A review by lupinreads
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
3.0
3.5 Stars! A solidly enjoyable fantasy novel. I knew I would like this from the start since I'm a big fan of anything that includes pirates and mermaids.
There's a diverse set of characters and a lot of interesting points of exploration around race, gender and homophobia.
The two that particularly stood out to me was a side character, Genevieve, who is a young girl native to Quark, one of the many islands that have been colonised by Imperials. In order to feel accepted by the Imperials she has done anything in her power to please them. Cutting ties to her own culture, shedding her original Quark name in favour of an Imperial one, and resenting other people from Quark that don't do the same "People like you - you give us all a bad name."
And also how Flora's/Florian's gender was approached. It was slightly different to how I normally see nonbinary/genderfluid characters depicted, and it resonated with me a lot. Idk if its my trauma or autism or what but sometimes I feel like my gender is whatever the situation calls for at that moment. Then underneath it all, when im alone and no threat/person is around me, I'm just me. I'm all of the genders I wear because I experience life through them, but also I'm not fully any of them, I'm just me :) It was comforting to see a character that feels the same way sometimes. I know many nonbinary people won't feel like this, but please remember nonbinary isn't just Gender 3, its an umbrella term for anyone who doesn't just fit into "man" or "woman", we will all feel differently.
Whilst I did enjoy this read and would recommend it to people, especially nonbinary lesbians who love the sea (there's a lot of us), I did feel like the book was about 100 pages shorter than it should have been. With just a little bit more depth and detail I could have been crying left right and centre. SO much happens within 400 pages that the reader is never given time to get invested in each stage before we're whisked away into the next. The romance, although it was very cute and I love them, it lacked depth, and they spent barely any time actually together. Certain character arcs felt rushed, and so many Huge things happened, only for it to be seemingly forgotten about, never spoken of again to make way for the next big thing, even when past things were completely relevant and useful.
I've seen other reviewers say they didn't like the flawed characters, or rather this type of flawed character. I agree the characters can be unlikeable but I think it's important that not every flawed character in the YA genre is a Dark Haired Brooding White Boy who does messed up things but its okay because he has a Dark Past and he's Sexy. Don't get me wrong, I love those characters too, but there needs to be space for people (especially poc/lgbt/women) who are making annoying or terrible decisions because they're a mess, they're frightened, they're naive, they're under pressure, they're misinformed, they want acceptance and a home, and most importantly because they're children, and children do dumb immature things.
There's a diverse set of characters and a lot of interesting points of exploration around race, gender and homophobia.
The two that particularly stood out to me was a side character, Genevieve, who is a young girl native to Quark, one of the many islands that have been colonised by Imperials. In order to feel accepted by the Imperials she has done anything in her power to please them. Cutting ties to her own culture, shedding her original Quark name in favour of an Imperial one, and resenting other people from Quark that don't do the same "People like you - you give us all a bad name."
And also how Flora's/Florian's gender was approached. It was slightly different to how I normally see nonbinary/genderfluid characters depicted, and it resonated with me a lot. Idk if its my trauma or autism or what but sometimes I feel like my gender is whatever the situation calls for at that moment. Then underneath it all, when im alone and no threat/person is around me, I'm just me. I'm all of the genders I wear because I experience life through them, but also I'm not fully any of them, I'm just me :) It was comforting to see a character that feels the same way sometimes. I know many nonbinary people won't feel like this, but please remember nonbinary isn't just Gender 3, its an umbrella term for anyone who doesn't just fit into "man" or "woman", we will all feel differently.
Whilst I did enjoy this read and would recommend it to people, especially nonbinary lesbians who love the sea (there's a lot of us), I did feel like the book was about 100 pages shorter than it should have been. With just a little bit more depth and detail I could have been crying left right and centre. SO much happens within 400 pages that the reader is never given time to get invested in each stage before we're whisked away into the next. The romance, although it was very cute and I love them, it lacked depth, and they spent barely any time actually together. Certain character arcs felt rushed, and so many Huge things happened, only for it to be seemingly forgotten about, never spoken of again to make way for the next big thing, even when past things were completely relevant and useful.
I've seen other reviewers say they didn't like the flawed characters, or rather this type of flawed character. I agree the characters can be unlikeable but I think it's important that not every flawed character in the YA genre is a Dark Haired Brooding White Boy who does messed up things but its okay because he has a Dark Past and he's Sexy. Don't get me wrong, I love those characters too, but there needs to be space for people (especially poc/lgbt/women) who are making annoying or terrible decisions because they're a mess, they're frightened, they're naive, they're under pressure, they're misinformed, they want acceptance and a home, and most importantly because they're children, and children do dumb immature things.