COMPASS AND BLADE

A girl tries to save her father and learn the truth about her own identity.

Growing up on the isle of Rosevear, Mira has always felt called to the ocean in a way she suspects her fellow islanders aren’t. Working as a wrecker with other villagers, her job is to save survivors from the ships they lure toward shore to illegally plunder. Mira can’t help but feel suffocated by her life. Her father is loving but “a little too stifling”; he’s especially protective since Mira’s mother died doing the same work that she now does. But when the watch—the governing force of their region—set a trap to catch them, Mira’s father is captured and sentenced to death. Mira, desperate to save him, finds herself seeking help from Seth, a survivor of one of her isle’s own wrecks. Following a gut feeling and a set of coordinates found in her mother’s belongings, Mira sets out to save her father. She’s thrown together with the members of a ship’s crew, all of whom, it seems, have their own secrets to keep. While the narrative initially lacks momentum, it eventually gains speed, delivering twist after satisfying twist. Some of the characterizations lack depth and the romance would have benefitted from being more fully developed, but beautiful imagery builds an engrossing world that’s tough to leave behind. Mira is cued white; some secondary characters are brown-skinned.

A slow-building but ultimately satisfying fantasy adventure.