The Peculiar Tale of the Tentacle Boy

Marina Minnow makes up stories because real life in the seaside, fish-obsessed town of Merlington is so boring. All anyone thinks about is fish, fish, fish. Every other shop is a fishmonger’s and even school lessons are based around seafood.

One night, Marina hopes to make her life as exciting as her imagination by exploring the abandoned pier. But even Marina couldn’t have dreamed up the miraculous creature she finds there: a boy with scales for skin, crab claws for hands, and a head covered in tentacles.

Saved from the sea as a baby, William was warned to stay hidden. So if Marina takes him home, will she be putting him in serious danger?

A fascinating mixture of mystery thriller and social observation, the story of Marina and William reflects the many attitudes we have to people who appear different to ourselves.

As the youngsters try to solve the secrets that haunt both their pasts, they have to manage curious, suspicious and aggressive townspeople as well as an underlying threat from those who stand to have their dark secrets exposed if the pair dig too deep.

A funny, touching contemporary fairy tale about acceptance, betrayal, greed and love.