My October book club pick was a perfect pick for the month...although I must admit that I got behind on my reading (all my library holds became available at the same time!) and didn't actually read this one until the first of November. This witchy read was so good, especially for a debut novel -- it's not new, though; it was released back in 2018, and I'm just now getting around to reading it.
To give you an idea of just how good this book is, Netflix has bought the movie rights to it. A movie has not been released yet, but it's out there, and I cannot wait.
The Wicked Deep is a witchy romance set in the coastal town of Sparrow, Oregon, home of the infamous Swan sisters. In 1822, Marguerite, Aurora, and Hazel were convicted of witchcraft and drowned in the harbor. Now, every summer on June 1st, the sisters return to Sparrow to enact their revenge, possessing the bodies of three teenage girls and drowning at least one boy each before midnight on the summer solstice. Penny Talbot can see through the possessed girls to the spirits inhabiting them, and when Bo Carter arrives in town with no knowledge of the very real danger he faces, Penny knows she is the only one who can protect him from the sisters' wrath.
This story is told from Penny's point of view, except during the flashbacks. Those are told in third person and are expertly woven into the story in a way that enhances the present-day timeline. As the story unfolds and the flashbacks reveal the truth of what happened in 1822, you get to see just how much and how little has changed in Sparrow over the centuries.
To avoid spoilers, skip to the end of this post.
***Spoilers***
The story begins with the Swan Party, a yearly tradition in which Sparrow's teenagers congregate on the beach and party all night to bring in the annual Swan Season. Seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has never gone to these, but this year she lets her friend, Rose, convince her. There's drinking and a bonfire, and up until midnight some of the girls take the boys' dares to go into the harbor to prove they're not afraid of being taken by a Swan sister.
When Penny is accosted by one of the boys at the party, Bo Carter comes to her rescue. She had met him earlier in the day when he asked about the assistant lighthouse keeper's job she had posted, but she'd told him the ad had expired. As predicted by Penny, Bo had had no luck finding work or lodging in the town; locals won't hire outsiders, and all the bed-and-breakfasts are booked for the Swan Season.
Penny invites Bo back to the party, where he learns the tale of the Swan sisters. Two hundred years ago, sisters Marguerite, Aurora, and Hazel were drowned in the Sparrow harbor for witchcraft. Every year since, on June 1st, the sisters return, taking the bodies of local teen girls to exact their revenge on the town -- drowning boys in the harbor until they return to the water on the summer solstice.
Bo, understandably, doesn't believe the legend. Then, at exactly midnight, the singing starts, and girls must be held back from going into the water to be claimed by a sister.
By the end of the party, Penny has started to fall for Bo and offers him the job she'd previously denied, which includes lodging. Bo accepts and moves into one of the cottages on Lumiere Island, where Penny lives with her mom.
Sometime that night, Penny is taken by the spirit of Hazel Swan. Hazel takes on all of Penny's memories and assumes her life, just like she did the last two summers. Like all the Swan sisters' hosts, Penny doesn't remember anything at the end of the summer, and no one knows she was taken. Except her mother, who has a sixth sense that allows her to know when anyone is on the island, but who has been slipping further and further away in the years since her husband, Penny's father, disappeared.
Once all three sisters have a body, the singing stops, and this summer, they claim hosts quickly. Marguerite possesses Olivia, one of the most popular girls in Penny's school, while Aurora takes Gigi, one of Rose's childhood friends. Marguerite/Olivia doesn't wait to lure a boy into the harbor to his death. Penny, Bo, Rose, and Rose's boyfriend, Heath, discover the body. Aurora/Gigi drowns two boys at once, but she is caught in the act and held captive by a pair of boys until Rose, having no idea that Gigi is possessed, sets her free and takes her to the island for safekeeping.
Now all that's left is for Hazel to drown her victim, presumably Bo. But this summer, everything is different. For the first time in two hundred years, Hazel feels love and can't bring herself to kill. Marguerite, still vengeful, tries to lure Bo to his death, but Hazel saves him. It's this near-death experience that causes Bo to finally believe in the sisters, but he still doesn't know that Penny is really Hazel.
Eventually, Bo confesses to the real reason he's come to Sparrow. The previous summer, his brother drowned in the harbor. He had no idea that he was a victim of the Swan season, but now he's determined to identify all three sisters and kill them.
As the events of the present day are playing out, flashbacks to 1822 are woven throughout, providing information about the Swan sisters and what led to their eventual execution. The sisters came to Sparrow looking for a new life. They opened a perfume shop and did good business for awhile. The sisters were beautiful and had a pull to them that the men of the town couldn't seem to resist. Marguerite and Aurora enjoyed using their allure, but Hazel resisted the attention of the men...until she met the lighthouse keeper's son, Owen. The fell in love and Owen proposed, but when his father caught them together, Hazel was banned from ever stepping foot on Lumiere Island again.
Eventually, Owen's father accused the sisters of witchcraft. At the "trial," different men testified to their being "witch marks" on Marguerite and Aurora's bodies, but Owen refused to testify against Hazel. Knowing that if he didn't he would be killed along with them, Hazel pleaded with Owen to condemn her. The sisters were rowed into the harbor, where stones were tied around their ankles to drag them to the bottom, but Owen was not going to sit idly by and watch his innocent fiancé be drowned. He jumped into the harbor after Hazel and drowned along with her.
For two hundred years, Hazel's anger over Owen's death has fueled her revenge on Sparrow. This year, her love for Bo has extinguished it. She decides that this year she won't go back to the water on the solstice. She wants to assume Penny's life for good and stay with Bo on the island, but Marguerite has other plans. She, acting as Olivia, moves the end-of-the-season party to the island.
Aurora/Gigi escapes the cabin where she'd been being held and brazenly attends the party. She, of course, is recognized for who she really is and is forced to flee to the harbor.
Marguerite, meanwhile, manages to lure Bo to the top of the lighthouse where he's managed to turn the tables on her, until Penny/Hazel arrives and Marguerite spills the beans not only about who she really is but what she did the previous summer. Hazel is the sister who drowned Bo's brother. Not only that, but the first summer she took Penny's body, Penny's father realized what happened and figured out a way to end the curse for good without killing his daughter in the process. Hazel, desperate not to die her final death, killed him for it.
As she sees the truth of her actions play out on Bo's face, Hazel realizes that they can never be together. He thought he was falling for Penny, not the witch who murdered his brother. It's at that point that Hazel decides to end the curse, sending her and her sisters to the great beyond, but she needs Bo help to ensure that Penny does not perish with her.
They take Penny's father's sailboat out into the harbor, and Hazel surrenders to the water. As she drowns herself, she takes Penny's memories from the summer, leaving only the good ones. Bo pulls Penny from the water and brings her back to life. They return to the island where Bo stays on as the lighthouse keeper, and now that Penny is no longer possessed by a Swan sister, her mother comes back to herself.
At the end of the summer, the perfectly-preserved bodies of the Swan sisters are pulled from the harbor. Hazel's sacrifice ends the curse over Sparrow, and the sisters never return to possess teenage girls and drown boys again.
***End Spoilers***
At its core, this story was absolutely a love story. Not only of a man and a woman but also the love shared between sisters. Hazel was the ultimate victim. She refused to condemn her love to death in 1822, and in the present day she refused to sacrifice her sisters. In the end, she sacrificed herself, finally giving her sisters peace and allowing a true love to be realized.
This one is for all the romantics and will most likely make my end-of-the-year best books list.
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