A Spell for Drowning
In Rebecca Ferrier’s captivating novel A Spell for Drowning, sisters’ fates are tied to the mythical beings off the Cornish coast.
Kensa lives in Cornwall. Her outlaw father was executed; her mother remarried. Charged with watching her younger half sister Elowen, Kensa finds her at the beach where a sea monster, the Morgawr, has come to die. The village wise woman, Isolde, assumes that Kensa found the Morgawr and takes her as an apprentice.
Already an outcast, Kensa thrives under Isolde’s tutelage, though fearing that Elowen will claim her rightful place as her apprentice. Elowen keeps her secret, though. Meanwhile, though the Pact binds mythical creatures to the sea as long as a wise woman keeps her bargain on the land, merfolk and other predatory creatures begin to infiltrate the village, sweeping Kensa and Elowen into their dangerous games.
Kensa’s stubbornness both aids and hinders her training. The mistakes she makes when plunging ahead on her own grow more dire each time. The Bucka, one of the mythical creatures bound up in the Pact, manipulates her to his own ends, and Kensa is slow to mature and right her wrongs. But she does learn, and as she takes responsibility for her actions and for her community, she demonstrates satisfying development.
The sparse yet lyrical language vivifies the villagers whose lives are suspended between the land and sea, described as born “on ship bones and their anchors, seal skins and scallop ears.” In the harrowing climax, Kensa’s greatest mistake results in a monstrosity terrorizing the village. Her sister Elowen persists in helping and, in doing so, helps heal the rift between the sisters and the rift in the Pact.
In the alluring fantasy novel A Spell for Drowning, a girl comes of age, and into her wisdom, in a world where folklore and myths still rule.
Reviewed by
Jeana Jorgensen
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