To the people of Salann, the sea is everything. It is a cruel master, harsh and unforgiving, and it is both life and death. Annaleigh Thaumas has sent four of her eleven sisters back to the sea — and each went more horribly than the last. Now, there are whispers that the sisters are cursed, and loneliness has joined the heavy swaths of grief and mourning that encase the family like a black veil. But as her sisters start shunning their charcoals and grays for bright silks and ball gowns, Annaleigh cannot help but dwell on her sisters’ deaths, increasingly confident that they were no accidents. Yet, as she too is swept up in the swirl of secret midnight balls and glittering palaces, she begins to suspect that something dark and sinister lurks behind the dances and the deaths.
This book was a thriller, fantasy retelling, and mystery all rolled into one — and I absolutely loved it. It was so hauntingly beautiful, and I was beyond impressed at the author’s ability to create such an eerie, terrifying atmosphere. I was thrown into the story from the very beginning, and the book only drew me in further as the story progressed, culminating in a delightfully dark and macabre finale that was executed perfectly. The twists at the end messed with my mind so much and even had me wondering if anything was ‘real’ at all. Overall, this was such a good book, and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a gothic-inspired fantasy!