Megan, an artist who draws seascapes, and Jonah, a shop owner, are a couple with a quiet life until Adam, a mysterious maker of jewelry enters their lives. As Megan is drawn to him, so Jonah is drawn to Adam's sister, a singer with an unearthly voice. The two are beckoned away from their home and life to the sea, neither realizing the cost of their actions until it's nearly too late. When Megan realizes the truth, she risks everything to bring Jonah back.
Impression: As always, McKillip's writing is beautiful, deep, and multi-layered, needing more than one read to catch all the nuances. However, her "message" of conservation and environmentalism was quite a bit more heavy handed than in her other works, particularly at the end when it became too obviously the point of the whole tale. While I don't mind authors having such messages or themes in their writing, I think they need to be handled with more care than it was in Something Rich and Strange. The characters were also well drawn until near the end when Jonah, completely enthralled by Adam's sister's song, suddenly does an about face. There seemed to be no real motivation to it other than seeing Megan, who he has seen before when under the song's spell. That he was in the presence of the singer and she wanted him should have made that desire in him stronger, so that merely having Megan present wouldn't be enough to bring him back to her.
Up until the ending, however, I truly enjoyed the book. I wouldn't classify it as one of my favorites, even if the ending had worked, but it was in McKillip's typical beautiful and evocative style. She uses language masterfully, expertly weaving in words that make the setting ever present. And this alone makes it worth a read for me as a writer, since her style is something I wish to develop in my own voice.
