Callum Quinn, © 2021
Seven Tears into the Sea
By Terri Farley
When Gwen Cooke was ten years old, she wandered onto a stormy beach in the middle of the night and met a strange, yet enchanting boy who pulled her from the water and then disappeared into the waves. Now, seven years later, she has returned to her family’s seaside home, afraid to face the rumors that had haunted her childhood, but also determined to solve the mystery of that night.
Almost immediately she meets Jesse, a strange young man who has a strong connection to the ocean, and who seems to have an equally strong connection with her. Amid the memories flooding back to her and her Nana’s tales of the mythical creature called the selkie, a seal who can shed its skin and take human form, Gwen finds herself drawn to him. Is he the boy she met all those years ago? And is he truly a selkie, as he claims to be? Is he, in fact, her selkie?
Either way, Gwen’s magical summer by the sea is one that she will never forget.
This story touches on the concept of faith. Not a preachy religious kind of faith, but a faith that drives you toward what your heart wants, even if the truth behind it seems impossible. While Gwen doubts that Jesse is actually a selkie, she knows they are connected to each other in ways even she can’t fully understand. And she finds herself trusting him, and wanting to be close to him, even as all common sense tells her she shouldn’t.
The story demonstrates the belief that love will last, even at the mercy of time and distance, and it also touches on the idea of having faith in yourself—as Gwen demonstrates with her literal “leap of faith” at the end of the book.
I think I was in seventh grade when I first read this book. In fact, I bought a copy and had it signed by the author during a book club field trip. I’d never even heard about selkies until that time, but I’d always had an interest in Celtic mythology, and when Terri Farley told us about the legend of the selkie it immediately caught my interest.
I loved this book then, and I still love it today.
It’s one of those stories that lingers with me for a while after finishing it. It’s also the kind of story whose ending brings tears to my eyes. It holds a beautiful message about what it means to love someone—even if you can’t always be with them.
Reading it now, as a creative writer, there are some little things that I could be nit-picky about. Sometimes the dialogue seems to jump around in ways that either jumble who is saying what, or seem to kind of confuse where a character’s thoughts are going. But that’s really all I can complain about, if I have to complain about anything.
Seven Tears into the Sea is definitely worth a read. Especially for those of us who love the ocean and who love to keep a little bit of magic splashed into our lives.
