However, I realized that I loved the fact that we could see their individuality in the way the story was written by each point of view. When we read a part that centered around Cal, you knew it. When we were introduced to Finn, he spoke more normally than Cal and Moss. I realized that this showed that Cal and Moss were almost stuck in childhood, as they didn’t tend to use large words. Their speech was almost stunted. Again, it made it a little difficult to read, but I’m glad of it.

I really liked this book, even when it was a little hard to follow. The end made me cry and I was left thinking about the story in a different light by the end of the book. I want to re-read it with the ending revelations in mind to see how it changes the story. You’ll want to re-read it too. It’s a beautiful book and you won’t regret it.

If you’d like to get your own copy of Storm-wake by Lucy Christopher, you can get it here.