The Coming Storm
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
Music, myth, and horror blend in this romantic, “eerie…atmospheric” (Publishers Weekly) fantasy debut about a teen girl who must fight a powerful evil that’s invaded her Prince Edward Island home—perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens.
There’s a certain wild magic in the salt air and the thrum of the sea. Beet MacNeill has known this all her life. It added spice to her childhood adventures with her older cousin, Gerry, the two of them thick as thieves as they explored their Prince Edward Island home. So when Gerry comes up the path one early spring morning, Beet thinks nothing of it at first. But he is soaking wet and silent, and he plays a haunting tune on his fiddle that chills Beet to the bone. Something is very, very wrong.
Things only get worse when Marina Shaw saunters into town and takes an unsettling interest in Gerry’s new baby. Local lore is filled with tales of a vicious shape-shifting sea creature and the cold, beautiful woman who controls him—a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Marina. Beet is determined to find out what happened to her beloved cousin, and to prevent the same fate from befalling the handsome new boy in town who is winning her heart, whether she wants him to or not. Yet the sea always exacts a price…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this leisurely paced narrative, Beatrice "Beet" MacNeill, 15, slowly begins to suspect that her Prince Edward Island community is being haunted by a sinister supernatural force after her cousin Gerry's ghost appears to her upon his tragic drowning in 1949. A year later, following Gerry's mother's death, her elegant niece Marina Shaw comes to town, promptly taking a particular interest in Gerry's son, Baby Joseph. Suspecting there's more to Marina than meets the eye, Beet and her best friend Jeannine investigate, uncovering a strange pattern of drownings stretching back over a century amid sightings of a legendary kelpie. Beet's first-person perspective proves immersive ("Lorsh, did Gerry turn red, seeing her! Made me laugh to kill myself"). Drawing upon maritime myth and Scottish folklore to weave an eerie story filled with magic and music, Hansen intertwines Beet's narrative with historical flashbacks as the mystery unfolds. There's a gentle subtlety to this atmospheric debut, with the ocean becoming a character of its own alongside presumed-white characters. Ages 12–up.
