Laura's Take On... The Wicked Deep

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

“It starts as a low croon that rolls in with the tide, a sound so faint it might just be the wind blowing through the clapboard shutters, through the portholes of docked fishing boats, and into narrow cracks along sagging doorways. But after the first night, the harmony of voices become undeniable. An enchanting hymn sailing over the water’s surface, cool and soft and alluring. The Swan Sisters have awakened.” (13)

Two hundred years ago, the Swan Sisters – Marguerite, Aurora and Hazel – were sentenced to death for witchcraft, although they never called themselves witches. They came to Sparrow and became businesswomen, opening a local perfumery to sell perfumes, balms and rose water to the citizens of Sparrow, located on the Oregon coast. The sisters were alluring and the local men found themselves irresistible. The sisters took lovers: sometimes more than one, sometimes married, and it was this empowerment, not their herbal concoctions that would be the source of their downfall. The townspeople grew to hate the Swan Sisters and named their bold brand of feminine sexuality as witchcraft. Heavy stones were tied to their feet and they were thrown into the ocean on the Summer Solstice in 1823.

The sisters’ story should have ended there… but it didn’t.

The sisters cursed the town of Sparrow. For two hundred years, during Swan Season (the period between June 1st and the Summer Solstice) the sisters break free of their watery prison to possess the bodies of girls to lure unsuspecting men to the ocean to drown them.

Woven into the story of the Swan Sisters is the story of Penny Talbot, a modern day seventeen-year-old high school student who has the special ability to see who the Swan Sisters possess. She lives alone on an island with her mother, who is a hollow shell of a woman after losing her husband. Penny meets Bo, an out of towner with a tragic tie to Sparrow, and together they work against the clock to try and keep more innocent boys from drowning.

Treatment of magic: The fact that the sisters own a perfumery is mildly witchy in the book. It was easy for me to make the connection because I know a lot of self-identifying witches who sell beauty products and oils for ritual and spellwork. Usually, these modern day witches clearly describe their products as such. For the Swan Sisters, it was more of a business venture to sell products that pampered and smelled good. The curse that keeps the Swan Sisters perfectly preserved to terrorize the citizens of Sparrow is the only truly confirmed magical act in the book. Even so, how that curse comes to be is shrouded in mystery. The Swan Sisters never refer to themselves as witches, but the circumstances surrounding their birth (they were born on the same day, a year apart) and their undeniable charm that attracted so many men speaks to something supernatural, even if the sisters were unaware of it. To borrow a phrase from Beauty and the Beast, it’s a tale as old as time – empowered and unrepressed women are charged with witchcraft, because that’s always easier that admitting that your husband is a cheating scumbag in a Puritanical society.

Ernshaw’s story is a masterclass in creating atmosphere and suspense. I’ve not yet had the opportunity to travel to Oregon, but I can see this town so clearly in my mind’s eye. There is a shocking twist that is slipped in so gently and so brilliantly that I had to stop and re-read it several times so that I could fully process it. It changes the trajectory of the story of course, but it also made me want to go back and re-examine everything I had read before. There is a heartache that’s knitted into the story that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading the story. Even now, weeks after finishing it, the story floats around in my head, much like the haunting song of the Swan Sisters. To that end, I’ve put together a playlist inspired by the book. It’s located here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLayRCXTZQ3g2Fh6wLXD5lJVfVdGJFbFxG

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The Family Crest – Beneath the Brine (for the book as a whole) 

Oh, young love of mine
She sleeps beneath the brine

Melora Creager – I Wanna Marry A Lighthouse Keeper (for Penny and her Mother)

I want to marry a lighthouse keeper
And keep him company
I want to marry a lighthouse keeper
And live by the side of the sea

Portishead – Cowboys (for the Curse)

But don't despair this day, will be their damnedest day
Ooh, if you take these things from me

Rasputina – You Don’t Own Me (for the Swan Sisters)

I'm young and I love to be young
I'm free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please

Florence & the Machine – Never Let Me Go (for Hazel’s sacrifice)

And the arms of the ocean are carrying me
And all this devotion was rushing over me
And the questions I have for a sinner like me
But the arms of the ocean deliver me



Zwan – Of A Broken Heart (for Hazel)

A feeling of hope,
That runs this world
It keeps us alive
I want you to climb with me
Until I die of a broken heart

Bob Moses – Enough to Believe (for Bo)

All I want is enough to believe
But they said there was no guarantee
All I knew is you're here for me now
I look up at the stars

Garbage – Milk (for Penny’s Mother)

I am weak
But I am strong
I can use my tears to
Bring you home
I'm waiting
I'm waiting
For you

Rasputina – Sweet Water Kill (for the girls possessed)

Down below, I will follow what bubbles tell me to.
All along, it was the ocean's song
That called me down to listen to her.
Swirling still, in a Sweet Water Kill.
A swiftly sifting riptide.

Beach House – Myth (for Penny/Bo)

Can’t keep hanging on
To all that’s dead and gone
If you built yourself a myth
You'd know just what to give
Materialize
Or let the ashes fly
Help me to name it


Metric – Breathing Underwater (for Hazel)

They were right when they said
We were breathing underwater
Out of place all the time
In a world that wasn't mine to take

Bob Moses – Eye for an Eye (for the Swan Sisters)

Was it all just in my head?
I feel your hands around my neck
'Cause you took what you thought was yours
Now I'll take mine
Don't pretend you're innocent
An eye for an eye

Gregory & the Hawk – Boats and Birds (For Bo/Hazel)

If you'll be my boat
I'll be your sea
A depth of pure blue just to probe curiosity
Ebbing
And flowing
And pushed by a breeze
I live to make you free

Puscifer – Oceans (for all the drowned men)

Look in your eyes
I've never seen the ocean
Not like this one
Deep in your eyes
I've never seen the ocean
Not like this one
Show me your eyes
I've never seen the ocean
Not like this one

Sneaker Pimps – Small Town Witch (for the Swan Sisters)

Blowing it out as the jury's doubt is laid to waste
See black, see bloom 
Choked up on a heartburn, bleeding through
How does it feel when the ones that feed are biting you
Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body (for Hazel/Bo)

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me and
Bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what it's like to be new

Shawn Colvin – I’m Gone (for Marguerite) 

** The lyrics to this song don’t specifically jump out at me as Marguerite. It’s generally the overall feeling of it that gives me a Marguerite vibe. Crimes of passion, kissing and telling, etc.** 

Yeasayer – Divine Simulacrum (for the Swan Sisters)

She's Divine Simulacrum
And you can't help your attraction
She's divine, she was made for you
And it could be so good

Austra – Spellwork (for the underlying magic in the book)

You must be the call
The evil at night
Speaking words of grace
While spellwork delights.
Feel my desire, it burns like a fire.

Bjork – Like Someone in Love (for all the boys who loved a Swan Sister)

Lately I seem to walk as though I have wings
Bump into things like someone in love
Each time I look at you I'm limp as a glove
And feeling like someone in love

Beach House – Take Care (for Penny/Bo)

Stand beside it, we can't hide the way it makes us glow
It's no good unless it grows, feel this burning, love of mine
Deep inside the ever-spinning, tell me does it feel?
It's no good unless it's real, hillsides burning
Wild-eyed turning 'til we're running from it
I'll take care of you if you ask me to


Washed Out – It All Feels Right (for the Swan Party)

We’ll be gone for a few nights
Meet up with the old crowd
Music’s playing so loud
It all feels right

Haerts – Wings (for Hazel)

I will never let you go
I know you want it, know you want it
Learning love means not to know
I'll learn to take it, learn to take your love

I'll never let the magic go
I'll float away into your afterglow

​Author: Laura S. of Silfren Circle