Upon the close of this book, I found myself left with an emotional reaction I had rarely felt with a book: that of melancholy perplexity. I found myself drawn into the writing style of Margo Lanagan, the way she crafts her story is incredibly beautiful and meandering, hinting its way around the image of an idea until you find yourself with the whole picture, unsure of when exactly you gained understanding. I want to linger in the pages of this book, rereading passages until I have a clearly image of what actually happened than the misty yet beautiful haze that occupies my brain currently. But I cannot determine whether or not I actually enjoyed this book. 
 The plot is wonderfully enchanting. In the rather small and somewhat isolated town of Rollrock there lives a witch with the power to drawn up out of the sea a beautiful woman transformed from the skin of a seal. The men of the island are completely enchanted by her beauty and very soon sell whatever they can to the witch in order to have a seal woman of their very own to call a wife. As readers we learn of the witch's backstory, see how she grew to the vengeful woman the town now knows her as. We follow different villagers throughout the witch Misskaela's transformation, we see the heartbreak of families as husbands abandon their families for the seal women, empathize with the children of the seal women, innocents in all of this, who don't know what to do as their mothers grow more and more despondent on land, we watch the town itself transform into a place a legend, spoken only with hushed whispers and quiet judgmental grumblings by other townsfolk. 
 And yet. 
 I am perplexed to the underlying point Lanagan is trying to make. From a feminist viewpoint, what am I to make of this book? I do not feel that there's any malice towards men or women, although both are painted in a very negative light. The only people in this book I can definitively say are kind are the children of the seal women. Before her transformation into the haggled crone, Misskaela is treated with the utmost scorn and derision by everyone. She is described as an ugly, overweight girl who no one wants anything to do with. She is ruthlessly teased, hated by her family, ostracized by everyone who interacts with her. And for what? Because she is fat? Because she has some strange connection to the seals that the other townsfolk cannot understand and shun her out of fear? The latter makes more sense in regards to how humans behave but so much is made mention of her looks that I cannot help but assume that it plays a part in her treatment. The townsfolk are depicted as cruel, heartless people for their lack of human empathy, but in the end, I cannot say with certainty that any lesson was learned here. Misskaela has a particular hatred for conventionally beautiful women, blaming them for her misfortunes. The whole scheme of the seal women seems to be a punishment for the women of the town most of all. Looks wise they cannot compete with the beauty of the seal women. The men, whether through weak wills or through magic enchantment, abandon their human wives and loved ones in order to be with the seal women. The women of Rollrock Island either must leave the town and start their lives over somewhere else or live with the same pain and ostracizing that Misskaela experienced. This makes me uncomfortable. I will note that the men of Rollrock Island do not get off scotch free. They might get their unearthly beautiful brides but they watch helplessly as the wives they now hold dear grow more and more despondent as humans, yearning to be in the sea again. They watch their human mothers, sisters, even wives grow enraged with their weakness and leave, leaving them only with their new seal wife for comfort. We see from the viewpoint of one such man that he is truly enchanted in the literal sense of the word. He knows he's behaving irrationally, that he loves his betrothed human sweetheart, that he doesn't want to hurt her this way, but he is powerless to stop any of it. He is under the spell of the witch and wants nothing else but his seal wife. 
 But back to my discomfort. It is no surprise that a story based around and structured so very much like a fairy tale should also centralize around feminine beauty. And especially given the role of women during this setting, it makes sense that the townsfolk all take a simplistic view of gender roles and the purpose of a woman (namely, to be a wife and mother). Misskaela, unmarriable by account of her looks and strangeness, exploits the weakness in the system and punishes those who treated her wrong on the very terms they so hated her. But in particular, she has a personal jealous hatred for the women of the town and preys upon their insecurities of beauty. The story takes place in what I would vaguely guess would be the mid 1600s but I still felt twinges of fear as her plan unfolded. The idea that one's betrothed could simply abandon all claims of love and commitment upon finding someone prettier than yourself is still thriving in 2014, but unlike the women of today, the women of this book have literally nothing left when their men abandon them. The men over a long period of time suffer for their misdeeds, but the women suffer sharply and quickly due to Misskaela's spell. But all the female characters, regardless of social station, DO have agency. They choose to leave or they choose to stay. Compared to the unreal seal women, they are most definitely not subservient slaves to their husbands. They argue, they are their own personage, they play vital roles raising their children and warning them to stay away from the seal women. But they still are the primary ones hurt due to Misskaela's schemes. 
 I still need to reconcile this book within myself some more. I might buy it just so I can peruse its pages again, trying to soak up meaning from the meandering language. And I guess that in and of itself means I must have enjoyed it. Why else would I wish to subject myself to its world, the story it wants to tell. Unless, like the men of Rollrock Island, I have found myself smitten with something unreal that I cannot hope to understand until it leaves with no greater meaning than when I first laid eyes upon its cover.