Book Review: "The Wild Beneath" by Kelly Anderson

This book felt a bit like a cross between Wild Dark Shore, The Scent Keeper, and Where the Crawdads Sing, but with an extra dash of magical realism. It definitely hit me square in the feels.

“How can you put it into words? The push and pull of the tides, the way they never falter. Sails that fill up in the wind. Tracking the sky to stay on course. The massive wave and everything that was taken away.”

Annie was born to the sea. She was raised by her parents on a sailboat, and she learned to swim before she learned how to walk. Sea creatures, sand dollars, and shells were her playmates. Everything she learned was with the sea as perspective, and they rarely came ashore to the small Pacific Northwest town where her father was raised.

But when a tsunami strikes, Annie loses her parents and is left stranded on land, afraid of the very sea that brought her such joy. Her grief is crushing, and although she has her grandmother and Evan, her childhood sweetheart, she doesn’t know how she’ll survive this loss.

Amidst the wreckage she finds a man named Walker. He speaks very little but he emits a hum that only Annie can hear, which gives her visions of the life and heartbeat of the sea. She is torn between Evan, who is dealing with his own grief and only wants to protect her, and Walker, who reminds her of the place she feels most at home. How can she find her way?

Kelly Anderson’s prose is luminous. I found this to be a quietly emotional read and a powerful reminder of all that nature gives us. It definitely requires you to suspend your disbelief a bit, but if you can, and you can handle some of the vagueness of the plot, you’ll definitely find beauty.