The Girl from the Sea is a 2021 graphic novel by Molly Ostertag. The story was originally a one-page comic
written by Ostertag in college, then was adapted into a full comic book.
Morgan Kwon, a fifteen-year-old living on Wilneff Island, is under heavy stress thanks to her parents' divorce, her troublesome brother, and plenty of angst about being secretly gay. But she has plans upon finishing high school to get away from it all and live her life free of all these worries.
However, Morgan nearly drowns but is saved by Keltie, a mysterious girl who turns out to be a shapeshifting selkie. They quickly fall for each other, but Morgan is afraid to be open with Keltie, fearing honesty to everybody about their relationship will screw up her plans. But little does she know that Keltie has a secret too …
The Girl from the Sea contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: This book spun out of a one page comic, into a full semi-autobiographical story.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Keltie, a teen, wears a t-shirt on land that she admires for having a dolphin on it, but to everyone else makes her look childish. Morgan later sews it into a dress for Keltie.
- An Aesop: Plans for life don't go as expected, and it's better to enjoy what one has now than to hide parts of oneself for a hypothetical future that won't come as imagined.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Morgan's mother Min is very prone to embarrassing herself and Morgan when she tries to connect with her daughter. For instance, after Morgan is outed as gay, Min tries to lighten the mood by greeting her literally exiting a closet. She reassures Morgan that she's not worried about her daughter being a lesbian because it means she's less likely to have a teen pregnancy.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Morgan's younger brother Aiden was always rambunctious, but he gets even more bratty and prone to anger following their parents' divorce and his father leaves the island. It doesn't help that his big sister is brushing off his attempts to hang out to go kiss some strange girl. Eventually he apologizes to Morgan for being rude and outing her without permission.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Serena's birthday party goes less than smooth. Keltie's attempt to crash the ship sends Serena overboard, where she nearly drowns. For extra irony, her screams for help can't be heard over the sound of guests singing Happy Birthday.
- Beach Kiss: Shared between Morgan and Keltie when they first meet as teenagers, there's a missed opportunity after they meet again on land, and over the roughly two weeks they're together they share such kisses many, many times.
- Bitter Sweet Ending: Morgan and Keltie have to part ways but they agree to see each other again in seven years.
- But Now I Must Go: A selkie may come to land every seven years, but if they put their seal-skin back on, they are obligated to return to the sea for another seven. Keltie gives her seal-skin to Morgan at the start of the story, but has to wear it again at the climax to save Serena from drowning, thus forcing her to leave.
- Chekhov's Gun: Morgan says she used to have an interest in designing outfits. She ends up designing Keltie's dress for Serena's birthday party.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Keltie mentions that an older selkie left the rookery but occasionally visits. It turns out to be Morgan's neighbor Earl, who married a human, Val.
- Coming-of-Age Queer Romance: Magic elements aside, the book fits this trope. The story leaves Morgan ready to accept herself as gay and out to her friends and family. Furthermore, she intends to live her life to the fullest, expecting to meet Keltie again seven years in the future.
- Creator Cameo: Molly and her spouse ND Stevenson show up at the boat party for a few panels chatting.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Keltie is very much this, though it makes sense she's clumsy given she's only had legs for a few hours. She gets much better over the course of the story.
- Did Not Think This Through: At the climax, Keltie attempts to crash La Reine de la Mer on a reef. Morgan calls her out on not thinking about what would happen to all the people onboard if it sank.
- Downer Beginning: The story begins with Morgan drowning, though fortunately Keltie saves her.
- Eyes Are Mental: People note that Keltie's eyes are very weird, so it seems that selkies can't change their eyes. Earl proves this.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Morgan has a mole on the right side of her face, it adds to her style.
- The Fashionista: Downplayed. Morgan wears very understated but still fashionable clothes, and when describing herself in comparison to her friends, she mentions her interest in fashion. It makes her relationship with Keltie ironic, given the seal girl doesn't seem to really get clothes.
- Forced Out of the Closet: Morgan is outed to her mom by Aiden, who tells her she's got a girlfriend. She's hurt by this, and he later apologizes.
- Foreshadowing:
- The first thing Keltie says when talking about the La Reine de la Mer is too big showcasing why she took human form in the first place.
- Further elaborating on the kiss shows it didn't have to be a true love's kiss, Keltie just liked Morgan that much.
- Fully-Clothed Nudity: Morgan refers to Keltie as a “naked girl” while she's still wearing her seal-skin covering her body, though she may have mistaken it for water.
- Gayngst: Morgan knows she's gay but doesn't want to tell any of her friends and family, preferring to wait to finish high school and go to college and experience all that being gay entails without their possible rejections. She ends up getting forced out of the closet by her brother, but fortunately her family accepts her as do her friends, though some need a bit more convincing.
- The Ghost: There's mention of a Tyler Tanner who tried to kiss Morgan and got shoved off a bridge. Also, Jules, Morgan's friend, is dating a Tyler that the rest of the posse act unimpressed with.
- Girl Posse: Morgan lampshades that she and her friends seem like a stereotypical girlfriend squad from a 90s movie, though they appear to be far nicer than the usual high school movie posse.
- Godiva Hair: Keltie's first appearance as a child has her entire body obscured by long hair, much longer than it is when she's a teen. She would've been wearing her seal-skin underneath, though, so her hair was more to conceal her tail.
- Going Commando: Keltie's first outfit on land is nothing more than an oversized fisher's raincoat and her sealskin. Morgan, taking Keltie to get some better clothes, questions if Keltie is even wearing underwear, then immediately insists Keltie not answer.
- Gratuitous French: The story is set in Canada after all, but even then La Reine de la Mer or “the queen of the sea” is a bit on the nose.
- Hidden Agenda Hero: The reason Keltie kissed Morgan is, so she can take human form and somehow stop the giant ship La Reine de la Mer from harming the seal's rookery. She’s willing to go to rather extreme lengths to achieve this goal. But what makes her a hero is that when a better solution presents itself, she takes it and is even willing to give up her life with Morgan to save Serena’s life.
- It's All About Me: Serena takes offense to Morgan not being open to her about being gay and dating Keltie, saying it makes her feel untrusted. She ends up moving on from this, however.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Keltie's seal-skin, which resembles a cloak made of shimmering water. She claims it was sewn from bubbles caught in moonlit strands on the ocean floor. It really catches Morgan's eye.
- Inhuman Eye Concealers: Earl's glasses hide his eyes featuring the large pupils of a seal, revealing he is a selkie.
- Interspecies Romance: Morgan, a human girl, gets into a romance with female selkie Keltie (though she does take human form for most of it).
- I Want My Beloved to Be Fashionable: Again, Morgan has a serious interest in fashion, which may be part of the reason she's reticent to hang out with Keltie. Also why she gets out of her fashion slump and makes a party dress for Keltie out of the Selkie's favorite shirt.
- I Will Wait for You: At the end of the book, Morgan promises to wait for Keltie and meet her again in seven years. Defied in that Keltie tells her firmly that she doesn’t want that for her, that she wants Morgan to live her life the entire time Keltie’s gone.
- Jerkass Realization: Aiden appears to have this when, upon him outing her, Morgan asks in a hurt tone why he "always ruins everything" before she runs off.
- Joke and Receive: When Morgan fails to respond to her friends' group chat, Jules jokes she's dead. As it turns out, at that moment, Morgan is drowning.
- Light-Haired Swimmer: This is a major element in Keltie's design, she looks like she spends all of her time outside in the sun. Which as a seal she definitely does.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Serena is certainly this, Her parents use her birthday as a marketing opportunity and worries Serena that Morgan’s relationship with Keltie means that she’ll be pulled away from her. Which may explain some of her behavior.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Morgan is short-haired and slightly tomboyish. Keltie has long hair and more of a feminine look while in human form. It's not that big of a contrast though, making it downplayed.
- Mating Season Mayhem: Keltie admits that conversations with seals tend to get tiring, since all they ever tend to talk about is fish and mating.
- Meaningful Name: All over the place.
- Morgan can mean “of the sea” but can mean “sea defender,” relevant given her selkie girlfriend’s mission, this is oddly appropriate.
- Keltie is a bit more obscure but could mean something like “hard water”
- Serena means "serene" as in calm and despite being told - what she sees as - an outrageous fib by Morgan to get her to have the yacht's route moved, she keeps calm throughout it.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Keltie tends to show behavior characteristic of a seal, such as eating fish raw.
- Nature Hero: As a selkie it’s Keltie’s duty to look after her family of seals and their habitat.
- Nice Gal: Morgan’s friend Lizze is this, not even wanting to entertain Jules joking that Morgan might be drowning, when she definitely is. She’s also the first to celebrate the fact that Morgan is dating Keltie.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All of Morgan's friends and family notice when she starts not only acting happier but also avoiding talking to them, due to her secret romance with Keltie.
- Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Keltie can't control the water itself, but in seemingly any of her forms she can bestow a cloak of air bubbles that protects against drowning.
- Patient Childhood Love Interest: Keltie and Morgan first met when they were eight, and Keltie, knowing she would need a human's kiss to gain legs and walk on land, decided to wait for the chance to meet Morgan again.
- Plot Allergy: Subverted, Morgan apparently has a shellfish allergy, which you'd think would come up with having a selkie for a girlfriend, but it never does.
- Race Lift: Morgan is Korean in the book, while the human girl in the original mini-comic was white.
- Rhyming Names: There's something almost criminal in the fact that the selkie girl is named Keltie.
- Second-Act Breakup: Morgan and Keltie break up when Keltie reveals she came to land not just to meet Morgan, but also to find a way to stop Serena's ship from polluting the rookery. Morgan takes this to mean that Keltie was just using her and leaves her, but is convinced to date her again when her mother says she can see Keltie's feelings for her are real.
- Secret Relationship: What Morgan tries to have with Keltie; this works pretty well until her brother Aiden gets curious.
- Selkies and Wereseals: Keltie, as her name makes obvious, is a selkie. They're born as common seals and are very rare, but can remove their seal-skin and live on land as humans if they receive a lover's kiss. However, if they put on their seal-skin again, then they're obligated to return to the sea for seven years.
- Shout-Out: Keltie becomes known as “the girl with the Lisa Frank shirt” given her love of dolphins.
- Stock Animal Diet: Keltie likes fish, but does mention eating other seafood like oysters and shrimp.
- Strange-Syntax Speaker: Keltie is conversant in English but not fluent, having trouble with idioms and uses some odd word choices. It’s one of the many things that marks her as odd to Morgan’s Girl Posse.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Keltie knows how to talk to her fellow seals, but also birds like seagulls, and it's hinted that this includes dolphins. This doesn’t appear to be restricted to any form.
- Spoiled Sweet: Serena's parents own half the town, and she's the high school star, but she refrains from being too vain about it. She does show some shades of Alpha Bitch when accusing Morgan of ignoring her in favor of her new girlfriend, but warms up to Keltie after the selkie saves her from drowning.
- True Love's Kiss: When first meeting the following morning after her rescue of Morgan, Keltie says that she can now walk in human form thanks to a kiss of true love from Morgan that entwined their destinies. Morgan finds the situation suspicious. Turns out Morgan was right to be suspicious, since any kiss would have done it, but Keltie just wanted it to be Morgan, given her long-standing crush.
- Unnecessarily Large Vessel: La Reine de la Mer, a massive cruise liner that brings tours to Wilneff Island. Many of the residents hate it because of how massive it is, and Keltie says its route will poison the waters near the seals' rookery. She comes close to destroying the whole ship, but Serena's parents are convinced to alter the route. Eventually, the island's people get used to the boat.
- Uptight Loves Wild: Morgan and Keltie respectively; since Morgan is a fashion appreciative closeted gay girl who would be conscious of presentation to the outside world even looking into getting a degree in fashion, by contrast Keltie is a selkie; for many purposes a wild animal just starting to engage with human culture.
- Wealthy Yacht Owner: The Boisseaus own a cruise liner, and they let their daughter rent it for her birthday party/business opportunity.
- Will They or Won't They?: Averted. Morgan and Keltie kiss and start dating in their first scene together, though chronologically it's their second encounter. The author Molly Ostertag has spoken about her interest in seeing more stories involving relationships and couples throughout, rather than leaving the romance for the very end.
The audiobook contains examples of:
- Adaptational Explanation: The narration expands on multiple points like introducing the background Morgan has with several characters and gives clarifying details on the action of the book such as the importance of the last splash panel.
- Animal Species Accent: Keltie is given a Scottish accent here, perhaps as she's adapted from a Scottish skinchanger myth. It lines up with what she says in the comic, so it was probably always meant to sound like that.
- Honorary Aunt: The Audiobook makes clear that Val and later Earl were this to the Kwon family, with dinner being a regular thing together. Val even used to give the kids rides in her wheelchair.
