Greetings Readers!
Man, it’s been a while since I’ve posted!
I’ve been really busy lately getting ready for grad school and focusing on the 9 to 5, so this may be a recurring trend unfortunately. Regardless, I hope you stick around for more chills and thrills. I’m glad you’re here! 🙂
Today I’m sharing my review of The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw.
This is my most recent buddy read with Misty’s from Misty’s Book Space. I don’t think either of us have read any of Ernshaw’s former work, so we were both really curious to see what this mix of spooky and romance had to offer. This is my individual review, soon to be followed up with a buddy read and rant with Misty.
So what did I think of the book? Keep on reading!
Blurb:
Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…
Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.
Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.
Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.
Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.
But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.
GoodReads
Amazon
***Brief disclosure***
I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase.
The Review:
I really wanted this book to be great, but it didn’t really hit the spot for me in the end.
This is my first read of something by this author, so it’s hard to know what to expect.
On the surface it had a lot going for it. A small coastal town of Sparrow has a horrific past. Three girls, known as the Swan sisters, were drowned for being witches. Now every summer their spirits come back from the grave to possess three young women, seducing young men into the cold waters.
This book had a lot of promise from the get go, but I felt conflicted on a number of things.
First off, the characters. This book is split between two characters. Penny, a girl who lives on a nearby island to Sparrow, and Hazel, one of the Swan sisters.
While I did enjoy the backstory of the town told from Penny, I was hoping for a bit more depth from her. I know that high schoolers may not have a ton of depth to them, but I wanted more. Her story was sad, but beyond that I didn’t really feel there was enough to her.
Hazel is quite different and wants to live again, not be thrown back into the waters of the afterlife like every year. Hazel I also felt was missing a certain something. For someone who’s spent the past two hundred years in the afterlife, you’d think she’d have a better plan to break her curse and live forever. But unfortunately what it turns into is a poor plan that had me asking why she even bothered in the first place.
I also thought both characters were a bit overly dramatic, especially Hazel. Maybe it came across that way to me because I’m not a huge romance person, but sometimes it got annoying to where I just wanted things to move forward.
The writing POV was in second person, and though in the past I’ve shied away from that style, it was executed quite well structure-wise.
The plot was interesting, but I felt that it deflated after a while. I think it was strongest in the beginning when the reader gets to know more about the history of the town and the curse. That was fun, along with the big beach party.
But after a while, the present gets a little dull in my opinion. This is coming from a guy who loves fast-paced books, so that could be a part of it, but it tended to drag here and there. There was also a reveal after the halfway mark that came out of the blue in a conversation and was extremely confusing. I also kind of wish things went a bit darker or scarier in this book. That would’ve made things more interesting.
In the end, this book was intriguing, but disappointing in my view. I can’t fully recommend it, but if you love teen romance and some light spooks along the way, this may be for you.
That’s a Wrap!
Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!
Have you read this book before? What did you think? Do you have a book recommendation similar to this one? Feel free to share in the comments!
If you’d like to see other reviews of mine, feel free to check out the book review section of my blog or my GoodReads. You can also follow my GoodReads reviews here. There are some great binge-worthy books on there!
Have a great day!