The Brides of Rollrock Island [Hardcover]

Margo Lanagan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 11, 2012

On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings—and to catch their wives.

The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair, and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Misskaella Prout, the baby of the family, was born on a craggy, seal-covered island, when "there were no looks left for Prout girls." She is resentful of the boys who can't see past her lumpish form, and when she discovers she has a magical ability to cause human figures to step out of the bodies of seals, she calls forth a lover and finds herself with child. Over the years, she draws forth beautiful black-haired women, bought for a dear price by island men eager for wives. Now known as a witch, she can afford to buy the biggest house on the island, but finds herself no closer to happiness. The seal coats are hidden away, trapping the selkies in human form, where they create discontented families and bear half-enchanted sons. The story follows several generations, primarily those of Misskaella (who ages very slowly) and the Mallett family. When several sons unite to steal back the seal coats, the mams weave seaweed blankets and wrap their sons, so all can transform into seals together, leaving the human men behind. The men are not all bad, and one of them wonders occasionally why the women don't take a bit more charge of their own fate. Lanagan's writing is undeniably gorgeous. Her phrases and pacing almost demand that readers stop and admire their beauty. Many high school readers may not be ready to look past a plot of lumpen, unpopular misfits, and dark choices wrongly made. Encourage them to read for the richness of the language, and they may find the plot will grow on them. A natural audience would be readers who enjoyed the literary qualities of Christina Meldrum's Madapple (Knopf, 2008), Franny Billingsley's Chime (Dial, 2010), and E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News (Scribner, 1999).-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TXα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

Publishers Weekly Best of Children's Books 2012

Kirkus Reviews Best of Teen's Books 2012

Tor.com, September 1, 2012:
"I've not been more moved by a book in years...It’s a wistful book, but wondrous. It will break your heart, and remake it.”

Starred Review, Booklist, June 1, 2012:
"A haunting, masterfully crafted novel that, as one should by now expect from Lanagan, isn’t a bit like anything else."

Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2012:
"Bracing, powerful, resonant. . . . Earthy, vigorous characters and prose ground the narrative in the world we know, yet its themes are deep as the sea."

Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 2, 2012:
"Powerful. . . . A beautifully written story featuring a thoroughly realized setting and cast."

Starred Review, The Horn Book, September/October 2012:
"Lanagan’s world is busily, passionately alive. Seal, human, sea, sky, and the rocks themselves animate this powerful story, a blend of folk tale and pungent, sharply observed—or invented—regionality."

Starred Review, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2012:
"Like Lanagan’s previous Tender Morsels, this eerie, evocative story breathes mesmerizing life into familiar fairy-tale constructs as it explores issues of power, agency, culpability, freedom, and love within a deceptively quiet atmosphere of intimate horror."

School Library Journal, September 2012:
"Lanagan’s writing is undeniably gorgeous. Her phrases and pacing almost demand that readers stop and admire their beauty...A natural audience would be readers who enjoyed the literary qualities of Christina Meldrum’s Madapple, Franny Billingsley’s Chime, and E. Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News."

"I am in thrall to Margo Lanagan's voice. This is a marvelous book, full of magic and cunning." ―Kelly Link, award-winning author of Stranger Things Happen, and founder of Small Beer Press
 
"Margo Lanagan's writing is dangerously beautiful; it knows how to dance, and it knows how to fight." ―Mal Peet, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Tamar
 
"A brilliantly written and fascinating novel from the weird but wonderful mind of Margo Lanagan." ―Garth Nix, bestselling author of the Old Kingdom Chronicles
 
"Breathtaking. Margo Lanagan raises the bar with every story she tells." ―Melina Marchetta, winner of the Printz Award for Jellicoe Road

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; First Edition edition (September 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375869190
• ISBN-13: 978-0375869198
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartbreaking and haunting. September 13, 2012

By J. Markovic

Format:Hardcover

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.

I often describe urban fantasy novels as "dark" when there's violence and pain, loss and mourning. THE BRIDES OF ROLLROCK ISLAND is wrapped in gossamer strands of darkness so pervasive, so heartbreaking and real, I need a new word to evoke the pain of these characters. Lanagan explores the mythology of the seal-wife, a woman taken from the sea and kept by hiding her seal pelt. Through generations, through many different eyes, she writes a first hand view of human cruelty and petty betrayal, of a community imploding in on itself.

This book explores an aspect of human relationships that I'd rather not delve into, the hunger a man can feel for a compliant, nubile girl. The seal-brides of Rollrock are chillingly childlike in their lack of agency, passive and plaintive and wishing for the sea. The writing is beautiful, chronicling each fissure in the bleak little village. Magic as horror, a legacy of heartbreak and otherness in the bloodlines of the village... there's no way I can do justice to how thoroughly Lanagan ensnared me in her net. I was angry and disgusted and sad and mesmerized, I could not look away.

I had to force myself to finish this book, but I am glad that I did. Lanagan doesn't flinch from the horror of her seal-brides, the petty selfishness of enthrallment and love, and it is just that unblinking gaze through the generations that elevates this story from a painful exercise to a very realistic and human story. I loved the frailty of Lanagan's seal-wives. She gives her mythology a loose genetics, where seal mothers impart wildness to their daughters with their X chromosome but the fathers' Y keeps their sons anchored to the shore.... With those sons that grow up under the shadow of their sad mothers, the daughters lost to the sea, Lanagan makes this a story of families and consequences, not just magic and passion. Forgiveness and revenge, frailty and strength, there are tiny acts of heroism and betrayal that shape this story, as well as intimate portrayals of characters that fail themselves, that are hurt and pass on that heartbreak to others.

THE BRIDES OF ROLLROCK ISLAND is not a comfortable book, but it is a beautiful one. Lanagan is utterly realistic in the the world she created, through the rhythm of the characters' speech, the small pleasures and terrible betrayals of humans to each other. Normally I reference the Brothers Grimm whenever an author explores the consequences of magic in a realistic way, but that comparison doesn't fit for Lanagan. She added a drop of magic to an entirely human world and the results felt anything but fictional.

Sexual Content: Kissing, references to sex, coerced marriage and sex. Read more ›

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, beautiful, ironic and just perfect September 11, 2012

By Karissa Eckert

Format:Hardcover

I got a copy of this to review through NetGalley(dot)com. This was an absolutely wonderful book and now I want to go read everything else Margo Lanagan has written. The writing is beautiful and haunting and absolutely engrossing.

This is a series of short stories about the people who live on Rollrock Island. Misskaella is an ugly and fat girl who is treated cruelly by the people of Rollrock island. That is until the night Misskaella realizes that she can call out women from inside the seals of the island. The seal wives are beautiful beyond compare and the men of Rollrock will do anything to have a seal wife; but the seal wives are also eternally miserable as they as they are stuck in their human bodies. The men control the wives, but are in turn bespelled by the seal wives. This is the story of all of the years that Misskaella kept Rollrock island under the sad curse of the sea wives.

The prose this book is written in is absolutely stunning and the stories have a very dark and melancholy fairy tale feel to them. The descriptions are so well done that you can almost taste the sea as you read this book. The characters are amazing; they can show incredible love for each other and also be incredibly cruel. It was interesting to have a story that explores both depths of human emotion so deeply.

Misskaella is a fascinating character. In the beginning you really hurt for her, everyone is so cruel to her even as a child. Eventually she turns into what they believe her to be an ugly, mean witch. All of the characters in the stories are fascinating in similar ways. The men of the island love their seal wives so deeply, yet these same men are so cruel in how they keep their wives from the sea....

Some of the stories explore how even when a family tries to move away from Rollrock Island, their son is still drawn into the trap of taking a seal wife and being stuck in the same pattern of life on the island that his parents were trying to avoid.

There is also wonderful symmetry to the story; the final story explores how (despite everything that has happened) once Misskaella is gone things slowly start to migrate back to normality and life goes on. Ironically it takes the children's love to break the curse which was started with a husband's love.

Overall a spectacular book, one of the best I have read in some time. The writing is incredibly beautiful and haunting; the story explores human nature and has a very melancholy, fairy tale type tone to it. The characters are complex and both beautiful and ugly. Highly recommended to everyone; especially those with an interest fairy tales and the selkie mythology. I want to go out right now and read everything else Lanagan has written. Read more ›

4.0 out of 5 stars Different & Beautiful May 27, 2013

By Tiffany M.

Format:Hardcover

I was initially attracted to the cover and the Selkie lore of this one. I must say that both the description and the cover itself did not fully prepare me for what was to come. This tale is intricately woven and took me a bit to figure out. It is difficult to fully describe the experience of this one without giving too much away or throwing you off. This is the type of read that you need to take a little slower to fully develop and appreciate and that isn't easy for the girl that frequently tears through a book a day.

Lanagan has without a doubt created some of the most mesmerizing brides I could have ever imagined, it was clear from the start why the men were so easily besotted with them. Beautiful women that step forth and only know them and rely on them for everything. Though nothing could fully replace the sea in their heart and soul. The men in return had women that were ethereal and bound to them. It's hard to see the love in this but I genuinely think the men believed that they cold make their wives happy. The saying "If you love something set it free, it will come back if it was meant to be," was beyond their comprehension because they could just not see their lives without them.

Be warned that it takes more than one chapter to become invested in this one. Each chapter is told by a different character and takes some getting used to. I felt utterly lost in the first chapter and part of the second but I stuck with it simply because I wanted to understand, wanted to know the truth of what was going on. Page 61 marked my understanding point. This will not be for every person but once you are invested the writing and the beautiful dark tale will take you away. I could see the haunted girls faces, their beauty as they stepped out of one form and became another.... The way in which the lives on the island were changed and in how the town was looked upon all flowed into realizations that came to me through understanding the circumstances that started everything.

Misskaella is really the start of everything and the chapter that stood out from the others. She was painstakingly different as a child and treated as such by the entire island and as any person knows this can change a person. You don't grow up being glared at and treated differently by everyone including your family and just walk away from that. You are changed and when Misskaella figures out what exactly makes her different she figures out how to repay the wrongs that were done to her. Instead of exploding she gets her revenge slowly and meticulously, while gaining everything that she never would have been able to have if it weren't for her talent. Though everything takes time and most don't see how her plan works it is clear that she got the revenge she had hoped for.

This is a tale of so many things. An awkward girl that grows into what can only be described as a vengeful witch, an island of men that have no comprehension of what they are doing, sons that don't know or understand what makes them different and the wives that love their families yet pine for the sea that is their home. It all ends in a crash and you feel almost a sense of loss and freedom with the characters, yet there is almost an understanding that sets you free as well. I can't say that I understood everything and I think in the future I will revisit this one to full absorb it and relish in the beauty and darkness. As I said this may not be for everyone but if yo can give it a chance and stick with it you will be pulled in by the wondrous strange and emerge with an understanding. Read more ›