This Raging Sea by De Elizabeth
Blurb:
18-year-old Briar Winters must untangle the horrifying eldritch secrets of her picture-perfect coastal town in order to save the boy she loves after he disappears from time itself in this YA dark fantasy for fans of Bly Manor.
Historic Loch Creek is a witchy New England tourist trap—but it’s just a trap for Briar, who’s convinced she’ll die there among the waves that devoured her twin brother thirteen years ago. But when her best friend who she's loved since childhood, Finn, vanishes from the seaside carnival, there’s only one person who can help Briar find him: Morgan, her biggest enemy who knows her darkest secret.
As Briar uncovers hidden truths as deep and dark as the water that haunts her, it quickly becomes clear that Finn has gone much further than anyone could have imagined. He’s lost in time, and neither of them are safe. If Briar and Finn look too hard, they might find terrifying answers—not just about what’s buried beneath the shores, but also the threads tying them to each other. As past and future collide, the seductive yet evil underwater entity that intends to claim Briar still needs its sacrifice . . .
And it’s too hungry to go unsated.
Equal parts epic bisexual romance and pulse-pounding horror, This Raging Sea is a dual POV dark fantasy as sweepingly powerful as the ocean that threatens to consume everything and everyone Briar has ever loved—prepare to be devoured.
Review:
A“She curls her fingers into the wet sand and remembers all the ways Finn helped create space for her to find the words she needed back then. Now he’s the one who needs to be found.”
-De Elizabeth, This Raging Sea
In This Raging Sea by De Elizabeth, Loch Creek has always been a tourist destination for travelers obsessed with witches and the Salem Witch Trials. It’s also a place soon-to-be nineteen-year-old Briar Winters knows she will never escape; certain she will die there. When her best friend goes missing, messing up the rhythms of time and space, she finds herself desperate for a reason to live and rescue him—even if it means trusting in the girl she’s bullied for years in an attempt to keep what she witnessed a secret: Morgan, her greatest enemy and the one who can destroy her entire life. Locked in a bargain with Morgan to save her missing friend, Briar tumbles into a nest of secrets and lies and deceptions, ones she lays and ones others lay for her. If she hopes to untangle the mess of deceit her life has become and save Finn, she has to let the truth unravel. But the sea is calling to her, and it doesn’t want to perish alongside her.
I cannot believe this book is a debut novel. It reminds me so strongly of Rachel Gillig’s stunning prose and evocative plots, mixed with Ava Reid’s doomed narratives and tragic love stories. Brimming with romance, yearning, an original plot, and a kickass magic system, this story is one I won’t be forgetting for some time. It dragged me in like an anchor to the sea and refused to let go. I am absolutely, utterly obsessed.
The way Elizabeth spins her words makes me as a reader feel like I’m there with the characters. I can see what they’re seeing, hear what they’re saying, and experience what they’re experiencing. I had chills more than once while reading this extraordinary novel, entranced by the twists and turns dished out at every turn, and teared up a fair share as well. It’s one of those novels I’d want to read again and again and again if I only had the time. It’s the book I’d choose to take with me on a deserted island.
Equal parts haunting and lyrical, Elizabeth paints a vivid picture of an unkind but thoroughly likeable protagonist in a world that has been set up to destroy her. Hoisting a cast of characters that is so easy to obsess over, it makes real some of the fears humankind is eager to ignore or resist: fears of dying, of losing everything, of being doomed to live a certain life a certain way. It brings into question the principle of chaos theory and the butterfly effect in a mesmerizing way that will have readers questioning: what could be?
The parallels in this novel are insane, and hook-worthy, ensnaring me and keeping me gasping and guessing with every chapter I read. I finished this read on Christmas Eve, and it was truly the gift of the year. I am addicted to Elizabeth’s prose and the way she tells this tale of an otherwise forgettable town, focusing on the stories of two people that don’t matter to anyone else, perhaps, but have the power to change the trajectory of their world.
I absolutely loved This Raging Sea, and I believe Elizabeth has created something really incredible, if not groundbreaking, tantalizing, and compelling, here. This is just the start of what I predict will be a collection of unforgettable stories authored by her hand.
