Salt and Skin by Eliza Henry Jones

Book Blurb
Luda, a photographer, and her two teenagers arrive in the Scottish Northern Isles to make a new life. Everywhere the past shimmers to the surface; the shifting landscapes and wild weather dominates; the line between reality and the uncanny seems thin here. The teenagers forge connections, making friends of neighbours, discovering both longing and dangerous compulsions. But their mother – fallible, obsessive, distracted – comes up hard against suspicion. The persecution and violence that drove the island’s historic witch trials still simmers today, in isolated homes and church buildings, and where folklore and fact intertwine.

My Review
I do like books that are a bit different, so when I was invited to be part of the blog tour for Salt and Skin by Anne Cater I jumped at the chance. Salt and Skin is the story of Luda and her two teenage children Darcy and Mina, who come to the Scottish Island of Seannay to record the impact of global warming. Luda becomes obsessed with the four woman who were put to death on Seannay for witchcraft years before, but whose stories are still very much of the present. Her son and daughter befriend Theo, a young man who washed up on the Isalnd ten years ago and no one knows where he came from, some say he is a selkie. This atmospheric read takes place over three years and highlights the impact of global warming.

I was entranced by Salt and Skin and couldn’t put it down, especially after the shocking first chapter. All the way through you can feel the tension and suspense building towards something immense, something that can’t be stopped, but i didn’t know what. Eliza Henry Jones beautifully combines the past and present, leaving a veil between the two where they blur together, and bring the past into the present with devestating consequences. I think the biggest message in this book is about Global Warming, the cliffs crumbling, the whales beaching on the Island, and the slow erosion of the Islands themselves that means they will eventually disappear. The weather itself plays a huge part of the remote Islander’s lives, the power of the wind and sea, their destructive powers and how they dictate what and how people live everyday.

Luda comes to Seannay after the death of her husband in Australia, this is her new start. However, straight away she brings suspicion and derision on herself by selling photographs to the media of a cliff crumbling that killed the young daughter of an Islander. She finds it harder than her children to fit in, and I think it is this with her grief that make her susceptible to the folklore and history of the Islands; she feels a kinship with the four women on Seannay who were charged with witchcraft and lived in her home The Ghost House before being killed. It also makes her a wonderful central character, as we are voyeurs to her life and its spiral out of control. There are a lot of wonderful characters, includung her children Darcy sixteen and Min fourteen, both very different, Darcy clever but also a bit of a loner, whilst Min also seems tuned into the Island and forms a close bond with Cassandra one of the residents of the Islands. The most fascinating character in my opinon was Theo, washed up ten years previous, naked and with webbed fingers and no idea where he came from; many think he is a selkie, a seal who has shed his skin or a changling. Both Min and Darcy befriend him, he is fascinated by family life as he has no roots so to speak of, and he makes a huge imapct on their lives.

Skin and Salt is a beautiful and haunting read. It has so many mysteries as part of the story; what happened to Luda’s husband, where did Theo come, the witch markings in Luda’s house. The mixing of history, folklore and the present are constantly moving in this book, all part of everyday life for the Islanders and make for an atmospheric feel. Beautifully written and dark in places this is a fascinating read and one I highly recommend.

I’d like to thank September Books and Anne Cater fom Random Things Tours for the opportunity to be part of the blog tour in return for my honest review.