The Witch Sea

Sometimes an erotic story is not an erotic story, at least how we think of as one of ‘those’ stories. This is definitely one of them, no actual peeking under anyone skirts, no actual bow-chicka-wah-wah… This story is reminiscent of elegant and classic Gothic romances. Though labeled as Lesbian Fantasy, it is a story about learning to love and to accept that some people’s truths will never be your own and embracing yours as not only acceptable but truth. It is simply a stunning short story.

Again, the story is not just romance, or erotica, it is not masturbatory material under the waste line but above the nose in the frontal lobe. It is a beautiful and dark story about breaking through what one believes and accepting what is on show more one’s heart.

Heart wrenching, heart warming and beautifully written. A Witch Sea is a lyrical piece full of complex and wonderful allegory with a dark hidden treasure within the foam coating the edges of the driftwood on a beach full of common seaweed. show less

I didn't realise this was by the author of The Dark Wife until the end. I've been trying to track that book down but it's been unavailable on Book Depository since forever. :(

The Witch Sea is a wonderful f/f short story with a bittersweet ending. It's about a witch who dedicate her life to keeping alive the magic her grandmother and her mother started, until something makes her question whether she should be doing this at all.

I'm too tired to make words happen so this isn't really a good review, but I really enjoyed this story and I recommend it to everyone. I think it's still free on Amazon.

I wasn't wild about The Dark Wife, so I'd had this downloaded for years before I got around to it, but I did end up enjoying it much more. I think the flowery prose works better for me in this kind of dreamlike folk-tale context than in something that's heavier on plot and worldbuilding, and I do find YA a little hard to connect with as an adult, so there's that. This would have been four stars if the protagonist and her love interest had actually ended up together, because even though there's nothing really wrong with it in this kind of context I'm sort of burnt out on f/f that ends with some kind of permanent separation--but selkies gonna selkie, so I probably should have seen that one coming.

This was an awesome short story by Sarah Diemer.

It's the story of a witch and a seal (sort of). Meriel is the witch. She has been tasked by her mother (and her mother tasked by her mother) to protect the world from an old god, Galo, from her perch on Border Island.

Nor is a former seal turned into a human woman who is sent by Galo from the main land to release the magic net that prevents he and his human turned animals from leaving the land. The net that protects the world from the 'monsters'.

But, the story very deftly asks, who is the monster here, and what will Meriel decide to do. Go with what has been ingrained in her since birth, or with what she is being told by her own soul.

It was a tightly woven story, and it totally sucked me show more into the 'which side will she choose' and then that scene near the very end with the stone. Wow. It gave me chills. Very cool. show less

Lovely, simple, and enchanting.

The Witch Sea is a short story about a sea witch named Meriel who inherits a great responsibility from her grandmother. She must tend to the spell that binds a sea god and prevents him from destroying humankind. But when a beautiful selkie girl slips through her spell, Meriel finds herself torn between obeying her grandmother or setting the sea god (and the unfortunate sea people who were caught onshore with him) free.

This is the first work by Sarah Diemer I've read, and I'm definitely planning to look at her other stories. The prose is gorgeous - lyrical but without any filler - and the story really evokes a sense of place.

Beautiful and unexpected, full of hurting hearts for multiple different reasons. How hard is it fall in love? How hard is it to undo a curse that is older than the oldest living memory of it? How hard is it to become new people and move into the future? I remember how much my heart hurt through so much of this book, in the very best, most right, ways, and how the ending was a sweet release from it.

Very well done, very beloved.

The story is wonderfully written, and I will definitely be reading more from this author. But it suffers as a short story; I think that a more fully-developed novella or book would have suited the idea better. Had Meriel been lied to her entire life, or did she unleash destruction upon the world by allowing the net to collapse at the end? There are too many questions left unanswered, and I left feeling more confused than anything.