This Raging Sea

De Elizabeth’s visceral YA debut novel drips with dread, ritualistic horror and disturbing imagery from the start. Influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s melancholic poem The City in the Sea the book uses it as a framework for six parts which span the lives of doomed bisexual teen lovers Briar and Finn. Structured in third person narrative voices throughout, it focuses on a group of diverse and damaged teens who challenge the fabric of time itself in search of a happy ending. They are described as ‘a group of people broken in different places. But together they were somehow whole’ with their bond at the heart of the story.

Set in a small coastal community in Massachusetts hiding desperately dark secrets, This Raging Sea propels readers on a tumultuous journey through pain and adverse childhood experiences, exploring the ravages of abuse, abandonment, bullying, grief, loss, fragmented family dynamics and betrayal.

With sharp edges that cut and tear and wound, reflecting Briar’s name, the author weaves elemental witchcraft, eldritchian motifs, quantum physics, alternate realities and Sapphic tension into a deeply dark, intensely passionate LGBTQ+ romantasy. Its atmospheric cover, illustrated by Evangeline Gallagher, mirrors the marine symbolism and carnivalesque chaos which radiates throughout from otherworldly fairgrounds to tentacled creatures to sinister six-pointed shapes. Psychotic voices, demonic possession, deadly stakes, twisted Little Mermaid style bargaining and tenebrous locales permeate throughout the sections entitled Low Tide, Rip Tide, Mixed Tide, Flood Tide and Red Tide, as the tension surges and the restless imagery of the sea suffuses the text sweeping the characters away through the liminal threads of time.

As a story of fractured love, death and tragic sacrifice, it will appeal to fans of New England author Freddie Kölsch which is inspired by similar tropes. Where it differs is in its exploration of the butterfly effect. Unfortunately, the book overindulges in horror scenarios to the point where it lacks catharsis. Not for the faint hearted, the text bleeds throughout like Briar’s ragged nails and Finn’s fragile psyche as shocking revelations come to light like a Ferris wheel spinning out of control.