The Isle lives on stories. This is not a metaphor. Without the incarnates playing out their destined roles, over and over again in lifetime after lifetime, parts of the Isle actually disappear. The magic of the stories pulls the incarnates into these roles no matter how much they might fight. And they definitely fight, since so many of the stories are deeply tragic. The protagonists of Tasha Suri’s spectacular novel, The Isle in the Silver Sea, are doomed to play out a particularly awful story, the Tale of the Knight and the Witch. One of these protagonists, Simran, does everything she can to resist becoming the Witch of legend and it’s very hard to blame her.
Simran’s tale arrives to ensnare her on the opening pages of The Isle in the Silver Sea in the form of devil-may-care Sir Lavinia (Vina). Simran is able to wriggle her way out of the story for now, but she knows she’s on borrowed time. Worse, her meeting with Vina has put her on the radar of the Immortal Queen and her archivists. The archivists scour the nation for the incarnates, so that they can be taken into “custody” until they need to play their parts. The archivists have a secondary mission; they ensure that no one ever manages to rewrite their stories. They aren’t above blackmail, imprisonment, and more to make sure that even the most recalcitrant incarnates deliver their lines.
It wasn’t always this way, of course, and there are hints that the entire system of the incarnates and the magical Isle are starting to crack. The biggest crack is a malevolent figure who has managed to do the impossible: kill an incarnate before their time. Then the assassin manages to do it again. With the choice of death sooner rather than later, Simran (and later, Vina) has to plunge into a centuries old conspiracy and find a way to free everyone from the stranglehold of the Queen and the archivists.
Have you ever read a book that felt like it had been created especially for you? The Isle in the Silver Sea felt like utter catnip to me. I adored every part of this novel. The characters, the setting, the magic, the plot—I could gush over every word of this story! Simran is so full of will and vinegar that she practically leaps off the page, while Vina’s struggles between what is expected over her and her deepest wish to just be loved for herself tugged at my heart from the jump. The power of the magical stories is terrifying on the one hand, and as necessary as the old customs of kings being sacrificed for their health of the country on the other. Above all, there is a hope that almost breaks your heart that there is a better future if Simran and Vina can just find a way to conquer their stories threaded throughout The Isle in the Silver Sea.
Not only is this a book that felt like it was written just for me, it is also the kind of book I want to run around pushing into the hands of all my bookish friends. Read this one! You’ll thank me later!