Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys -- review by Elleanore G Vance

 

This past January when the skies were grey and the temps were low, I wanted a book to match. Winter Tide was very much that.  A sequel to an online fan fiction called "The Litany of Earth,"  this novel fleshed out what "Litany" left bone. 

To know what's what,  I highly suggest reading Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth first.  I suppose you might be able to follow what's going on without it,  but having the background makes it so much easier.  

Winter Tale author Ruthanna Emrys chose a pair of siblings from Innsmouth as her protagonists: the only known survivors of the Marsh family. Aphra, the elder,  and Caleb her younger brother,  who was so young when their family was incarcerated that all his childhood memories are from the camps.  They survived the internment camps that killed their natal family, and manage to build a new one when they are joined by Japanese Americans,  held against their will,  during WWII. The Marsh siblings are released with the Japanese prisoners . This novel opens with Aphra living with her adoptive mother and sister in San Francisco,  while Caleb has gone home to New England. 

Something about Aphra really pulled at my imagination. I did portraits of her in all of my sketchbooks. 

She just resonated with me.  And Caleb is just so angry,  and he doesn't know what to do with it.  Both he and Aphra just want to go home,  but home is a place that doesn't exist anymore.  In their own way,  the siblings are grasping for a world that no longer exists, or never was to begin with.  

I am a fan of Lovecraft's creations,  but not the man himself.  I love that Ms Emrys really tears into the racism,  homophobia,  and misogyny of Lovecraft. With this fresh take on the legend of Innsmouth,  I hope Old Howie is turning in his grave. Ms. Emrys doesn't brush anything under the rug, we examine our faults as a society. The diverse cast allows us to see not only the inside of the Internment camps,  but the aftermath of those camps as well.  This unflinching look at the shortcomings of the US compelled me to go on to Deep Roots, the sequel. 

I do not feel like I can recommend this series highly enough , and I do recommend reading all of it.  Ms. Emrys has made what H.P. depicted as monsters worthy of loathing and disgust, into real people,  just trying to survive like everyone else.  

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Reviewer Elleanore G Vance