A truly breathtaking and otherwordly novel, fully deserving of its 5 stars!✨ Being Kelly Anderson's debut novel, I have to appreciate her beautiful writing style, how it tethered me to the story and made me think of it whenever I was not reading it. It was poetic, a bit magical fantasy, bit conservation & importance of ecology-nature & fully filled with the vast ocean in the background! All emotions were deeply expressed and, I felt sad, happy, angry as the characters felt. The character development and their individual descriptions were also amazing to read. Mara & Walker- mysterious, care free, full of wisdom, had a powerful gravity attracting Aiden and Annie towards them. Evan- who in the second half proved to be a very supportive character, leaving everything behind to go and live with his love. Ruth- a caring motherly figure, Annie's grandma. And Annie who was torn between the land and the sea, awed between the life/wild on land and 'the wild beneath' the sea!

The ending was left open and it raised quite a few questions, but I learned from it that one does not necessarily have to choose between one thing. I can study real things, socialize with real people and at the same time escape into fantasy worlds & fictional characters! One can be, is Allowed to be calm and noisy, happy and sad, land and ocean, a tree and cloud at the same time🍃🌏⛵💞