I told my sister I didn't know if this book was too lovely to describe or too horrible to read. Lanagan's prose is almost intoxicatingly lush. Her development of the selkie legend through the lives of several generations of Rollrock Island is one of those waiting-for-the-inevitable-tragedy reads; you know EXACTLY where this is going to go, and are merely waiting for the house of cards to collapse. 
 I was riveted to it, but not in the sense of how beautiful it was; more in the sense of how terribly awful I knew it was going to be. 
 This is not a fantasy for the faint of spirit. It is painful and ragged, and will leave your mind and heart raw. Above all, a brilliant piece of work.