Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Published: 2025
Recommended for fans of: Patricia McKillip, Juliet Marillier, To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo, gritty folktale retellings, The Gothic, the poem Sea-Fever, The Pirates of the Caribbean
This is a retelling of The Little Mermaid (with some elements of other tales besides), set in the coastal city of Saint-Malo, France (see that lovely image below). Not the Disney version though – this is the real folk legend of the seamaid that so many sailors used to believe in.
Lucinde was adopted as a child by a rich shipping family. She is at home with the sea but on land, her poor feet won’t cooperate. One day, she saves a drowning man… and that’s only the first of the disasters that befalls her.
The story is set in a time when magic still touched human lands. Much of the magic is dwindling now though, as the last of the sea folk lose their homes because of human greed. In the background, there is the French-English conflict of the 1700s, and also the smugglers and corsairs, the sea traders and sailors with their unique local customs. Luce is stuck in the midst of all of it, craving to be free but physically, financially, socially unable.
The highlight of the book is the writing, which is truly exceptional: the seafever, the sea turbulence, the coastal side ecocystem, everything is brought home doubly. Even the simplest ordinary events become alive with new colors and emotions because of how the author describes them. There is magic in such words.
“It was the kind of weather that stilled the world and sent folk hurrying indoors, that closed shutters and covered mirrors for fear of lightning strikes, that caused ships to fly before it into the harbour at Saint-Malo. One ship, at least, had not been fast enough.
Its remains dotted the grey water. Shards of decking, slabs of hull, tangles of rigging. Luce narrowed her eyes against the glare of the early morning sun, skirts held out of the weed and foam. She had seen the sea’s victims before, of course. Many times. Could not avoid it, with the storms that blew in from the northwest, tearing down the Manche, leaving ruined ships and their dead strewn across the beaches of Clos-Poulet like flowers after a wedding feast. Faded petals across the sand.”“Of all the Fae Folk on the shore, the tide-woman was said to be among the most powerful. She could pluck a wind from nothing with a flick of her wrist; she could summon a storm for spite. But what else was she capable of?
‘Anything is possible when sorrow meets sea.’
Luce frowned. ‘When sorrow meets sea?’
‘Your tears.’ The groac’h gestured to Luce’s red-rimmed eyes, then the water. ‘Your tears fell into the sea. There is magic in such meetings.’
Highly recommended!