The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Author: Shea Ernshaw

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Date: March 6, 2018

Pages: 310

Format: ARC

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Purchase Links: [Chapters/Indigo] [Amazon]

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

* I received a copy of the book from the publisher for an honest review *

"And so at the end of June, when the moon was nothing but a thin shard in he overcast sky, stones were tied to the sisters; ankles and they were dropped into the ocean just beyond the cape, where they sank to the bottom and drowned. Just like the ship they arrived on."

After reading those two lines from the first page I was hooked! I loved the concept of the story: 3 sisters coming back from the dead for revenge on the town that murdered them. Creepy and myserteous, something new for me. Though the book is supposed to be telling a dark tale, Shea Ernshaw makes it out to be magical, and it wasn't as creepy as I expected it to be.

I loved when Ernshaw's writing would go into storyteller mode, it felt as though I was sitting by a campfire with a group of friends on a cold night camping. It was smooth and flowed nicely. But when she was writing in Penny's POV it wasn't as smooth, kind of forced and choppy. Not the biggest fan.

What kept me reading was my curiosity on who the sisters were now possessing, and what happened to Penny's father. Everyone is so secretive in this book we don't really get to know much about them, making them, for most of the book, one-dimensional.

If you're wondering about the romance, I didn't enjoy it. I have a lot of thoughts on it... Fortunately, the concept of the story itself kept me interested throughout the whole read.

#thewickeddeep #sheaernshaw #35stars