Selkie Moon

De: Kelly Jarvis

Narrado por: Jess Moran

We are all surrounded by darkness. And we are all drawn to the light.

The Orkney Islands north of Scotland are steeped in stories of selkies, seal folk who swim in cold ocean waters and shed their skins to sing and dance on land. One young girl named Isla uses legends of selkie brides to understand her parents’ troubled marriage and navigate her strained relationship with her mother. As Isla comes of age, she confronts the sacred points of transformation found between sea and land, nature and civilization, and past and present, uncovering the key to her identity.

Selkie Moon is a novella for all those who believe stories can illuminate the deepest and darkest waters of the human soul.

©2025 Kelly Jarvis (P)2025 Kelly Jarvis

Beautiful and heart wrenching tale of cultural assimilation

Using the lens of folklore, we experience a small family on their own through the eyes of a young girl. They are imperfect but have love. The girl has spent her childhood using two types of communication- one with her mother and one with her father. She learns a way of life on a small island where she thrives.
Upon reaching an age where her father deems she should go to school, he uproots the family to the mainland where she is now deemed a “wild thing” and she has to learn the norms and customs - especially as a female. This results in a strain on the relationship with her mother as it was her culture that has made her “other”.

It was easy to take parts of this book and experience secondhand some of the effects of forced assimilation. Sad and painful but so worth knowing a piece of what others have had to go through.

The narrator Jess Moran is brilliant and fits this book so wonderfully with her sweet, silky voice. I look forward to her next project.

Good and Different Selkie Story

This story in the end differs from other stories I read or listen to because it end is different. I very much had strong negative feelings towards the Grandmother's additude and treatments of her granddaughter. Narrator does a nice job with the characters and the Entire storyline.