Marly's had enough of the cramped little rundown flat and wounded grey street where she lives with her fiance, David. If they could just move away, escape to a rose-covered cottage by the sea, she's sure she would get better and everything would be alright... Seahorses are real is a powerful debut novel of love and damage. Zillah Bethell tells the haunting tale of a relationship warped by depression, at once tender and destructive, where violence is not only perpetrated by men and love is not necessarily enough.