<p>The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius's many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price. </p><p>Her journey to win Octavius's freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way. </p><p>A powerfully written debut from a young fantasy author, S.M. Wheeler's <i>Sea Change</i> is an exhilarating tale of adventure, resilience, and selflessness in the name of friendship.</p>
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Gorgeous tale of childhood friendship and loss.
Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy. SEA CHANGE takes the alien brutality of Grimm's tales, washes them smooth and small with the hush of the sea, and transmutes the familiar pieces of magic and friendship, villainy and madness, love and happily ever after into something altogether new. Haunting, heart wrenching, and beautiful, SEA CHANGE is a book I won't soon forget... or entirely understand. The story opens with a young Lilly and Octavius, human and kraken, each sharing glimpses of their own worlds with their best friend. Just as any young children try to decode the lives and strange rules of the adults around them, they each trade stories about land and sea. Spying on a village at Midsummer Festival or watching merpeople kill and devour their prey, to this young pair it all seems exotic. To a fantasy reader, both sides of the exchange will have their familiar elements, but all of it takes on a new and alien beauty when viewed through the smokey sea glass of Wheeler's prose. Like our own world, SEA CHANGE can be both beautiful and terrible, and the characters around Lilly are as mysterious and nuanced and broken as any true adult. I am not a fan of sad endings in books, especially when I feel I've emotionally suffered alongside the characters for no reason. Though SEA CHANGE is dark and realistic, though wounds don't miraculously heal and true sacrifices are made, it also offers a sense of beauty and truth. It hurts when something precious is lost, but the act of loving it in the first place is its own kind of gift. Not a book for children, but rather, a book that reminds adults of the pain and beauty of being a child. Wheeler tempted me to fall in love, to feel once more the youthful, pure passion of a childhood best friend, and that gift is worth all the growing pains in the world. Sexual Content: Kissing, references to sex, an attempted rape. Read more
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