Deep is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson

Title: Deep is the Fen

Author: Lili Wilkinson

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 16^th April 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 416

Price: $24.99

Synopsis: A bewitching journey behind the closed doors of a secret society, featuring sinister toadmen, resistance witches and a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, from the acclaimed author of A Hunger of Thorns.

Merriwether Morgan doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is: simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

But Merry’s best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen – a secret society upholding backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions – and she is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with her academic arch-nemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face behind a glamour.

An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the nightmarish Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn’t rescue Teddy, she’ll lose him forever. But the further she travels into Deeping Fen’s foul waters, the more Merry wonders if she can possibly save her friend – or if she’s walking straight into a trap.

Because there’s nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress . . .

~*~

It’s summer, and Merriweather Morgan and her friends, Sol and Teddy, are getting ready to head off into the world after school. University and other adventures await them. Yet even though Merry is one of two students from Candlecott to be heading off to the university in the city, Staunton, she will be headed there with the student she loathes the most: Caraway Boswell. Then, she finds out that Teddy is going to join the Toadmen – a secret society that upholds backward thinking that doesn’t really align with life in Candlecott. Merry wants to stop him, but she needs Caraway’s help – and their journey to stop Teddy joining the Toadmen in an ancient ritual in the Deeping Fen – a place of nightmares is dangerous, and Merry thinks she could be walking into a trap – but how can she escape?

Merry has hated magic since she was a child, and is glad it has been outlawed. It killed her mother, and she’s also uneasy about being able to see people’s threads and mettle. She doesn’t trust magic and is sure the Spitalwick Hag cursed her mother when she was pregnant with Merry. Her dangerous journey delves into magic and who uses it and why it was outlawed, and Merry begins to explore her feelings for Teddy as well – and her reluctance to ruin her friendship with him and Sol. The story is gentle at first when we meet the three friends, and it has an almost carefree feel to it, until the Toadmen come into it, and Merry sets her mind to save Teddy.

Things pick up when Caraway convinces Merry to go Deeping Fen and what she calls the Toad Prom, where Caraway assures her that their presence and the ritual is purely ceremonial – until reality hits, and Merry starts to see things clearly – a little bit too clearly, and she longs to save the day, to save Teddy and her father, and begrudgingly, Caraway. And yet there is something more sinister going on. Something that I could sense wasn’t quite right as soon as Merry saw something she wasn’t meant to see. It was as though Merry and I knew there was more to the Toadmen than the rituals and silly games they said that they played, that perhaps, there were more Toadmen around than people were aware of. It is, of course, a secret society. But more than that – with the main society banned from using magic, Merry feels at ease at first, because to her, the Toadmen don’t use magic. And yet, as the novel unfolds, more secrets are revealed, and everything builds to a crescendo that comes crashing down – albeit at one point, it is too soon, and leads Merry down another path, where she finds out what is really behind the disappearance of the witches that once lived in Candlecott when they go to a rehabilitation place – known to all, and yet not really known – something and someone has kept things secret and Merry is determined to foil their plans for Teddy.

As the novel progresses, Merry, who is telling the story, reveals what she knows, and her palpable shock during her time away from home is evident. We experience her horror, distaste, and shock – shock about what the Toadmen really do. Shock about people she thought she knew, and shock at the way the secret society operate, and where the Toad Prom can lead. This cleverly crafted book gathers fantasy, romance, adventure, and a touch of mystery together to create a gem of a book with depth and meaning, turning assumptions about beauty and power around and giving the characters a chance to be themselves. It gives us a world that on the surface is carefree and safe from magic and witches – with a sense that things are not what they seem. That appearances are deceiving. Using these classic fairy tale and fantasy tropes in a fantasy world peppered with real world familiarity – school, university, cars, and what felt like a Welsh or Celtic inspired setting to create somewhere that readers will gravitate towards.

There is also a coming-of-age theme that many young adult books have. The characters are on the precipice of a change they know is coming. They are prepared for this, but unprepared for the immediate changes that populate the book and pull them along on the journey – unaware of what it means for their futures. In doing so, Lili has encapsulated the uncertainty of being a teenager, a young adult, and of life in general – where we don’t know where things are going to take us. And she allows her characters to be who they are, to discover the truth about each other, and uses secrecy to make readers doubt people, and wonder who they can trust. Who Merry can trust. The complicated relationships throughout the book reveal so much about the society that Lili has created. The crescendo that erupts at the end, and its lead up ensure that trust is always shaky for some in this book, but change can improve things for everyone – and that it is okay when our plans change too. This was an exceptional fantasy novel from Lili Wilkinson with enough darkness to make things feel creepy when they needed to as the shining light of hope forged its way through the novel. And most importantly, I enjoyed this novel because it celebrated being who you are and celebrated love of all kinds. A fantastic way to create the world, and a great YA book for fantasy readers.