First of all the cover for this book is beautiful. It shimmers and is just perfect!
Overall the writing was perfect for this story. It danced between a well-worn legend and a modern love story and throughout it all was this undeniable sense of tragedy both for the past and the future. Absolutely lovely storytelling and I admit this take on witches was intriguing from start to finish.
It’s also the perfect length. Long enough to establish characters, an eerie atmosphere, and drag out the mystery of the curse, but not so long as to bore you to death. When any sort of mystery takes too long to feed me clues and deliver a resolution it instantly becomes a DNF for me because I’ve fallen asleep and have lost all care.
While the love story between Bo and Penny was sweet and slow like the summer sea, the ending was tragic and partially unsatisfying. MAJOR spoiler (although it wasn’t hard to guess) Penny is inhabited by Hazel Swan and it is Hazel with whom Bo falls in love with. In the end to break the curse Hazel drowns herself. This was tragic but I understood it (It’s not like she could keep Penny’s body forever and only in a Disney movie would she magically get some new body for her own). That’s not what bothers me actually (although like a true Disney child I would have preferred some sort of happily ever after lol). What bothers me is Bo.
Now if Hazel had died and disappeared forever and Bo had moved on and eventually fallen in love with Penny then fine because let’s be real Hazel and Bo only knew each other for a few weeks, but instead his heart continues to love Hazel who lingers while Penny has no idea Hazel was ever even there. I just…sorry, I just don’t like it. It makes me cringe and recoil at the thought even though I do feel terrible for poor Bo (but if I were Penny and I found out it would kill me. It’s just the old-fashioned selfish rare breed of a weirdo that I am I guess).
All of that aside this was a charming book. Creepy, alluring, and tragic, it’s a summer love story that will have you pondering the dark waters that flow at night. The Wicked Deep is a perfect blend of horror and fantasy that spins its tale with a calm that both chills and lulls, calling to you to keep reading past the point of no return.