Kelsey Impicciche is proof that passions can become lifelong careers. Known for her platform as a gamer, bringing stories to life via The Sims 4, Kelsey is a content creator with a classic “internet best friend” persona. She knows how to share her ideas with others on a massive scale, and she’s not afraid to try new things. Her latest endeavor brings another lifelong love to the front of her career as she adopts the role of debut author with the release of her young adult fantasy novel Voice of the Ocean.
Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” Voice of the Ocean is a young adult fantasy novel full of twists and turns. From the expected—our siren heroine meets the human prince and finds her legs—to the complicated—her fairy tale turns into a pirate adventure—Kelsey finds space to fold her readers into an action and adventure story that is home to a found family of unique characters, a romance that awes and frustrates, and an overarching theme that pushes readers to reconsider the value of their emotions.
The 17-year-old siren at the center of this tale is Celeste. As a princess, daughter, sister, and friend, Celeste does her best to be the perfect siren, but following the rules and keeping her emotions in control are as challenging as her training for the siren military, the Chorus. For generations, siren distrust of humans has been building, and when it comes time for Celeste to participate in an act of revenge, her guilt builds and she finds herself on the humans’ side.
This is the start of the young adult novel Kelsey admits she wrote for her younger self. Growing up a reader, Kelsey shared that she chased experiences—like acting, joining choirs, and traveling—that let her share and find stories. Reading allowed her to connect with other girls as books like The Hunger Games and Twilight dominated conversations. As Voice of the Ocean, a pet project that became her first publication, developed, Kelsey realized it filled gaps in her adolescent reading experiences. She explained that she needed a character like her who “struggled with being hyperemotional and making poor choices and struggling with my parents.” Creating a story that combines emotional turbulence with family conflict let Kelsey give her younger self something that would have made her feel less alone.
Isolation is often a theme in retellings of “The Little Mermaid,” but Celeste is not alone—even if she doesn’t realize it. From a cutthroat with a soft spot for his husband to a girl who defies the odds and takes on life at sea, Kelsey’s pirates are built to remind readers there are many ways to be human. One of her favorite crew members is Kiyami, the only girl on the ship other than Celeste. As the story progresses, Kiyami and Celeste’s unlikely friendship blooms as the older girl becomes a mentor and ally to the siren. “I love a girl with a best friend in a book,” Kelsey said. “A lot of young adult books don’t give our female characters female besties, and I always had a female bestie my whole life…so I think seeing that in books is always such a treat.” Kelsey shared that Celeste and Kiyami’s relationship is all about the best parts of being human, finding support from someone who gets you.
Crying became a major feature of the book as well. Watery emotions are present the moment readers begin the story. Kelsey’s dedication “to the girls who are told they cry too much” and the epigraph from Hans Christian Andersen, “But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more,” force the reader to focus on the role tears will play before we see Celeste for the first time. “As an adult, I’ve been through a big journey of discovering what emotions mean and how are they useful instead of being embarrassing, and I think that that felt like it really connected to a siren and the way she’s positioned,” Kelsey explained. “Also, I’m a very emotional person in general, and I cry a lot. I don’t see that many main characters that cry that much. I think they do at these big moments, but in between when you’re frustrated and you just start crying, I think there’s something so human about that at least for me because that’s a thing that I do.”
With so many layers to Celeste’s story, it’s hard to imagine one reader for Voice of the Ocean. Those who love romance will fall for Raiden and Celeste’s banter—even if Celeste delivers her retorts silently with frustrated eye rolls and hand gestures. (Fun fact: Kelsey originally had Raiden slotted into the story as a villain before he became our bad-boy pirate love interest.) Cozy fantasy readers will enjoy exploring sunken ships with sirens and joining a pirate crew packed with characters who refuse to fit the typical one-size-fits-all role of the grisly pirate. Every reader will find a character to attach themselves to because this book is about nothing if not striving to understand who you are.
Voice of the Ocean is the first book in a duology, and Kelsey is determined to leave her readers wanting more. By the end of the story, there are a lot of questions left unanswered and plenty of conflicts to resolve. “I love it when the worst happens. We end on the worst note, the heroes lose, everything’s bad,” she told us. To be clear, everything isn’t completely ruined by the end of the book…but the world might be at stake—Avengers: End Game-style, as Kelsey puts it. “I think what’s fun about this book too is it’s such a mostly chilled-out happy little romp that by the end you’re really shocked by how it goes down, and that’s true of Celeste too. She didn’t expect anything to happen the way it did.” We’re rooting for victory in the next book, but as readers will soon find out, getting there won’t be easy.
Kelsey is excited to share her characters and ideas with readers. “It’s exciting to be able to talk about it and just have it out in the world and have it connect with readers that see themselves in these different characters,” she said. But the release doesn’t come without nerves. “It’s very scary to think in just a few weeks, it’s going to be someone else’s book. It will really have nothing to do with me anymore and everything to do with the reader and their experience. That’s one of the beauties of reading is getting to connect with books that speak to you, so my only hope is that it finds its people that love it as much as I do.”
Voice of the Ocean hits shelves on April 22, 2025. As part of the release, Kelsey will visit The Ripped Bodice in Los Angeles, CA (April 18); novel. in Memphis, TN (April 22); and St. Louis County Library in St. Louis, MO (April 28) to share her books to share her book with readers around the country.
