Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep

Philip Reeve's Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep is a spooky sea adventure for 11 year olds about a girl who washed up on an island as a baby.

What happens

Now Utterly is eleven. She lives at Sundown Watch, a grand old house on the cliffs of Wildsea, the island furthest west in the Autumn Isles. Every evening at sunset, for generations, a Dark has climbed the Tower to watch the western sea.

Watch for what, exactly? Nobody's quite sure. Enchanted islands that are said to appear at twilight. And the Gorm, a monster that once came roaring out of the waves.

Then Mr Dark, the stiff but kind gentleman who found Utterly on the shore, is drowned. His younger brother William is living it up in London and wants nothing to do with the island. So Utterly climbs the Tower herself and takes over the Watch.

That's when she finds his Log. Months of neat "Nothing to be seen" suddenly turn into scribbled-out sightings, a light in the west and questions about what the sea wants from him. It's properly creepy!

Utterly is great company. She's brave and practical and a bit stubborn, and she's the only person she knows who isn't scared of the sea. She loves it. Once, peering into a rock pool, she found she was breathing underwater (Mr Dark didn't believe her).

The writing is rich and windswept. Standing stones, a sea-witch who lights fires on the shore, a woman with antlers in her hair who turns up after the funeral. It feels old and wild and just a little bit magical.

One thing to know going in. The story opens with a death and a funeral. The village gossips hint that Mr Dark's drowning might not have been an accident (his pockets were full of stones), and Utterly worries about what that would mean. It's done with a light touch, but a child who worries might want to talk it through with you.

For a confident reader who loves eerie, stormy stories, it's a real treat.

What to read next

If they want more Philip Reeve, try Larklight. Art and his sister Myrtle live with their father in a creaky, lonely old house spinning on its own orbit beyond the Moon, and a visitor is on the way who's about to change everything.