The Seawomen

Author Chloe Timms
Narrator Samara MacLaren
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Run Time 12 hours and 9 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Dark fantasy, Dystopian and utopian fiction, Narrative theme: Social issues.

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What to expect

Esta has known nothing but Eden's Isle her whole life. Raised by her grandmother, after a fire claimed her parents and scarred her face, she's instructed to piety, to deference, and acquiescence by a religious society that will not suffer anything else. Cut off from the moral iniquity of the mainland, the island believes it can stay free of the Seawomen - creatures from the water that came upon land to corrupt God's creation and Man. The inhabitants fear the water and believe the only way to remain virtuous is to never enter it, and for the women to conceive within 12 months of their appointed motheryear.

If they do not conceive, they're cast back into the ocean as a sacrifice in an act called the Untethering.

Esta witnesses such an act as a child. Her childhood growing up on the island is fraught with tension as she comes to the terms with the prohibitive malaise of the culture she finds herself in. Before long, she gets a taste of freedom and the potential of the world that is much larger than Eden's Isle. But she is bound, like many women before her, when she is married off and her motheryear is finally declared. Will she conceive a child in her loveless arranged marriage, or suffer the same fate of many women before her, and be Untethered?

The Seawomen is a debut novel crackling with imagination and love. It's about the choices we make and challenging the myths and ties that bind us.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

Beautifully written … a great concept, brilliantly executed, and it is essential reading for dystopian fiction fans
Sunday Business Post
If you’re looking for your next Handmaid’s Tale-esque fix, this is it
Belfast Telegraph
Timms unmasks organised religion as a gleaming façade for misogynistic cults, and explores how easily whispered rumours can spiral into mass hysteria. Bonus points for her shockingly nasty villain, Father Jessop
SFX
An unsettling and lushly-written reimagining of witch trials, exploring fertility, control and how what we believe can save us – or destroy us. The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Shape of Water
Kirsty Logan
A gripping tale of love and bravery; The Seawomen immerses you in its watery world.
Sophie Ward
This book sucked me under and held me in its gorgeous, terrifying embrace. It’s a rare treat to read a story so gripping told in such beautiful prose. Dive in and don’t look back.
Zoe Gilbert
Richly atmospheric, powerful and provocative. A raw and beautiful coming of age story.
Caroline Lea
I read this beautiful novel in a fever dream, its sweeping prose carrying me away like a boat out at sea. Chloe Timms has written an extraordinary tale of one woman’s desire for freedom, for love. Mesmerising and moving, I couldn’t put it down.
Susannah Wise
A powerful, enchanting novel, with prose so vivid you can taste the salt in the air on your tongue
Anna Bailey
Timms’ writing is at once lyrical and measured, bold and tender. The lens she offers us to look through is an unusual and passionate love story, which renders The Seawomen as gripping as it is haunting.
The Swansea Bay

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