The Tide Knot (Ingo). by Helen Dunmore

Dunmore, Helen. The Tide Knot (Ingo).
Harper Collins, 2008, $17.89, 330p, 978-0-06-081856-2
Fantasy

In this sequel to Ingo, Sapphy and her family have moved from the Cornish cliffs to the seaside town of St. Pirans after the disappearance and supposed drowning of her father. Her brother Conor is trying to assimilate into the everyday world but Sapphy cannot forget that they both carry the blood of the Mer and are still drawn irresistibly to the underwater world of Ingo. She manages to evade her family and return to the sea, swimming with the Mer and visiting their world. The longer she spends in Ingo, the more difficult she finds it to return to the world of the Earth. She and Conor face the ever-increasing danger of going too deep into Ingo and breaking the balance between land and sea irrevocably. Her father returns briefly to warn her of an impending disaster, but she and Conor cannot avoid its path.
Dunmore convincingly tells of the difficult and dangerous choices that Sapphy and Conor must make and the repercussions that occur with each decision. Her lyrical writing style will engage the readers and make them anxious to read more about the undersea world of Ingo. While better read in sequence, this book can stand on its own. SO