A deep love of the stunning Cornish countryside is matched by a wonder at the mysteries of the sea. The Ingo novels are beautifully written by Helen Dunmore.

Not all Mer like this idea and so Ingo is not only beautiful it is also a dangerous place for Sapphire and Conor. In this time where the seas claim land and humans destroy sea life, the answer may lie in the balance of Mer and human in one person. We follow the young Mer and humans on their dangerous journey across the world and we witness the battle between the old and the new. Just as humans have little control over the land, the Mer do not rule the depths of the sea, and in the course of the books we see the tide knot unravel, unleashing the sea onto the land, and the ocean’s monster, the Kraken, awake.

Through the four novels we follow Sapphire, Conor, Faro and Elvira on a series of adventures and quests as Mer and human learn to understand one another. From the moment that Sapphire is taught by Faro to push through the water’s seal, take the first painful breath of oxygen from liquid, she half belongs to Ingo. This is Faro, a Mer boy, whose sister Elvira has befriended Conor. But when she draws closer she sees a seal’s tail. One day, Sapphire meets a boy in their cove who looks as if he is wearing half a wetsuit. Early in Ingo, the first of the series, Matthew disappears at sea, leaving his wife to move on with her life while her children keep watch. Their mother is afraid of the power of the ocean but their father Matthew is drawn to it.

Sapphire and her brother Conor live next to the sea, above the rocks which hide a difficult trail to the tide waters. The four novels are set at the point where Cornwall meets Ingo, the world of the Mer. The novels are aimed at Young Adults but if there is a little bit of you that imagines a world beneath the waves, populated by Mer men and women, whales that understand the deepest mysteries of the oceans, dolphins with intellect and spirit enough to play, and the mysteries and dangers that mark the crossing of childhood into adulthood, then the Ingo series will not fail you, no matter your age. I had no idea that these four novels – Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep and The Crossing Of Ingo – would enchant me to such an extent that I read the series in a week, with the majority taking only a day to complete. Although Stormswept is the first in a new series of Ingo Chronicles I quickly decided that I could not read it until I had first taken a look at the preceding Ingo set of novels by Helen. I was captivated by the idea of Stormswept by Helen Dunmore when it was published earlier this month. Buy: Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, The Crossing of Ingo

Ingo chronicles