REVIEW: Sea of Souls by N.C. Scrimgeour
It took me just about one page of reading Sea of Souls to sink right into N.C. Scrimgeour’s soul-stirring storytelling, and by the end of the first chapter I realised that I had struck pure gold with this book. Drenched in Scottish folklore and mythology, this dark, emotional and mystical high seas fantasy adventure will strike you with equal parts awe and terror. 
“The lapping of the waves on the sand filled her ears like a promise. The sea still called her; maybe it always would. But there was no running now. No ignoring what she had to do.”
If there is one thing I adore in my stories, it’s wayward women bucking against society’s expectations and trying to find their own place in the world. So, colour me not surprised when I immediately fell head over heels in love with Isla Blackwood. After spending the last seven years at sea searching for her calling, she is reluctantly drawn back to the Blackwood Estate by a mysterious letter from her dying mother. But upon arrival she finds more tragedy than she ever could have imagined, and soon she is plunged straight into a foolishly dangerous quest of survival, secrets, ancient magic and deadly promises together with her impetuous brother, their brooding swordmaster, and an exiled selkie.
Now, I am usually the type of reader who prefers a deliciously slow-burn start to my stories, but Scrimgeour proved to me that a skilled storyteller doesn’t need a slow start to establish world building, characters and stakes of the highest quality. The level of immersion that Sea of Souls offers is quite simply astonishing, and it’s almost like the visceral, atmospheric and emotionally evocative storytelling made my brain forget that I have aphantasia. Every single setting and character just came to life so vividly in my mind, which turned out to be both a good and a bad thing, considering the fact that zero punches are pulled in this gut-wrenching and horrifying tale.
“My people know better than most how the tides provide for us as much as they punish us. There is a balance to the sea, one which must be kept. That is the nature of the auld ways and the promise I made you. I cannot regret keeping to it.”
For me, there truly isn’t a single aspect of Sea of Souls that stands out as my favourite, because Scrimgeour has done such an incredible job of balancing and interweaving all the external and internal conflicts. I loved digging into Isla’s inner turmoil and her struggle with her identity; I loved all the deliciously complex interpersonal relationships, be they familial, antagonistic, romantic (DARCE!! swoon), or something altogether more complicated in between it all; I loved the dark mystical magic of this world, not just from the shape-shifting selkies and their tragic role in this tale, but also of the sentinels with their ancient magic and bonds of blood; and most of all, I loved that this is a story with a beating heart and a bleeding soul that explores humanity, generational trauma, grief, sacrifice, family, and love in all its devastating beauty.
“And there lies the truth too terrible to admit: the men are the monsters, and the monsters men. This violence belongs to all of us. It will continue as long as we let it.”
There simply wasn’t a single lull in the pacing for me, and the addictive air of mystery and looming sense of dread had me in a chokehold the entire way through. A few revelations and betrayals near the end were maybe not as shocking or surprising to me as they seemed to be for the characters themselves, but that didn’t take away from any of the heavy emotional impact and sheer brilliance of this story.
And the way that Scrimgeour brought home all the core themes with that boldly bittersweet ending just hurt oh so good and made me want to dive into the sequel immediately. If you like that type of atmospheric and folkloric storytelling in the vein of Shauna Lawless’ Gael Song series, Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy or Rebecca Ross’ Elements of Cadence duology and you don’t mind a splash of slow-burn romance in your dark fantasy, then Sea of Souls is an absolute must read; it more than earned my seal of approval.
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