TITLE: Sea Change
AUTHOR: S. M. Wheeler
GENRE: Fantasy
PUBLISHED: 18/06/2013
RATING: ★★★★★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: N/A
Review: It's been about two weeks since I finished Sea Change, but despite turning it over and over in my mind between then and now –– I have sat down to write this review no less than six times, and (obviously) failed every attempt –– the novel still defies categorisation and description. Which is appropriate, because it's as deceptively difficult a book to read as it is to label.
Superficially, Sea Change is the tale of a young girl –– one Lilly –– on a quest to rescue her best (and only) friend in the world, a kraken named Octavius. In reality, despite being marketed more-or-less as a book for young adults, this is a disorientatingly advanced novel that combines elements of multiple speculative fiction sub-genres (dark fantasy, gritty fantasy, etc) with the dreamy style of a fairy tale.
The water churned active today, the low sun golden on its whitecaps and the spray hands that reached for her; it was playful in the manner of creatures that ate humans with a smile.
When I call Sea Change disorientating, I don't mean that it is jarring, or that the writing is anything but evocative and elegant. Sea Change is a stunningly well-crafted novel; even more impressive when you realise that this is Wheeler's debut. No, Sea Change is disorientating because it defies every possible expectation, everything we, as readers, have been trained to expect. It's disorientating because, even now, after two weeks of thinking about it, I can't decide whether this is a happy story or not, whether the ending was optimistic or depressing. This is not a book for those who like their stories predictable, nor for anyone afraid to face raw and awful things.
I'm not really explaining well at all, am I?
Okay, let's try again.
Lilly's parents loathe each other; to escape the tension she flees to the beach, where she meets a (then tiny) kraken she names Octavius. For a number of reasons, mostly to do with her parents' contradictory notions of how their social class is meant to behave, Lilly has no human children to play with, and she and Octavius become best friends. By the time Sea Change opens, their relationship has been going on in secret for years.
And then Octavius is kidnapped. And Lilly, quite reasonably, goes after him to rescue him.
Except that it isn't even nearly that simple.
Lilly is a fascinating character. Possibly because she is not/was not socialised properly (her only role models for human behaviour being her genuinely awful parents), she does not feel... right. She comes across as cold and ultra-logical, not unable to empathise with others but rarely understanding why she should bother. She only feels 'right' when interacting with Octavius (in hindsight, I suspect this is completely deliberate on Wheeler's part), which works to convince the reader of the utter urgency of rescuing him. Of course no other option is viable –– without Octavius, Lilly is...not quite human.
Not right. But fantastically cynical and wry.
Lilly thought: I must deal with shorter people, or I'll get a crick in my neck from all this earnest staring upwards.
So, she leaves home –– not just to rescue Octavius, but because her father will kill her if she stays. She tracks Octavius to a circus, but, surprise surprise, the circus master isn't just going to give her back 'her' kraken. She's going to have to pay for him.
I wouldn't say this is where the story really starts, because everything up to this point has been vital, but this is where the Arabian Nights-esque quest begins. Every quest object that Lilly seeks must be paid for with another quest object, which of course means another quest –– but where a lesser author might have turned the entire novel into quest after quest, Wheeler gives Lilly only a handful, developing each one in surprising ways.
It's so difficult to talk about Sea Change without giving away spoilers! Normally I wouldn't mind, but this is a book that you need to be unprepared for; it can't take you by surprise if you know what's coming. So just trust me when I say that the plot is complex and startling, traversing through some dark themes and many, many questions, aimed both at Lilly and the reader. It's not an easy book. It isn't a fluffy kind of book. In many ways it's heartbreaking, and almost too realistic in its unflinching look at the unfairness of the real world. The happy ending is hard and bitter even though, technically, all is accomplished, and Lilly ends the book emotionally richer than she was at the beginning.
But still. You'll understand when you try it for yourselves.
Now, leaving the story itself aside for a bit, I want to note that Sea Change, for all its strange darkness, manages to be feminist, inclusive, and sex-positive all at once. Gender identity is a very strong theme in Lilly's story (I can't tell you why, because SPOILERS!), but her thoughts on the differences between how men and women are treated are cynically on point every time, and sometimes pretty eye-opening. For example, Lilly is born with a very ugly birthmark on her face; when she chooses to present as a man, she notices that no one cares about it as they did/do when she presents as a girl...
Only much later...did it occur to her that her face –– her birthmark –– had only been a part of the man's reaction. He had seen it but not dwelt on it; it did not matter so much if a boy were ugly, after all.
Then there's the fact that Sea Change is one of only three novels I can name that mentions female masturbation. As with the issue of gender identity, Lilly's sexuality is a fine thread woven throughout the story, present and pointed, and better handled than I've seen in a long time. Wheeler is frank and practical about such things; if you feel like a girl, then you're a girl regardless of biology; if you have sexual impulses/feelings, then you have sexual impulses/feelings. Not complicated at all.
More complicated is the question of the neurotypical character who becomes more and more important as the story progresses, and the gay couple who are, at best, morally grey. I would have been happier if the only homosexual representation came from characters who weren't villains, but given the rest of the queer representation in Sea Change I didn't feel any kind of preachy vibe from the book.
At this elevation the familiar constellations held bellyfuls of little stars, numerous as the bubbles in champagne.
All in all, Wheeler has swept onto the scene like a kraken onto shore; with a huge, very well-deserved splash. Her characters are incredible, her plots intricate, and her writing absolutely beautiful. Her turns of phrase made me catch my breath or laugh at so many different points I lost count.
careful, wise––a barn cat sort of soul.
It was spring and everything lived.
She's utterly wonderful, and I really wish she had written more books already –– but as it is, we'll just have to wait for her next work or excellence. I know one reader, at least, who will be waiting extremely impatiently!