... part ghost story, part elegy to war and traditional lifestyles, dreamlike even in its horrors. Seckel weaves historical fiction with mystery and fantastic elements and threads of romance in this tale of love, grief, attachment to place and resistance to change. Her island setting is both otherworldly and firmly rooted, and her prose style is lushly evocative. This imaginative novel is memorable and wild indeed.
... intoxicating and atmospheric ... Seckel’s descriptions evocatively conjure the roiling dread that permeates the island, underscoring the elegiac reflections on grief and the toll of war. This moody meditation delivers.
Treading deftly into the worlds of folklore and magical realism, Seckel keenly captures a tone that echoes the eerie moor scenery of the island: hazy, haunting, and teeming with misgivings ... A foreboding mystery with surprising glimmers of hope.
