Review: Wavecrossed by Andrea Colt

A young-adult paranormal novel about selkies, tasers, kissing and secrets.To Cassandra Kelleher, trust is a dirty word. 

A teenage selkie who grew up on land, all she wants is to free her family from the man who stole their sealskins long ago. With her twin brother Brennan losing hope and her window of opportunity disappearing like the beach at high tide, she’ll try anything. 

Before long, however, Cassandra can’t tell whether her biggest threat is the man holding her family captive, a classmate who’s discovered her secret, or her own paranoia. Battling broken friendships and alarming romantic entanglements, Cassandra finds that trust could be the key to winning her family’s freedom … or losing her own.  

Goodreads | Author | Amazon

Source: E-copy provided by the author for my honest review

Review:I have never read about selkies before, so that was the main reason I wanted to read Wavecrossed, as well as loving Colt’s debut contemporary YA, Torched.

The selkie aspect of the story was fascinating and my favorite part of Wavecrossed. Cassandra’s parents and older brother’s sealskins have been stolen by a man who uses that power to manipulate and control all of them. You can really feel the compelling need to leave land and go back to the ocean where they belong and how painful it is to lose their sealskin. It was a more ….animalistic…and realistic portrayal than the I’m used to in paranormal. In particular YA that would typically be yay! I’m a seal but I want to stay on land with hot boy!

For a selkie primer – check out Selkies 101 by Andrea Colt

Even human attachments can’t break the lure to the sea and their kind. That was very interesting to see how it all played out as they explore their seal nature vs. their humanity.

I felt the tone of Wavecrossed fluctuated a bit between very young YA in the beginning and then older (but not graphic) YA towards the second half. Cass is maturing but it was kind of abrupt, especially when it came to the romance aspect. (Also – NICE guy alert!)

Cass was also incredibly selfish towards others needs and feelings. Let me clarify – she’s incredibly devoted to her family and will do ANYTHING to save them. I really admired her for that but she also refused to see what might truly make THEM happy at times & could be kind of coldhearted to friends. To be fair, she does grow throughout the book and some of this can be attributed to her selkie nature but it was difficult to like her at times.

The ending was a bit unconventional and I loved it. The only thing that kept me from truly loving this book was Cass and I originally gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because of that. Then I saw there was going to be a sequel and that changes everything, especially when I read the summary. I can see now that Cass is in for some changes and I need to be mindful that she’s still learning and growing. I’m usually down on sequels these days but I’m looking forward to this one because it promises to fill in a few things that I felt were missing here. 

Final thoughts: If you’re looking for something a little different in the paranormal YA world – check out Wavecrossed. After reading two books by Colt, I can see that her stories go a little left of center and aren’t predictable and I like that. I wish the overall tone was more even – either younger YA or older and that Cassandra was a tad more likable earlier on but still a fun read and I’ll be looking out for the sequel.