Review: Sea Witch by Sarah Henning

Sea Witch by Sarah Henning
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This comes out on July 31st.  If you are into retellings as much as I have been this summer and you want something a little different in the mermaid realm go check this out.

I really enjoyed this retelling of The Little Mermaid. This is more of an origin story than a retelling, though the end of the story ends where the story most of us know picks up. Where this retelling differs from most of the other ones I've read recently is that is the story about how the Sea Witch came to be, not about the mermaid. This isn’t at all what I was expecting. It isn’t a fast paced, dark mermaid story. It is heavy on the romance, and more focused on the friendships and betrayals that happened on land that eventually lead to the formation of the Sea Witch.

I also really appreciated that this is set in Denmark with Danish history and mythology woven into the story. This does a really good job mixing the original Hans Christian Andersen tale with the historical witch hunts and fear that occurred all over the world. I loved the originality that this brought to the story. I love mythology and I loved what this tale brings to the table.

The story follows childhood best friends Evie, the royal fisherman’s daughter, and Nik, the crown prince of Ørseund. They had a third friend Anna who drowned several years prior, and with her passing Evie and Nik have only become better friends. Evie is disliked by the townsfolk because she is a commoner, but she gets to spend all of her time with the prince. She is also a witch, but it is her most closely kept secret as witches are killed on sight in her kingdom. Her mother was a witch and used her dying breath to save Evie’s life, her aunt Tante Hansa is also a witch and only teaches Evie a little magic here and there. Hansa works as a healer so her magic is hidden well. Just before the annual festival, a strange girl appears out of nowhere, but she looks just like Anna and her name just happens to be Annamette. She is our mermaid and she must fall in love after a few days or forfeit her life. She teaches Evie a few things about magic. The two girls become instant friends as if Anna had returned from the grave. Its clear from the start that Annamette is hiding something, but you arne’t sure if it is her magic, her true identity, her intentions, or all of the above. Evie so desperately wants her friend back, she feels so much guilt from the day Anna drowned. Nik also feels guilty, but much to Annamette’s dismay he simply will not kiss the girl in time to make her human. There are several romantic plot points in the book, but the romance was not my favorite part of the plot. It was OK, but the mythology and magic is what drew me in.

I wanted more from the magic system. Henning kind of glosses over the magic system and Evie never really learns about it. She has books she borrows from her aunt, and the little bits she picks up from Annemette. I just wanted it to be a bit more developed; it was just kind of there. I think Hansa was trying to protect Evie by not teaching her, that part just isn’t explained well.

This is a bit slow paced for my tastes, but there is a huge twist about 70% of the way in that I didn’t see coming. From that point on I had to know what happened. I did like that this isn’t at all what I expected, but in a good way. I thought it was going one way, but it took some turns I didn’t expect and ended up somewhere I never expected. I really liked the ending and loved the writing.


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