** spoiler alert ** 
 (view spoiler)[Why is it when a love interest dies, it's always when he isn't white? (hide spoiler)] 
 If that wasn't problematic, I usually love when they kick the bucket (Girl of Fire and Thorns FTW). A recently widowed teenage girl now has her powers and the world at her fingertips, having experienced love and loss. Kill all love interests. This is my FAVORITE thing to happen in YA. Well, second favorite. Usually I like the teen romances to fade out gently, both characters parting on good terms after outgrowing each other romantically, but I like brutal accidental murder too. It has it's merits. 
 But hey, I like tragedy. My only problem is how often this trope is applied to the rare POC love interest. I'm looking at you, Libba Bray. 
 This book isn't nearly as fun or fantastical as advertised. There's no real antagonist. It's pretty joyless actually. Like having to sit in icy water for a really long time. The sensation is either dulled or sharp and discomforting. The plot it just the main character figuring out what her mother and grandmother have been hiding about her powers. So the exposition of the book is the plot. Fun...? 
 The big reveal is that (view spoiler)[ Every Roe witch is cursed to be impregnated and badly hurt by the man they love, the child will be the next Roe witch, and the pain this causes is the sacrifice the witch must make (hide spoiler)]. I'm not wild about women-punishing narratives, so the fact that this chain is broken by Avery, didn't mind. And she didn't get saddled with a baby, my least favorite of all endings for a teenage character. So there's that. 
 Join me in my monthly "Not Pregnant" dance. 
 Anyway, this book is about matrilineage, witchcraft, curses, responsibility, sacrifice, and whaling. Mostly whaling. I actually really like the nautical elements to the story, and it's a setting and time period that rarely shows up in YA. It's actually rare that any fantasy takes place in 1800's New England. I liked the originality. I liked that the plot was focused on women as family. It was just kind of a bummer. A lot witch-prejudice yet magic dependence that made the town she protected seem like a bunch of thankless assholes, which is why I couldn't get Avery's desire to win their love with magic. 
 Overall the plot was kind of rough, but the language was very evocative and placed you right in that town, and the main character was brave and strong, so I enjoyed watching her struggle. In a good way. I was just hoping for a bit more of a plucky witch narrative that I thought I was getting.