Circus on water! Bear in a coracle! Fishy ladies! Sacred trees! Cult ship! This book screams to be made into a creepy, dreamy movie that I will obsess over for ages. The story focuses on two young women: Callanish -- a perceived "landlocker" who lives on her own in a small shack performing funerary services in the manner of this fantasy world & North -- a floating circus performer or "dampling" who has a lifelong kinship to the bear who is her performance partner. The other cast are motley and entertaining, and each chapter shifts among their perspectives. The story is dystopian in that something has happened environmentally to put most land underwater and to force land versus sea folks into a highly suspicious dynamic. There aren't any preachy post-apocalyptic messages or scary government scenarios, though. More so, the novel portrays two girls finding out where they fit in the world. Lovely!