Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

I love this book! It is incredibly diverse and has really good sapphic, gender-fluid and non-binary rep. It is written absolutely beautifully! Reading it was such an amazing experience. The characters, the world building, the words, everything just fit and was so beautiful. It was so mythical and magical, the author just transports you straight into this amazing and beautiful world. I was invested the whole time, the story never felt dragged out or disconnected. The ending was so sljdlslskslsj T^T. I would 100% recommend this book. Already in the first chapter I knew it would become one of my favorites! 💕🌊🪼

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carolined314's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Emotional pirates and mermaids and about the tradeoffs that happen with poverty, fear, solitude, and addiction. Quite a book, with multiple nonbinary characters, queer love, and lovely lady operatives, along side cruel and vicious men. A lot of the latter.

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dealingwithdragons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Blurb: "In a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic, a desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial lady find a connection on the high seas." Very mixed feelings about this one. There is great LGBTQ rep, and the two leads are POC characters, and I appreciated the discussions and seeing the effects of colonization by the Empire. The Witch had some great stories. The world building left a lot to be desired, but there were some cool elements and ideas.
Other than that, I didn't like most of the characters, and didn't even care about the two leads especially. They fall in love very quickly. This book is dark, please check the CW. CW:

even off-page, I don't want to read about child rape.

There are a few plot holes. There are two endings and I didn't appreciate either of them. I get what the author is going for

with Evelyn and Florian, it's their reward and they get to be together, but it didn't feel like Florian really has atoned enough to earn that, and "they both turn into mermaids' fits with the magic of the book, but also feels like a story a five year old would tell.

. The second ending is about a character that I didn't like, so I didn't care about what happens to them, even though, again, I feel like I understand what the author is going for.
If you like fantasy, especially with good LGBTQ rep, and like stories on the darker side, I would give this one a try. In spite of the mixed bag of reactions, I would read another from this author.

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