The second graphic novel I was recently sent by a friend was The Girl From the Sea (graphic novel, 256 pages) by Molly Knox Ostertag.

“Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can’t wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She’s desperate to finish high school and get as far away as possible from her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and her group of best friends – who don’t actually know Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan’s biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss girls. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. Suddenly, life on the island doesn’t seem so stifling anymore. But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they’ve been hiding will find its way to the surface, whether Morgan is ready or not.”

I really enjoyed this story. The artwork was clear and made the story easy to follow and the story was a relatable to anyone who grew up or lives in a very small community. It’s interesting to me how many stories like this are out there because it feels a lot to me like none of us really ever feel comfortable being who we are, where we are. This is pretty much true for everyone, I think. We all have this mentality that if we can just get away from the people who know us and the environment we live in that we can make all these drastic changes to who /we/ are and how /we/ interact with the world.

This book shows a lot of growth in regards to how we each have to be responsible for making the changes in ourselves in order to create the dream world we want to live in. Sure, it’s intimidating and scary for each of us to change ourselves, and therefore how the outside world views us, but if you have this grand dream of how different life could be somewhere else, it might not be your location you need to focus on changing.

When the book ends and both Morgan and Keltie have seven more years before they can interact again, you see Morgan taking her life into her own hands and maybe having some other relationships or at least more-than-friends interactions with girls she finds attractive. I think this is actually a really healthy thing for Morgan, as it allows her to just exist without the pressure of “waiting for the perfect one”, as is obsessed about in our modern western-style society. I’m sure there are people out there who are upset that Morgan isn’t going to spend the next seven years pining over her selkie-love, but I think the way this story ends shows more of a healthy relationship. Seven years is a really long time and it’s healthy to allow yourself to actually feel things and express them in ways that make sense to you.

Overall, this book is easily a high three on my rating scale. I’m glad I read it and own a copy of it now and I’m positive I will reread it again in the future.

Ostertag, Molly Knox. The Girl From the Sea. Scholastic Graphix, 2021.