Sea Change

This odd and enthralling book is a fairy tale (though definitely on the Brothers Grimm side of the spectrum) about a girl and her kraken. (!) The writing is lyrical and beautiful, and the story is complex and fascinating.

Lilly, the child of difficult parents (who have a strange fairy tale history all their own), is a lonely child, marked with a disfiguring birthmark on her face which causes her to be considered a witch. Her only friend growing up is a well-spoken and gentle kraken(!), Octavius, whom she meets on the beach outside her house. Octavius disappears periodically to do what krakens do, always returning with tales of his adventures. As Lilly approaches adulthood, though, the kraken has been gone for much longer than in the past. Lilly breaks with her parents, and leaves home in search of her friend.

I... don't know how to go on. Lilly meets a variety of horrible fairy-tale characters, including a troll who, in exchange for information about the kraken's whereabouts, takes Lilly's vagina. (The troll also, rather thoughtfully, cuts Lilly's hair, realigns her body conformation, and changes her skirt into trousers.) This allows Lilly to continue her quest in the guise of a boy, a useful move, because a disfigured boy is an object of pity, rather than horror, and people she encounters are generally helpful, moved by the apparent hopelessness of her quest.

(Though "generally helpful" is also, "sometimes helpful, sometimes not." There are many bargains to be fulfilled before the end.)

The theme, I suppose, of this quite dark but hypnotic story is "the transformative power of love", but with the caveat, "the resultant transformation might not be quite what you were hoping for."