Author: Alicia Jasinska
Published: June 2020
Pages: 317
The buoyancy of the spellbound island of Caldella rests upon the annual sacrifice of one of its males. To stay afloat, the isle’s witch queen must lure a boy to her quarters every St. Walpurga’s Eve to be drowned on the full moon. But there is a minor hiccup. For the tidal oblation to work and to keep their home from becoming subaquatic, the queen and her offering must first fall in love. And since she witnessed her sister’s death, Queen Eva is numb. She has felt nothing for the last sacrifices and Caldella is all but underwater because of it. Lina Kirk is sure that her brother, Finely, will be this year’s harvest. To pardon him, she enlists the Water Palace’s only still-living escapee, Thomas Lin. But when their partnership results in Thomas being chosen a second time, Lina surrenders herself instead. In the days before her submersion, Eva and Lina try to unriddle how to save the islanders, themselves, and each other from sinking as the ocean swells thirstily around them.
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