Making a name for yourself is hard, and it’s only harder for those that have to battle a severely bad reputation of generational guilt such as Ophelia Young. In Christine Calella’s novel The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray, her drive to do good and escape the island of Peu Jolie—that has never felt like home despite her never having experienced life outside of it—requires some rule-bending.
Ophelia Young has never felt like she belonged. Peu Jolie is an island that offers a second chance for criminals and their descendants, but pirates are shunned by all the townspeople. The worst of these pirates happens to be a woman known as the Pirate Queen: Ophelia Cray. Cray’s daughter doesn’t escape her mother’s reputation. With signature looks that make it impossible to deny her heritage, at least on the island, nobody outside her father, step-mother, and half-sister can bear to interact with Ophelia Young.
Her relationship with her sister, Elizabeth (Betsy), is a central point in the book. Betsy is mild-mannered, she’s afraid of others and hates going outside of the house. She prefers to make dresses, and she happens to be good at talking her way out of things. Betsy can’t imagine why Ophelia would want to leave home, or why she wanted to go to her mother’s hanging at the very start of the book.
Ophelia craves freedom, though, and when she hits complications at getting into the navy as herself, she decides she wants freedom enough to do the next best thing. Steal her sister’s identity and enlist as Elizabeth Young—all without saying goodbye. Life on the ship isn’t what she expected but especially at first, she loves it. But as time goes on, hiding her true identity becomes harder as she gets closer to the crew around her. Life without Ophelia would have been hard regardless, but when their father falls victim to the island’s brutal disease, Betsy leaves her distraught mother to find Ophelia, who she considers the only solution to the family chaos.
The third-person perspective switches from Ophelia to Betsy and their duality creates an interesting dynamic as both characters develop. There’s an aspect of fantasy to the story that contributes to a mysterious feel, but overall, the book isn’t as focused on action as the summary makes it seem. Rather, it’s very much a story on the relationship between the sisters and creating a personal identity.
The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray is a touching story not lacking in diversity, but the plot and antagonists weren’t as fleshed out as the protagonists and Ophelia, despite a talent in fighting, isn’t mentioned to have much training. Just as Ophelia felt a magical pull towards the sea and her mother, readers looking for a sibling relationship that spans oceans and defies all odds and generational guilt might find themselves attracted to this debut novel.
