Where the Seabird Soars

As someone with a love for both the mountains and the sea, the settings promised by Where the Seabird Soars drew me in almost instantly. The beauty of the writing in the excerpt and the symbology within the stories the female protagonist, Tempest, hears from her grandpa only cemented my choice to read further. Two people from vastly different worlds and experiences came together to create her, and perhaps that will be in her future as well.

Beyond that first scene, the story focuses largely on two portions of Tempest's life. A quick summer camp in her teens that takes her away from the sea for one of the first times in her life. After the first third or so, the focus shifts instead to a few years later. A giant tsunami forces her inland and back toward a strong connection she'd formed at that one camp. A seabird lost in the mountains.

The polish dips and rises more than a few times after the beauty of that first scene, often making the rougher spots that much more frustrating by comparison. From a technical standpoint, there are some issues with purple prose, overuse of the same descriptions, and a decent spattering of errors. At a broader view, a younger Tempest feels like a different person entirely from the older Tempest, and the story isn't typical of women's fiction.

A trigger warning is given at the start of Where the Seabird Soars for rape and suicide, something that I'm always grateful to authors for including. However, that wasn't something included in the information present on Reedsy, and the book is only flagged with mild explicit content when it should be more. The depiction of the rape, the aftermath, and the continual lack of respect for Tempest's thoughts and feelings throughout the portion of the aged up latter parts don't fit the genre.

Even if this novel wasn't for me, Where the Seabird Soars still has plenty of positive traits. The author includes several of her own poems, and that ability shows in the best of her prose as well. Readers looking more for borderline dark romances and burly mountain men with dominant traits should enjoy this work.