Tides by Betsy Cornwell (review)

Spending three months with his grandmother on a small New England island will give high school senior Noah a chance to complete a dream internship with the island’s famed marine biologist; additionally, Noah’s sister Lo might finally be able to get her bulimia under control away from the gaze of her critical father. The island and their grandmother, Gemm, turn out to hold surprising secrets: there’s a family of selkies off the coast, and its matriarch has long been romantically involved with their grandmother. Noah finds himself drawn to Mara, one of the selkie girls, as well, but when one of the seal creatures goes missing at the hands of a human fisherman, Noah’s romance, Lo’s friendship, and Gemm’s lifelong relationship with the selkies are threatened. Any one of the multiple story threads could have been massively overplayed, but Cornwell has a deft hand with her characterizations, and the shifting focalizations among Noah, Lo, Gemm, Mara, and the kidnapped selkies manage to continually move the plot forward even while focusing on their emotional pain. The parallels between the two families are unmistakable: the eldest siblings are caught between their family obligations and their own hopes for the future, two sisters are left scarred by abuse, and both elders are haunted by their past mistakes and insistent, sometimes forcefully so, that their young ones don’t repeat their history of secrets. A satisfying mix of folktale, mystery, and family drama, this eerie story will leave readers with the distinct impression that Gemm’s island home has a bottomless supply of heartbreaking tales of love and loss.