The Brides of Rollrock Island, aka Sea Hearts, is a novel by Margo Lanagan.
Finished on: 5.7.2023

Plot:
Rollrock Island has always had stories about the magic way to extract beautiful women from seals to marry them. When Misskaela actually makes that magic her own and starts to fulfilling the wishes of the Island’s men – for a price, of course – it has many unintended consequences for the entire island.

It has been many years that I read Tender Morsels, Lanagan’s only other novel for adult, but the magic atmosphere of that fairy tale retelling still stuck with me. It was also the reason why I waited so long to read this book – I was afraid that it couldn’t live up to my memory of Tender Morsels. But I need not have worried: The Brides of Rollrock Island (or Sea Hearts, depending on which edition you find) is a wonderful, feminist tale with its very own incredibly engaging mood.

The Brides of Rollrock Island is told over a few generations, showing the impact that the selkies have on Rollrock Island and its inhabitants, covering several characters and their points of view. Lanagan manages to bring these differing perspectives into a cohesive whole that shows the inherent destructiveness in the men’s wishes to magic away the wildness of the women they wish to marry and live with, both figuratively and literally. And it’s not just destructive for the women, but also for the men.

Lanagan does so with beautiful prose, that is poetic and captures the feeling of the folk and fairy tales it builds from, but transcends it in its literary aspirations. It’s an intense novel in the same way that I remember Tender Morsels being, although it is also very different from that novel and not just a mere replica (admittedly, though, I would have also enjoyed a replica of Tender Morsels). I was rooting for the characters, was completely emotionally invested and really loved every second of reading this novel.

It feels like an utter shame that Lanagan hasn’t written more stuff for adults. Maybe I just have to dive into her stuff for younger audiences while I hope that she writes more novels like this one.

Summarizing: lovely.