Even though she’s terrified of the sea, a girl who believes her mum might have been a mermaid runs away to the ocean to solve the mystery of who she really is.

Stella is the odd one out. She’s never felt she fits in. She sleepwalks, has a terror of water, yet is obsessed by the ocean. Nobody can give her any answers. Her father is consumed by grief and her grandmother’s memories are fading with dementia. Her mum who died when Stella was only four remains the biggest mystery of all. Who was she and why did she give Stella a necklace called ‘the word of the sea’ just before she died?
Stella comes to believe that her mum might have been a mermaid. When her only friend in the world, Cam, moves house, Stella runs away too. She’s determined to find out who her mum was and who she is too. She ends up in Crystal Cove at a run down aquarium with a mermaid show. There she meets Pearl who reveals disturbing secrets. It’s only by facing her fear of the ocean that Stella will truly uncover the truth.
Exquisitely imagined and beautifully delivered, Tania Unsworth blends our fascination for the timeless magic of mermaid and selkie folk and fairy tale with the story of a girl on an adventure above and below the waves.