Evie has never fit in. The local fisherfolk scorn her as uppity because her two best friends, Prince Nik and Anna, have royal blood in their veins. But even with her friends, Evie feels like an outsider—and not because she lacks a royal title. Evie has a secret: She’s a witch.
Evie’s sense of estrangement only increases when she challenges Anna to a race, and Anna drowns in the rough ocean waves. Awash in grief, shame and uncertainty, there is nothing in the world Evie wants more than for her friend to be back beside her, breathing and alive.
Desire and delusion conspire so that when a mysterious girl shows up on Evie’s doorstep, looking very much like Anna and bearing the strikingly similar name of Annemette, Evie is convinced her friend has returned. Evie’s confidence cannot be shaken, even when she learns Annemette is a mermaid.
Annemette has just four days to gain a kiss of true love from Prince Nik, or she will dissolve back into the ocean like sea foam. Sounds familiar, right? But Annemette is not the pure-hearted Little Mermaid we know so well, and she is harboring secrets of her own.
Journalist Sarah Henning’s compulsively readable reimagining of The Little Mermaid is a cleverly plotted tale of love, loss and revenge. While familiarity with either Hans Christian Anderson’s original or the Disney adaptation will add layers of meaning and pleasure, you need not be a Little Mermaid fan to enjoy Sea Witch.
