Sealkeeper - Ria Rees

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AUTHOR: Ria Rees

GENRE: YA Fantasy Romance
RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: Creative. Fast-paced. Irritating lead character. Would work wonderfully for YA Fantasy lovers. (FYI: I’m not one!)

Story Synopsis:
Tegwen is a trainee guard in the dream realm. As a sealkeeper, her job is to maintain and repair the ‘seals’ that protect the waking realm from the nightmares of the dream realm. However, one day, she goofs up and ends up damaging a seal which causes a windigo to escape. Can she fix this problem on her own without damaging her star intern status?
The story comes to us in the first person perspective of Tegwen.


I had read a book about cannibal characters earlier this month and declared, “Never again!” I had also read a book with irritating, oversmart YA characters earlier this month and declared, “Never again!”
Guess what this book had!?! *face palm*

You might have heard of the famous W.B. Yeats quote, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.” This book is the perfect example of this in various ways. Tegwen dreams of promotions and success but has yet to understand that her role carries a responsibility alongside. Though a fictional story, there are quite a few things that young adults can learn from this book, especially about how not to behave while carrying out your task/project/job. There's no shame in asking for help. There's no ego when it comes to accepting your mistakes. There's no humiliation if your work isn't perfect as long as you give it your best shot.

The above lessons come courtesy the lead character, Tegwen. While her age isn’t mentioned (the only clues lie in her statements like handling “300 cycles” of work, but no clue whether those cycles are days or months or years), her thoughts and actions establish her very clearly in the YA age range. Tegwen seems like a typical teenager who rushes to act before thinking twice. She is quite immature at the start, and considers herself capable of handling everything by herself. To add to this, she is rather irritating and judgemental. As such, she doesn’t make for a likeable lead character. Tegwen’s reporting head Ravi is a shade better when it comes to attitude. But I didn’t understand why a reporting head was so lax with a trainee when it was very evident that she was hiding something big goof-up. The only likeable character was Namid, a seventeen-year-old Ojibwe Indian girl, whose dream realm is the one messed up by Tegwen. She is strong, brave and sensible. Through her character, the author also highlights some of the issues faced by indigenous peoples.

While the characters brought the book down, the creativity of the author when it came to the dream realm enhanced the reading experience. I loved the description of the various dream worlds and their seals. The job role of the sealkeepers could have been better described, but as this was just a novella, I guess the focus was more on Tegwen’s goofup than on the dream realm and its guardians. I have also never encountered any story with a windigo, a cannibalistic monster from the folklore of the Great Lakes Natives. This was a creepy yet novel thing to learn.

The cover is not just gorgeous but also perfect for the story! I loved that dreamcatcher, which also has an important role to play in the tale.

The book definitely has its merits, and considering that it is tagged as a YA Fantasy Romance (there’s an FF romance arc in the plot), it does justice to its promise. The only problem is that I am not a big Fantasy Romance fan, and had grabbed this mainly for the author, whose drabble anthology (One Hundred: Words / Days / Stories) I had loved, and partly for that eye-popping cover. It was a good enough book for me; it will be a great book for the target YA audience.

My thanks to author Ria Rees and BookSirens for the DRC of “Sealkeeper”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This indie novella is available to Kindle Unlimited subscribers for free.

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