Changeling Sea by Patricia Mckillip

 This was a great story. I love this author, she just has a certain style that brings whatever she says to another level. This said, the story isn't perfect. The major relationships between the main character and those around her aren't very strong, not strong enough anyways. At the end, not to spoil it, but she asks someone to come back for her, but the relationship between them wasn't strong enough for her to ask that of him... or at least we the readers weren't privy to it. They don't have to be ridiculously close or anything, the perceived distance between the characters is fine, but the draw between characters must make sense to the reader. If the author spent more time fleshing out relationships I think the story would've been better, because the relationships are very compelling, we just know too little of them. Peri says she enjoyed certain people's company because they needed her. Unless she is so weak and needy that someone recognizing her existence would make her go crazy, which I don't think she was, there is a part of the story the readers don't know about, or have to fabricate for themselves. So in a way it felt like she was grasping at straws, and the introductions of some characters, namely the workers at the inn, were kind of awkward.
 
Criticism aside, it was a wonderful story. The plot was well thought out and kept me interested. I thought the author did a great job of characterizing the sea. Kir was a great emphasis for this because he was half of the sea himself, so we had the sea both as itself and humanized in Kir. Periwinkle was ok, not the strongest heroine but compelling in her own way. I liked her name though, Periwinkle, you get few characters with such whimsical names. 

It was a great story though. It was short, I read it in a couple of hours, and it left me feeling kind of whimsical .