Family stories from Cornwall inspired Rebecca Ferrier’s new novel, A Spell for Drowning. Countless years ago, Portscatho’s wise woman made a pact between the land and the sea to trap an evil king and force him to finally serve his people. This made him very, very angry. Protagonist Kensa Rowe didn’t about any of this history when she pushed her way into an apprenticeship with Portscatho’s current wise woman. All she wanted was for people to pay attention to her and heed her words; she had no idea her ambitions would get people killed and possibly wipe her town off the map.
Kensa’s bad reputation comes from her snappish personality and her father, hanged for numerous crimes when she was small. She’s been seething with anger ever since: at her mother, at her half-sister, at the local aristocracy, and all the people who are absolutely convinced that she’ll go wrong. When Kensa and her sister, Elowen, find a dying mythical creature on the beach, Kensa seizes the opportunity to become wise woman Isolde’s apprentice. Kensa doesn’t have a natural talent for healing or even much empathy for her fellow villagers. What she has instead is a fierce determination to set things to rights. A wiser person might pick up on Isolde’s many attempts to instill patience in her apprentice, but they sail right over Kensa’s head. It’s more than a little frustrating to watch Kensa stew with anger and hair off without pausing to think about what’s really going on for the first half of A Spell for Drowning. I tried to remind myself that some teenagers just will not be told; these teens always have to learn the hard way.
Only the harshest of lessons seem to work on Kensa, though she’s bright enough to master basic remedies and medical care. Perhaps Isolde might’ve gotten through to Kensa before she makes her biggest, potentially deadliest mistake if she’d just told her apprentice what was really at stake with the old pact and the sinister Bucka. Of course, if Isolde had shared more information, there wouldn’t be much of a plot. A Spell for Drowning really kicks off when Elowen becomes deathly ill and Kensa pushes Isolde to save her sister’s life. Kensa’s most difficult lesson is that magic has a price, one that’s usually too painful to pain. Kensa is so stubborn that she refuses to let death take the people who are dear to her.
I had a great time reading the last third of A Spell for Drowning. All of the plot’s hemming and hawing vanishes when Kensa is finally pushed to pay the price for her bad decisions, to try and fix the things she broke because she couldn’t bear to see people die. We also get to see behind all of Kensa’s angry posturing to see the vulnerable young woman who is terrified of letting other’s down and making mistakes. The last third makes up for the slow pace of the first two-third of the book. This novel turned out to be one of the most original, violent, interesting coming-of-age stories I’ve read in a long time.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.