59 pages • 1-hour read
The Girl from the Sea: A Graphic Novel
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of anti-gay bias, gender bias, and emotional abuse.
Geographical Context: Blue Rocks and the Nova Scotia Coast
Ostertag based the story’s setting on the small fishing community of Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, where his own family has ties. In the novel, Morgan and her family live on Wilneff Island, a tiny private island just off the coast of Blue Rocks. Only three houses stand on the island, connected to the mainland by a narrow bridge. The surrounding waters form a natural harbor, calm compared to the open Atlantic, and the island’s rocky cliffs and sparse vegetation give it both beauty and isolation.
This small, self-contained home mirrors Morgan Kwon’s inner world. The cliffs and dark water that surround her home reflect her sense of confinement and secrecy: She is physically and emotionally boxed in. The sea that encircles Wilneff Island serves as both boundary and refuge: It is dangerous enough to nearly drown her, yet also the place where she meets Keltie and begins to explore her identity.
Blue Rocks is a small fishing community in Lunenberg County, known for its brightly painted houses, quiet coves, and emphasis on preserving maritime tradition. The population of Lunenberg, the largest town in the county, was only about 2,400 in 2021, (“Focus on Geography Series, 2021 Census Population: Lunenburg, Town.” Statistique Canada. 9 Dec. 2025). Morgan’s complaint that everyone knows her reflects challenges common to coming of age in small, rural communities where privacy is scarce and reputation carries weight. This geographic closeness heightens the novel’s central tension between individuality and conformity.
The Boisseaus’ large new tour boat disrupts that balance, symbolizing modern intrusion into a place defined by tradition. Likewise, Morgan’s relationship with Keltie challenges the island’s unspoken rules. The physical landscape of Wilneff Island, isolated, traditional, and edged by deep water, creates the perfect environment for a story about secrets, transformation, and learning to surface.
Literary Context: Selkies
Selkie myths originate in Celtic folklore, especially in Scotland, Ireland, and the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The word selkie comes from the Scots term selich, meaning “seal” (“Selkies in Irish Mythology: The Shape-Shifting Seal Folk of the Sea.” Irish Mythology Stories, 26 Sept. 2024.). These stories describe seals who can shed their skins to become human. Unlike werewolves, who are humans that sometimes transform into animals, selkies are seals who sometimes become human. Their ability to change form connects them to themes of liminality, vulnerability, and belonging, ideas that Ostertag reinterprets in The Girl from the Sea.
Traditional selkie tales usually center on female selkies whom men capture. In most versions, a man steals a selkie’s skin, forcing her to remain on land and marry him. Though she may raise a family, the selkie always yearns for the sea and returns to it once she recovers her skin, leaving the human world behind. These stories often reflect gendered power dynamics, longing, and the tension between freedom and domesticity.
Ostertag retains these emotional undercurrents but reimagines them through a modern queer lens. In The Girl from the Sea, Keltie is a selkie who willingly enters the human world after Morgan’s kiss. Her transformation does not trap her. It becomes an act of love and self-choice. The vulnerability that once symbolized captivity instead represents openness and trust between two girls discovering themselves. While Morgan initially hides both her sexuality and her relationship with Keltie, Keltie embodies authenticity; she knows who she is and claims her identity proudly.
The novel even transforms the motif of the stolen seal-skin. When Morgan takes Keltie’s skin, it is not an act of control but of affection, an imperfect attempt to keep her close. Morgan later returns it freely, allowing Keltie to reclaim her autonomy. The ending, in which Keltie promises to return after seven years, offers hope and renewal, in contrast with the tragic endings of traditional selkie stories. Through this reimagined selkie myth, The Girl from the Sea becomes a story not about captivity, but about love, freedom, and the courage to surface as one’s true self.
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