Preview of The Changeling Sea Summary:

There are two major themes in The Changeling Sea. The first theme is the female coming of age in a somewhat hostile world. The second theme is the importance of finding and choosing the right kind of love.

McKillip's heroine, Peri, is a young woman in search of herself and her identity. From the very start of the book, she knows that she must be active, not a passive participant in life.

She knows there are many hardships in life, and she knows that one has to work. When her father is lost at sea, she takes action. Unlike her mother, a woman of an older generation who has been taught to accept natural order, Peri decides to do something about her lost father. She learns how to create a hex, and then she actually casts it. She is not a pretty, vapid young woman who waits for...