Today I am part of the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Rebecca Mascull's new novel, Song of the Sea Maid.
Song of the sea maid is the second book written by
Rebecca Mascull.
In Mascull’s debut novel, The Visitors, her lead
was a deaf-blind girl in Victorian Britain, in which a wonderful friendship was
the base for a thrilling adventure, and included a heartbreaking love story,
entwined with a ghost story. I really liked this female lead and in her second
book, Mascull has again written an ambitious, but fascinating story.
Dawnay Price is an intelligent and intensely ambitious
young woman, who has her pathway in life clearly defined. While travelling on
this pathway, she is confronted by earthquakes and all that nature can throw at
her. Along the way, she is fascinated by nature and explores caves and forests,
countryside and the coast.
I loved the descriptive nature of Mascull’s
narrative. The story is told through Dawnay’s own voice and at times I was able
to close to my eyes and imagine the locations and discoveries made on her life
journey. Dawnay appeared to be a headstrong character, believing she was ahead
of time in her thoughts and beliefs, feeling so strongly that she could be
outspoken at times, and ready to challenge anyone who spoke out against her,
something which her male predecessors were not used to.
Mascull has written a beautiful book, which I have
really enjoyed and I am sure I will be rereading this book soon and there are
many locations mentioned in the book and natural phenomena that I will be
googling to further understand this book. The narrative allows the reader to
fully indulge in the atmosphere of the story, with Mascull cleverly interweaving
Dawnay’s narrative with the smells and views, sounds and thoughts that surround
her while on her journey.
This book crosses many genres – there is the
definite historical fiction element
throughout, however the geographical and natural science research that has been
cleverly entwined throughout the story is one which has to be defined and add
in the palaeoanthropology (study of human evolution) and this book is a
cleverly written tale, which is entwined with a celebration of the natural world.
Thank you to Ruby Mitchell at Hodder and Stoughton for organising this blog tour and sending me a copy of the book to review.
