In the village of Vranille, where perfection is a requirement, Abisina is an outcast. When Charach comes to Vranille, Abisina must flee from her village to keep her life. She embarks on a dangerous journey over the mountains to find Watersmeet and, potentially, her father. To survive the journey, she must overcome years of fear and prejudice and learn to accept help from others.

Toward the end of the book, it seems as though the author is trying to tie everything up quickly to make the story work in as few pages as possible. This book could easily have been five hundred pages. There are several aspects of the story that simply cannot be rushed without appearing unrealistic or leaving the reader unsatisfied in some way. There were also a couple of times that I felt the writing a bit too juvenile for the intended audience and other times I felt the writing was too advanced for the intended audience. It just wasn’t uniform.

These are, however, fairly minor objections in comparison with the story as a whole. Watersmeet is very imaginative and unique. There are many lessons to be taken from it. While it wasn't an "I couldn't put this book down" experience, it was a good read. I recommend it to anyone who loves Quest Fantasy or High/Epic Fantasy. ( )

The book itself is a fairly quick read. I found the beginning to be a bit slow, but found that it eventually picked up. The descriptions of the world are good and I loved that each character had their own flaws and set of issues. It made the story so much more believable for me. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, especially the second half. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in young adult fantasy. ( )

Abisina is an outcast. Her skin is the wrong color, her hair is the wrong color, and people kick, spit, and call her “Demon.” She looks nothing like Vran, the ideal of the village, and babies born like her are generally left outside the walls of the city to die.

Lessons in prejudice and group think flow throughout the novel as Abisina begins a journey that puts her among beings of the forest her village has taught her to hate…in an effort to save these very people that have shunned her and tried to kill her. This is a fantastic book. ( )

Reviewed by coollibrarianchick for TeensReadToo.com

W-A-T-E-R-S-M-E-E-T. The word easily rolls off my tongue. The cover with the picture of the girl caught my attention first. She has the look of a scared, caged animal. I want to know what Watersmeet is. As I usually do with fantasy books, I dove into this book with gusto. Any book that can keep me interested from beginning to end and not drag is a good thing.....

First time novelist Ellen Jensen Abbott has impressed me with her book, WATERSMEET.

There are many forms of prejudice in Vranille. Every day it is a fight for survival for Abisina. Shunned constantly and roughly pushed aside by others, Abisina is an outcast just because of how she looks. The worst thing about being an outcast is the all-consuming loneliness she felt on an everyday basis. There's always a fight for food and no one, unless they were an outcast themselves, is allowed to talk to her.

The only thing that kept her alive was her mother, who was the village healer. Things are about to go from bad to worse for Abisina. Someone other than her mother is about to come into power, meaning bad news for all outcasts.

Forced to flee, she heads to Watersmeet for help in the form of her father, a man she has never known. Along the way, she sees fauns, has a run-in with centaurs, eats a poisonous mushroom to save herself, faces minataurs, and has the courage to continue on.

Will Watersmeet be her salvation or her downfall?

The teacher in me came out as I was reading this book - you can easily make comparisons between this fantasy world and the real world we live in. How many times have people in this world faced prejudice, violence, and oppression, all because they were different than the ideal that society has imposed? Remember the Holocaust and Hitler? I saw many similarities between Charach and Hitler. Both were very charismatic leaders and no one saw the evil side of them until it was too late. You can do a lot of interesting activities in the classroom with this book.

Abisina changes a lot in the course of this story. There were many challenges she faced that brought upon these changes. First and foremost, and probably the most important, is that she had to look at the prejudices in herself. Once that was done, she became more forgiving, accepting, and tolerant. This, of course, is crucial if she wants to continue the legacy of Vigor.

Does that mean we will see more of Abisina in the future? I certainly hope so. ( )

Watersmeet was a fascinating and truly impressive debut novel. Abbott's writing style is very easy to read. The fantasy world that is created contains many mythical creatures- fairies, trolls, dwarfs, fauns, and centuars, but at the same time it deals with the same issues we face in today's society- discrimination, prejudice, tolerance and acceptance.The main character Abisina deals with many of those issues throughout the novel. Abisina is a terribly flawed character, but I think that is what makes her so believable. While I didn’t always agree with her, I enjoyed seeing her personal growth within the novel. Plot wise, there was some unexpected twists that I didn’t even see coming. The story was revealed at a steady pace, and there were never moments where I felt like it was dragging. I did developed a few issues about three quarters of the way through the novel, but luckily those issues were addressed in a satisfying manner. The ending was a little disappointing for me, I definitely preferred the epilogue. Overall, a great read for fantasy fans. ( )