From the opening words there is an atmosphere of fear and foreboding in this novel. Maggie Stiefvater writes about supernatural topics like faeries and werewolves, but at the core of her stories is always the tentative steps of first love. The Scorpio Races, based on an ancient myth around killer horses that come from the sea, has similar themes but is much darker than her previous books.

Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick have both lost their parents to the capaill uisce, the water horses, in the small island community of Thisby. Yet this does not stop either of them engaging with the beautiful but deadly beasts. Sean has won the Scorpio Race, where locals compete on the half-wild water horses each November, four times. Puck is riding in the race for the first time, if the authorities will allow it, in a misguided attempt to keep what’s left of her family together.

You can almost feel the ferocious wind, taste the salt on their lips and smell the repugnant stench of fish as you read. You will surely quiver in fear at the bloodthirsty calls of the capaill uisce as they hearken to their beloved sea or the moment before they attack a careless human. A warning to the squeamish – the body count is high in this novel, as the capaill uisce bestow both power and death upon those who would attempt to tame them. With an atmospheric backdrop of a strange and harsh island life, this is a beautifully realised account of a brave young woman who battles against all odds and an isolated young man who finds the will to love again.

Angela Crocombe is from Readings St Kilda