Chloe Timms

especially to the women inhabitants. Prime in their sermons is the warning to stay away from the sea and its monstrous residents, the seawomen, who can pollute the female residents and use them to create havoc on the island by corrupting men. Married women are expected to conceive within twelve months of their “motherhood year” and if they fail to do so, they are sacrificed to the sea in a brutal act called the Untethering. Esta witnesses one such untethering as a child and her zealot grandma doesn’t miss any opportunity to remind her why she needs to follow the “Great Book.’ But when Esta gets the taste of freedom during one of her childhood adventures, she isn’t able to let go the lure of the sea. What lies in store for a rebellious girl on an island where the women aren’t free in any sense of the word?
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Esta.