Stormswept by Helen Dunmore
HarperCollins, 2012. ISBN 9780007455416.
(Age: 11+) Highly recommended. Morveren lives with her parents and
twin sister Jenna on an island near Cornwall, a place that is
completely surrounded by the ocean except at low tide. One day,
Morveren finds a teenage boy in a rock pool down by the sea,
stranded after a storm. Going to his rescue, she is amazed to find
that he is not human, but a Mer boy. Her sister Jenna, the sensible
one, refuses to face the truth, until their Air and Mer worlds
collide.
This is the fifth book in the award-winning Ingo Chronicles,
although it doesn't begin where the last book left off. Instead, it
involves exciting new characters in the same world. This is good, as
it makes the story more refreshed while keeping the same familiarity
of the past four books. Helen Dunmore has a knack for writing
beautifully lyrical prose that suits the themes of the book
perfectly, as most of this story takes place in or around the ocean.
This is the main thing that will draw you into the book: incredibly
vivid descriptions of majestic underwater worlds. It's an
excellently written novel.
The book is a little hard to get into at first, but once the
fascinating underwater world of Ingo is introduced, it's a book you
simply cannot put down. The author has managed to weave a very
convincing and utterly enchanting world that will have you guessing
what really lies in the depths of the ocean.
A fantastic read from a very talented author, this is a book that
will cast a spell over you with beautifully vivid descriptions of
another world.
I highly recommend this book.
Rebecca Adams (Student)