This week’s book was The Isle in the Silver Sea (fantasy, 484 pages) by Tasha Suri.

“In an England fueled by stories, the knight and the witch are fated to fall in love and doom each other over and over, the same tale retold over hundreds of lifetimes. Simran is a witch of the woods. Vina is a knight of the Queen’s court. When the two women begin to fall for each other, how can they surrender to their desires when to give in is to destroy each other? As they seek a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins targeting tales like theirs. To survive, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one that fate has given them. But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?”

One of the most fascinating parts of this book was the constant prodding that generalizations and stereotypes are harmful, constrictive, and counterproductive to the stories themselves because in this book, the stories themselves are fully flushed characters who can drive or change the plot.

In the beginning of the book, the very first story we’re told is of a white-faced queen, a blond-haired, blue-eyed male knight, and the assumption of an ugly, rotten-flesh witch. And this is the stereotype that all witches are evil, vile creatures who are also ugly because we all know that being a witch means you are ugly. And the knight, of course, is a blond-haired, blue-eyed male who shines with virtue and goodness. And the queen is also pale-faced with ruby red lips. AND THEN as the story progresses, we also get references to how “the stories were better before we had people from other places coming to the isle” and that’s the blatant racism against people who aren’t mayonnaise-colored.

This book subverts all of those harmful stereotypes and dumps them on their head and it was WONDERFUL.

The knight? A handsome and pretty knight, with a beautiful and obnoxious voice, brown eyes, brown hair, and warm tan skin. Also a woman who romanced the sister of one of her fellow knights and an effective flirt.

The witch? Dark eyes, dark skin, and a crown of fire. A woman brought to the isle as a refugee with her parents, doing her best to take care of those who are shunned and disadvantaged, and someone who has witnessed many atrocities at the hand of “the law”.

I very much appreciated how stories and librarians are enshrined in this book. The entire world is literally built on stories and the Eternal Queen sees it as her duty to protect the stories and ensure they never change, but the nature of stories is that they must learn and grow and be interpreted by people who love them or are changed by them. Even the idea of keeping stories stagnant to force things to follow set paths is contrary to what stories actually are and I loved how this was clearly demonstrated when Vina and Simran encounter the “small” stories, the whispers of forest animals, the small sounds of daily life and joy. Even the smallest story of someone’s normal day is worthy of inscription and being shared with others.

Every story is not for every person, but every story is for /some/ person. Someone out there will relate or find learning or catharsis from every story ever shared. And if a story isn’t shared, then we are all poorer for it.

This book is an ode to stories as living entities and to the librarians who protect all the stories, even the ones governments would rather smother.

This book is also an ode to becoming masters of our own fates, of choosing love and hope, even when we feel our stories are written and unchangeable.

This book is a solid four on my rating scale. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and am extremely glad it was a gift from a friend so now I own it and can reread it whenever I wish!

Suri, Tasha. The Isle in the Silver Sea. Hatchette Book Group, Inc., 2025.