The Wicked Deep

The murder of the Swan sisters brings two centuries of revenge drownings, several of which happen over the course of the present-day narrative. A character whose brother was an earlier victim is determined to kill a local girl who's temporarily possessed by one of the sisters.

A lot of sex, but no explicit description -- both in the past as the two older Swan sisters disrupt the town by taking most of the men as lovers, and in later years as their ghosts use sex to lure new boys to their death each year. In the present, teen couples make love in briefly described but emotional scenes. The Swan sisters' mother has the three girls by different fathers, then ditches them to pursue other adventures and amours.

Several instances of "f--k," "s--t," "ass," and other crude language.

Plentiful teen drinking, mostly at parties.

Parents need to know that The Wicked Deep is a thrilling tale of murder, revenge, curses, teens doing stupid stuff -- and, possibly, the redeeming power of love. The first novel by Shea Ernshaw conjures up a cold, dark, wet, and doomy Oregon coastal town living under a centuries-old curse brought on by the townsfolk's murder of three sisters feared and hated for being wild and different and taking most of the town males as lovers. As the local high-schoolers wait to see if they're the curse's next victims, crude language and drunken parties on the beach take place. As it builds to a crashingly satisfying emotional crescendo, the story involves a lot of sex, past and present, but descriptions are brief and swoony rather than graphic.