Selkie Moon by Kelly Jarvis

Selkie Moon by Kelly Jarvis is a wonderful reimagining of selkie folklore. Luscious language and rich images drip scent and color allowing the reader to fall into the world of the Orkney Islands. Isla, the protagonist, who watches her father’s and mother’s temperaments rage against each other as seemingly opposites—both tied to the sea, but one to the secrets beneath the water and the other to dominating the waves above with fishing boats and the harbor town. For Isla, home is a precarious balance between the wildness of the waves and the safety of the land. Isla finds her safety in books and knowledge but navigates growing up not belonging to either her father’s or her mother’s worlds. Isla listens to her father’s tall tales to explain his own emotions and enigmatic history. At the same time, her mother gives her silent stories with found objects that tell about her mother’s interactions with the world.

The diction and construct of the tone allows the reader to understand that they are reading in the fairytale genre. The inclusion of folkloric knowledge, and the large inclusion of facts from science and medicine, however, allows the reader to go further past suspended disbelief and into a surreal understanding of the present day. The reader is very much located at a particular time and moment and still Jarvis creates ripples of fairytale to create tension and even add plausibility to the story.

I began reading Selkie Moon in the paperback form and then because of a conflict, I began again with the audiobook. Jess Moran reads the tone of Selkie Moon beautifully and I listened to the entirety in one day. I was just as, if not more captivated by the story in audiobook form than in paperback.

Jarvis has created a memorable and unique tale that goes against many of the classic tropes and stereotypes of retellings. This reimagining of the selkie is still classic but builds into the extraordinary.

Selkie Moon