Title: The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Published: March 6th, 2018

Read as: Audio

Average Goodreads rating: 3.89

My rating: 4

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Where, two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.

Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them under.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

“We wait for death. We hold our breath. We know it’s coming, and still we flinch when it claws at our throats and pulls us under.” 

I am going to be honest with you, I have no idea why I picked up this book. I’ve been deep down the reading slump hole and had a couple of Audible credits burning my pockets. What is a girl to do but pick a book at random? This one won my Goodreads roulette. Guess what? I am so glad that it did.

When I first opened this, I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into. Sure, I had read the description but it really doesn’t give you a good feel for this story. What I got tickled my cockles. This is a delightfully low key spooky story with a complicated YA romance which ticked all my boxes.

I loved the idea of these three girls who had been drowned 200 years ago coming back every summer to punish the town that had condemned them by killing its young men. Let me tell you, if I had lived there I would have packed my bags and headed off as fast as I could. I love spooky stories but I don’t have the heart to live in one. A town where every summer the spirits of three murdered young women possess girls in town to murder young men? Yup, eat my dust. I’m out of there.

Something I would really have liked would to be to have more of a perspective from the sister’s life prior to their death. We get little snippets of it here and there but nothing that satisfied my curiosity. I just didn’t have a solid sense of who they were outside of being out to punish the town for, you know, all eternity. That is some dedication right there.

Much of the story revolves around the budding relationship between Penny and Bo which was actually kind of sweet. There is a scene where they are cleaning up a disheveled orchard and it was nicely done. Not too sweet or obvious, but just, well, right. The relationship between these two characters plays a huge role in the story and I felt like this scene was really a turning point. If you read this make sure you take note of this portion. There are several details that become very relevant later and if you don’t recall them then it really take away from the impact of the conclusion.

In a nutshell, this was a very good book. I loved the story and the way the narrator presented the story to us. Everything weaved together nicely and kept my interest. This is one book I know I will be recommending to people over and over.