The Wicked Deep

by Shea Ernshaw

Three sisters, drowned as witches in Sparrow, Oregon, in the 1800s, return each summer for revenge but Penny, seventeen, is determined to stop them to save the boy she loves.

• ISBN10: 1481497359
• ISBN13: 9781481497350
• Publish Date: 2 April 2019 (first published 6 March 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Edition: Reprint ed.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[Baroness Book Trove]

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is set in an ocean town that depends on fishermen and is also cursed.

Who will Penny choose to save? Herself or Bo?

Penny Talbot and Bo Carter

Penny Talbot is our main character and has lived in Sparrow, Oregon, her whole life. The only downside is knowing that the town you live in is cursed, and every month of June, you need to be careful of said curse. Penny lives on Lumiere Island, which houses the lighthouse that keeps sailors and fishermen safe in their waters. She is a lovely girl who doesn't have too many friends, but Penny's okay with that. Penny wants to be happy and live a nice life in Sparrow, Oregon, since she believes that she's destined to stay there forever. She is a great main character, even if everyone thinks it is strange, especially since she lives with a mom who's already considered nuts.

Bo Carter comes to town carrying a lot of secrets. The main one is why he indeed came to town. Bo tries to see the curse through logical eyes since he doesn't believe in them. Until it starts to be real for him, a lot about Bo is woven into the plot, so that I won't say much, but I feel like Bo is a great character who was just dealt a bad hand when he came to Sparrow, Oregon, on a whim before the start of the Swan season.

The Curse

The Swan season starts on June 1st and goes up to the summer solstice. Three girls died on June 1st, 1823, and those three girls come back every summer on their birthday until the summer solstice to bring about their revenge on the town that killed them two centuries ago. Throughout the book, we learn a lot about the Swan sisters and how they never get caught. We see their revenge, and the curse on the town is that three girls get taken by the three sisters, and then those three girls drown the boys. Each girl does this because that's the way the curse works. The three sisters return and make their appearance known by their birth order. Once it's the summer solstice, the three Swan sisters return to the ocean, and the town gets to rest until next year.

I think that Ms. Ernshaw has done a fantastic job of crafting this curse. Especially the way the curse works for the poor town. I felt sorry for whatever unsuspecting boy they could lure to their own water grave to be with them for eternity.

Five Stars

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is a wonderfully crafted story about young love, curses, and ghosts. Ms. Ernshaw has done a brilliant job with this, and being able to weave this elaborate plot together makes me wonder if there is another town like Sparrow floating around her head with a tale to tell. The story was beautifully done, and I couldn't put it down; I was so entranced by this sad story of the Swan sisters and how the citizens of Sparrow just turned on them. This book takes place during the summer but could be read any time throughout the year. Maybe even on a stormy day if you don't mind losing a few hours of your day to the world of Sparrow, Oregon.

I am giving The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw five stars and a huge recommendation from me for anyone that loves a great young adult paranormal romance.

This one has been on my TBR since it was released. I am so glad that I was finally able to read it.



Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw.

Until the next time,



Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Baroness' Book Trove

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 4 Stars

buddy read with my girl darce! As usual

[Djilan]

3,5*
I loved the story and concept in general. But I have mixed feelings about the ending.

[Charli G.]

At first I wasn't going to finish this book. I even turned it in to the library early. I'd gotten to Chapter 5 and it was just dragging along. But something kept nagging at me that I should give it another shot, so I downloaded the Kindle version as a library check out. I'm glad I did.

If I hadn't given the book a second chance, I'd have missed out on an awesome plot twist that I honestly didn't see coming. The Wicked Deep starts out slow but finishes in a way that makes it hard to put it down. I know. I read from Chapter 5 to the end in about 3 hours.

I recommend this to lovers of witch trials, paranormal, and romance books. I gave it 4 stars because of the slow start, but the writing and character building are awesome.

[layawaydragon]

Update: Read for free on Rivetedlit.com. Oct 2019

Totally gave up on within 50 pages in last year (2018) when it was posted up on Rivetedlit.com for free.

It's back again this year and since my first choice was a bust, I decided to give this another go. I really wanted to love this one. It's so pretty!! I DID NOT re-read any of the previous read pages.

Was prepared to give it up again and again, until we finally get the first body surfacing around page 90. Then her lovely revelation of being able to SEE the Swan Sisters got me.

Well, now I can say that I finished it. I really enjoyed it towards the end.

Very very slow start that should honestly just be skipped, but worth it for an unfolding Shakespearian mystery drama love story. Love the conclusion.
---------------

First Review: I starting reading this for free on RivetedLit.com on Dec 21st. I only made it to Chapter 3. Couple of things were off. It's the last day of school and she's got a heavy backpack? Two classes for the day but everyone shows up like normal? If she knows the stupid party she doesn't want to go to is that day and her one friend has to work after school, why does she go at all? This makes no sense!! I kept going just to make sure I was making the right decision abandon this free opportunity. I got to the end of chapter 2 where she disses the mysterious boy who got off the bus at the end of the line, knows nothing about their festivities, and wants to work for her. This seems like a golden opportunity logically but what really bugs me is that SHE DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THE STUPID TEA FUTURE SHE JUST GOT DONE TELLING US ABOUT! I'm out.

[kalventure]

"The knowing of what's coming, the death that creeps up over the town like fate clawing at the door of every shop and home. I can feel it in the air, in the spray of the sea, in the hollow spaces between raindrops. The sisters are coming."

Reading books that have been highly recommended to me by multiple people always makes me a little nervous, but I am so happy to say that The Wicked Deep is worth the hype! If you are looking for the perfect Halloween read, look no further: The Wicked Deep is captivatingly written and feels almost magical with its prose. I was spellbound!

The Town of Sparrow has a sordid past and has done the most American thing in response: turned it into a tourist attraction. Two hundred years ago, three sisters were drowned after being found guilty of witchcraft, and every year for three weeks they possess the bodies of three teenage girls and lure men to a watery end. The possessed girls have no memory of what happened during the Swan Season and no one can tell that the girl is possessed...

"And yet you celebrate it each year. You get drunk and swim in the harbor, even when you know what's coming? Even though you know people are going to die? You've just accepted it?"

The juxtaposition of this cyclical and random vengeance wreaking havoc on the town with the town's eerily jubilant celebrations as if it's the Fourth of July spoke to me deeply. About how tragedy becomes a spectacle and the near disregard of the town's inhabitants to protect themselves.

But right now, they aren't thinking about that. Everyone believes they're immune. Until they're not.

It isn't their problem unless it happens to them. And for a town of 2,400 residents you would think that they would care a bit more for their neighbors. Honestly though, I was so taken by the writing that I didn't think about how weird it was none of the adults seemed to care until I sat down to write my review.

The narrative covers the three week Swan Season in present time in the first-person perspective of Penny Talbot, a 17 year old that lives on Lumiere Island across the harbor from Sparrow. Apparently her family owns the island and runs a lighthouse. This sounds incredibly cool to me for some reason, and my hermit is showing. On the night of the Swan party she meets Bo Carter, a mysterious outsider that blows into town seemingly by chance and unaware of Swan Season. The town is mistrusting of outsiders; Penny offers to let him stay in an old cabin on the island in exchange for helping run the lighthouse, and over the course of the following weeks they grow closer.

As the bodies begin to pile up, the local teenagers work into a frenzy trying to figure out who the Swan Sisters have inhabited this season (I find it weird that the adults don't care at all???). In this way the hysteria very much felt like a nod to the Witch Trials, and the way that a lack of evidence only seems to add fuel to the fire of the mob mentality. Who can you trust?

While the characters and overall story are so intricately crafted, I do wish that the magic fueling the curse was explained. For a book that I assumed was about witches there really isn't anything to it, and the book ended without even discussing it at all. I am the kind of reader that likes to understand how things work, and it is important to me as a fantasy reader to have magic systems fleshed out and explained. Unfortunately in this regard I was left wanting more.

Overall, The Wicked Deep is a beautifully written fantasy story that I absolutely adored. Also can we talk about how gorgeous the cover is?! 😭 This is a fast-paced read that will keep you engaged to the very end!

🤝 Buddy read with the wonderful Jamsu from Jamsu Dreams!

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[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I devoured this book like a package of peanut m&ms.

If you're looking for something good to read poolside this summer that isn't too fluffy, The Wicked Deep is it. With foggy Pacific witch feels akin to [b:The Price Guide to the Occult|35879387|The Price Guide to the Occult|Leslye Walton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516995207s/35879387.jpg|57396159] and sisterly witchcraft a la [b:Practical Magic|22896|Practical Magic|Alice Hoffman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490354120s/22896.jpg|4030671], you will like this one. There's light romance and a mystery and there are ghosts and I am a sucker for campfire ghost stories.

There isn't a lot that will surprise you in The Wicked Deep, but there is plenty to delight and send shivers up your spine. It's a very fast-paced, easy read with short chapters and honestly, a cover to die for. The characters are interesting and driven, but the scenes written in the Swan Sisters' era are the best.

This is a fantastic book and I loved it and it is ABSOLUTELY recommended.

[leahrosereads]

I feel like I've read all of my 5 star reads in the first half of the year, and now, I'm reading hyped books that just aren't doing it for me.

This is one of those books.

What worked the best for this entire story is the atmosphere of the story. It was dark and a little whimsical and pretty interesting. Shea Ernshaw has beautiful writing that lends itself so well to that vibe. Unfortunately, her characters fell very flat.

They just felt very one dimensional and unsubstantial in this setting. It felt like Penny could've been more. It felt like the sisters should've been more. It felt like the townspeople met needed to be more...and it never happened.

Oh and the plot twist/big reveal...I guessed it so early on that when it happened, I damn near rolled my eyes.

And the ending, ugh, don't get me started on that. I can't share anything because it's spoilery as fuck, but this ending may have been one of the most lackluster endings I've read in a while.

[Beth C.]

A *very* quick read. Interesting story, but not really suspenseful regarding the characters or the arc of the story. However, a great beach read - slightly spooky romance, brain candy for when you've had enough of REAL life and just want something escapist.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it definitely lived up to my expectations!

Two centuries ago, the Swan sisters caused havoc in the town of Sparrow. They seduced people's sons, brothers, husbands, and played with them until they had had enough. No single man was ever able to resist them, and the town began to fear they were witches. With each man that fell under their spell, the fear grew, until they did something about it; they tied stones to the Swan sisters' feet and drowned them. Each Summer since, the Swan sisters have returned for their revenge. They take over the bodies of local girls, and bewitch boys, luring them to their watery graves. This is the norm for the town of Sparrow, to the point that Sparrow has become a tourist attraction, with people flocking to Sparrow every Swan season to witness the events that take place. Penny dreads every Swan Season, and the deaths that will follow. But this year, Bo Carter comes to town on the eve of the Swan Season, unaware of the town's history or it's inescapable fate every Summer. Penny is compelled to keep Bo safe, but each have secrets. Rumours and lies have the townspeople turning on each other, and nobody is safe from the curse of the Swan sisters.

For the most part, it's told in the present from Penny's perspective, but we also get a few chapters here and there of the time of the Swan sisters, Maguerite, Aurora and Hazel. These chapters are told in third person, and have a fairy tale quality to them - a story, a legend you're being told; you are drawn into the story of the Swan sisters and their affect on the menfolk of the town of Sparrow. For most of the novel, these chapters reveal very little, just a hint here and a hint there. You're constantly kept guessing - were the Swan sisters actually witches or the victims of superstition, jealousy, and fear?

The present day chapters from Penny's perspective were equally as gorgeous, though in an entirely different way. There is this incredible atmospheric feeling to The Wicked Deep, and an element of magical realism. It's sweeps over you like the fog coming in off the sea, and is completely captivating. The world building of this story is just so wonderful, and the spirits of the Swan sisters reminded me strongly of sirens; the Swan sisters sing, which enchants girls, drawing them into the sea for the sisters to take them over, and once they are inhabiting the bodies of the chosen girls, boys fall under their spell and follow them into the sea to be drowned. Or do they? There's no doubt that there's definitely something that sounds like a song coming from the sea every from the first day of the Swan season until some undetermined time - it never stays the same, each year it will end at a different time. And boys bodies are found washed up to shore, drowned, each and every year. But is it really the Swan sisters? Has the town's history and the townspeople's guilt of what happened two hundred years ago, plus the superstition that led to the Swan sisters deaths originally, led them to create this fantasy when there's a perfectly logical explanation? Are boys dying for some other reason, and the townspeople are just letting it happen because they foolishly believe in this curse?

The way Ernshaw has written this story is just brilliant. You're never completely sure of what's true and what's not, or of what's really going on. There is a twist that I did see coming quite early on, but Ernshaw has managed to create a story where even though I thought XYZ was happening, other things would happen to make me question what I believed. It's strange, because I do feel it was kind of obvious, because by the end it turned out I was right, and I had figured out this twist pretty early on, but other details are woven into this mystery so deftly, I would question myself. I was never entirely certain, which just means Ernshaw is particularly skilled at writing a mystery. And it's because I was never quite certain that I didn't mind being right. It's not predictable. There were other twists that followed the twist I worked out that I didn't see coming, so there were definitely some surprises that came towards the end. And despite all the questions and the fantasy element, there is some real tragedy and heartbreak to this story, and it actually made me quite emotional. It took my breath away.

It's not all perfect, though. I never felt like we really got to know Bo or Penny as people, not in any real depth. By the end of the story, I could understand why this was, to some degree, but because of this, I had difficulty believing the romance between them. They seemed to feel very strongly for each other very quickly, and I couldn't see what is was based on. For me, the plot, the mystery, was more interesting than the actual characters. But with how wonderful the rest of the story is, for me this is just a small thing. It sounds bad to not be interested much in the characters, but the plot was so enticing, that I was completely captivated anyway.

The Wicked Deep is such an incredible, atmospheric book with beautiful storytelling and an engrossing mystery. I am so looking forward to reading what Ernshaw writes in the future.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Children's Books via NetGalley for the eProof.