Foam on the crest of waves by Silke Stein

Foam on the crest of waves is a book about a young girl, Abbie, who loses her mother to the sea and has never gotten over it. She develops an obsession with The Little Mermaid and vows to become a mermaid herself on her 15th birthday. Alongside Abbie are her family, who are also full of grief and struggling with memories and secrets from the past that they just can't bear to talk about for fear of snapping the already frayed thread that holds the family together.


The cover of the book is stunning and the writing inside does not disappoint. This book had my heart right from chapter one. We are thrown straight into the heartbreaking scene of Abbies mother being taken by the sea. While it is devastating to read and a shock to the system to start a story on such a sad, sad note, Silke somehow manages to turn it into something hauntingly beautiful and poetic. 

The chapters alternate between different characters which I love. I love seeing the same events told from different perspectives. Each perspective offers a new spin on the story or an extra nugget of infomation with the power to add that seed of doubt or confirm what I was already thinking...

Foam on the crest of waves tackles the subject of grief, the ways in which different people deal with grief and the lasting effect it has on not only the person grieving but also their friends and family. For example Abbies behaviour at times comes across as odd or delusional and causes her family a great deal of worry however when seen from Abbies point of view it is all perfectly reasonable. 

Silke Stein has the most amazing descriptive skills. Not only can she turn a devastating scene into something beautiful, she was also able to make me laugh with her accurate observations. One of the characters has a black pug who is described as a wingless bat with weight issues. I have a black pug and this totally a true representation of my pug and I'd say pugs in general and really made me chuckle. Also in the land of Silke Stein, phones buzz on tables like angry wasps! I just love her use of language.

I'd definitely recommend this book. I loved the references to the little Mermaid and during Abbies chapters it almost felt like a Little Mermaid retelling in reverse. It's a beautiful book, beautifully written and it's just beautful through and through! 

Many thanks to Silke Stein for sending me this book to review.