The Coming Storm
The Coming Storm
It’s a horse they’re hollering at, the prettiest little horse you can imagine, with long slim legs and a coat so glossy it reflects the last traces of sunlight, making the horse itself look purplish and glowing. There’s a bridle over its neck, polished metal with something green twisting in and out of it – some kind of seaweed, I think. For all the racket the birds are making, the horse stands still and quiet, a slight breeze rippling its silvery mane. Behind the horse, a mile away, maybe less, Sarah Campbell’s great dark castle of a house sits perched above the red rocks, staring out onto the waves.
Jeanine draws in a breath. “What a beauty, eh, Beet? Wonder how it got down the bank?” She runs at the birds, her arms waving. “Leave that poor creature alone.” The gulls scatter, all except the crooked beaked minister, who stands close by on the bank, its beady eye staring. The horse hasn’t moved an inch, and Jeanine steps in closer, close enough to touch its soft rippling mane, but as she reaches out her hand to do just that, the gull swoops right down from the bank and bites Jeanine on the thumb.
“Ow!” Jeanine hollers, bringing her hand to her mouth. “Wicked thing. What was that for?”
The gull gives Jeanine a proud turn of the head, at the same time the horse swings silently away and runs, almost gliding along the shore in the direction of Poxy Point. It’s then that the singing fills my ears again, and I realize that it’s been there all the time, hidden under the mewing and squawking of the gulls, which are now flying off in all directions. The singer’s voice has a pull to it, drawing me to try to figure out where I’ve heard the tune before. It’s a bit like Gerry’s tune but where that’s high, sad, sweet, the sadness is all gone from this music. There’s a mean kind of gleeful squeal in its place, clinging to the notes, like someone laughing at another’s sorrow. As the song gets louder, my legs get weak, the same way they did at Sarah’s wake, just as if the music is trying to drag me off balance. The singer of it is close, too. As the horse runs the mile down the beach, I see her. About two hundred yards away, a woman is standing, barefoot, in a fitted blouse and a green circle skirt patterned with white flowers. She turns away as the horse gets near her, disappearing into the gathering shadows below the Campbell’s place. I find my balance again and look toward Jeanine, who’s sitting in the sand, the piece of driftwood in her lap.
“You okay, Jeanine?”
“Oh yeah, except for my thumb’s killing me. Made me dizzy for a second.” She stands up as quick as if nothing had happened. “Wasn’t that…”
The sky is purple now and the air has gone so still that my answer comes out louder than I expected. “That was Marina Shaw.” And it’s the second time I’ve been caught in that undertow.
One cold spring morning in her father’s rose garden, 15-year-old Beet MacNeil’s life changes forever when she sees a ghost. Her cousin Gerry Campbell appears, soaking wet and playing a haunting tune on his father’s fiddle while his girlfriend Deidre is giving birth to his baby inside the house. Beet immediately knows this means that Gerry has died at sea, a fate that also befell his father, Angus, years ago before Gerry was even born.
A year later, Beet, Deirdre, and Jeanine, Beet’s friend, are preparing the body of Gerry’s mother, Sarah, for her funeral. Gerry and Deidre’s son, Joseph, is happy and healthy though all of Beet’s family feel Gerry’s absence. Later at Sarah’s wake, two strangers from out of town appear, a rare occurrence in the small Prince Edward Island town where Beet lives. One is Sean MacInnes, a boy from Boston visiting his aunts for the summer, and the other is Marina Shaw, a strange woman wearing a seashell necklace who uncannily resembles Sarah Campbell and who claims to be Sarah’s niece. After the wake, Marina takes a sinister interest in Joseph who seems eerily drawn to the strange woman. Both Deirdre and Beet feel that Marina is up to no good, and this suspicion is reinforced when Marina offers to take Joseph to Boston with her, away from his home and family. Beet knows in her heart that Marina is trying to get Joseph away from her and Deirdre, but she can’t figure out why. Meanwhile, there are other mysteries surrounding Marina, like the way her voice seems to command the ocean and entrap anyone who listens when she sings. There is also her family attorney, Mr. Uist, an unnerving and quiet man whose actions Beet can't quite decipher the reasons behind.
As Beet and Jeanine dig deeper into the story of Marina Shaw and Mr. Uist, they get help from Lily Solomon, the town librarian, who has secrets of her own, and from Sean who is grieving the recent loss of his mother and who recognizes the haunting melody that Marina sings. Lily reveals that there have been many women who look like Sarah and Marina over the years, all in around Skinner’s Island, and death seems to have stalked anyone who gets close to the mysterious woman. Beet and the others must go back to when the land was first settled by their Scottish ancestors to uncover Marina’s story, and they must do it before Marina harms Joseph.
The Coming Storm is an atmospheric tale of not only Beet MacNeil and her family, but her town and the age-old threat that came to it from overseas many years earlier. Marina’s story is expertly told by Hansen whose use of different points of view sprinkled throughout the novel keeps readers looking forward to discovering more of the history of Marina and Skinner’s Island. Hansen’s eerie and haunting tone follows Marina and her other personas throughout the story, and, as more of the history is slowly revealed, this tone only increases, leaving readers feeling wonderfully unsettled. Another way Hansen creates this tone is through the use of song in the story. Marina’s voice creates a feeling in the characters that Beet refers to as an “undertow”. Marina’s song draws those who hear it in, and it seems to have a power over the ocean as well. Beet’s descriptions of this song make Marina seem powerful in an awe-inspiring and terrifying way.
In addition to the eerie atmosphere surrounding Marina Shaw, Hansen also beautifully captures the feeling of a small town with all its quirks. Beet and her friends know everyone in town, and all of the characters around the town have their distinct traits, roles and interactions that enhance the small-town atmosphere in the novel. Hansen’s vivid descriptions of the town and its various parts are also put to very good use to make the readers feel like they know the town of Skinner’s Island. This town and its landscape create a sense of nostalgia that is crucial to how the novel affects its readers.
Hansen does more than inspire a chill in readers in The Coming Storm, however. One of the novel’s great strengths is its use of Scottish heritage and myth to tell its story. Beet’s family and most of those on Skinner’s Island have Scottish heritage, and Marina’s origin goes all the way back to the Scottish Highlands. Hansen weaves the stories of immigrants and their mythology into The Coming Storm to create a sense of timelessness and power in the story’s antagonists, and, while the story answers the question of where Marina came from and who Mr. Uist is, it still leaves a lingering feeling of mystery and awe in readers after the conclusion.
Regina M. Hansen’s The Coming Storm is an expertly crafted tale that feels bigger and more epic than its small Prince Edward Island setting. Its eerie and unsettling atmosphere pulls readers into the story along with Beet and her friends. In addition, Hansen's characters are fully realized and easy to root for. These aspects make The Coming Storm a story that inspires both fear and nostalgia in equal turns.
Deanna Feuer is an English Literature graduate from the University of the Fraser Valley. She lives in Langley British Columbia and is currently studying Library Sciences.