I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for review. 
 Video version of this review here: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&... 
 Ah selkies, just one variety of magical mystery women of myth and legend who come out of nowhere, change the lives of everyone around them, and then vanish into thin air again as if they'd never been. 
 For those who aren't aware, selkies are seal shapeshifters of Scottish and Irish lore who can shed their skins and become human. In selkie legends, a man will often hide a selkie's skin away and take her home as his wife. She bears him children, but one day finds her old skin and returns to the sea. Yes, it CAN be a problematic premise, but I seek re-tellings of this kind of story because I generally like how creative modern writers can bend old story elements from fairytales, myth, and legend into something new and exciting. Unfortunately, Su Bristow's rendering of the selkie legend failed me on that front pretty miserably. 
 We follow Donald, and insecure young fisherman who lives with his mother in a small town in an unspecified place and time. He is a social outcast, tormented by his peers, until one moonlit night he sees some selkies dancing, hides one of their skins, and rapes her when she can't follow the others back into the water. After taking her home to his mother, he is racked with guilt and eager to atone, but he can't find the skin when he goes back for it, and mom convinces him that the only way to do right is to marry the girl because she might be pregnant. This is a challenge because the girl, whom they name Mairhi, does not speak, and it's unclear whether or not she understands the concept of human marriage well enough to consent to this sudden wedding. Yikes. 
 But though Mairhi undergoes an extreme adjustment to life among humankind and seems to thrive, it is Donald's transformation that the book is most closely concerned with. His determination to give Mairhi the greatest possible chance of happiness in the life he unthinkingly forced upon her forces him to emerge from his shell and take up an active role in the community. And while the author is superficially clear that Donald and his mother have done an awful thing to Mairhi for which they feel very guilty, the narrative structure rewards him for it in the long-run with his newfound confidence and purpose in life. Because he's actually such a nice guy. Again, yikes. 
 It was hard to stay actively angry at this book though, because the writing really is lovely. It ebbs and flows in gentle waves, and it's easy to drift along under the spell of its warmth and its loving portrayal of flawed people in an imperfect community. Bristow's theme is forgiveness, seeking it, granting it, and finding it in unexpected places. But I could not quite find it in my heart to forgive Sealskin for the way it handled its source material. Because there really are ways to tell selkie legends that aren't about the personal growth of sensitive, misunderstood rapist dudes. Trust me on this one.