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A review by eggcatsreads
Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles
3.0
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Brigids Gate Press for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The cover is gorgeous, and was my impulse to ask for this book. And this novella is great if you were wanting a quick story with deadly women pirates who kill and take revenge on men. The story can be a bit confusing at times, but overall is a quick read so if you were just wanting a palette cleanser, I would recommend this novella. The writing, the imagery, and the relationships all felt real and fleshed out, and getting into the head of the main character wasn’t difficult - nor was it difficult to sympathize with her, or her desires.
To get into why this story didn’t really work for me, however, it personally felt too rushed and like it was needing 100-200 more pages to make a more coherent story. There were a few times that it almost felt like there was a jumpcut between scenes that were supposed to be happening at the same time, and I had to reread it to even understand what was going on. (And some of these were important plot-related scenes, where I definitely think there should have been some buildup instead of it simply just occurring.) In some ways, reading this novella felt like watching a play happening with scene changes, but nothing in the middle to indicate why or when the scene had changed.
I enjoyed the main plot of the story, but overall I felt there was too much unexplained with the origins of the rusalka or their ship. We learn that they have no memory of their time before the ship, and it’s implied that their previous memories were removed. However, when they start to regain their memories, we’re told that the captain would be willing to help them get their revenge. If that’s the case, why the memory loss? There also seems to be some confusion about the festival, as when it was occurring it seemed to be something that they do yearly - and yet, when their destination was changed to the location it was a huge contention. Once again, I think a lot of this could be solved by just having a longer book that can go into detail about these (and other) things. Also, with such a short book, I think the other character’s histories and pasts should not have been explained in detail - they don’t really do much for us, the reader, other than adding more confusion to the plot.
I will also confess to not liking the ending, as it felt like a rather cop-out versus an actual conclusion to the story.
I’m not the biggest fan of the first person narrative that this story is told through. It wasn’t done poorly, but at times it didn’t feel like there was much variation in the storytelling voice. Even when the one telling the story wasn’t the main character, the voice still felt like the same character speaking. This isn’t the biggest deal, but it was kind of stark to have no difference in speaking voice between Jaq and the snake, during their chapters.
Overall, I can absolutely see the potential in this story and would absolutely be willing to give it another chance if it’s ever extended into a full novel. When the story was flowing well I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately for me there were too many rough patches to rate this higher than 3 stars.
The cover is gorgeous, and was my impulse to ask for this book. And this novella is great if you were wanting a quick story with deadly women pirates who kill and take revenge on men. The story can be a bit confusing at times, but overall is a quick read so if you were just wanting a palette cleanser, I would recommend this novella. The writing, the imagery, and the relationships all felt real and fleshed out, and getting into the head of the main character wasn’t difficult - nor was it difficult to sympathize with her, or her desires.
To get into why this story didn’t really work for me, however, it personally felt too rushed and like it was needing 100-200 more pages to make a more coherent story. There were a few times that it almost felt like there was a jumpcut between scenes that were supposed to be happening at the same time, and I had to reread it to even understand what was going on. (And some of these were important plot-related scenes, where I definitely think there should have been some buildup instead of it simply just occurring.) In some ways, reading this novella felt like watching a play happening with scene changes, but nothing in the middle to indicate why or when the scene had changed.
I enjoyed the main plot of the story, but overall I felt there was too much unexplained with the origins of the rusalka or their ship. We learn that they have no memory of their time before the ship, and it’s implied that their previous memories were removed. However, when they start to regain their memories, we’re told that the captain would be willing to help them get their revenge. If that’s the case, why the memory loss? There also seems to be some confusion about the festival, as when it was occurring it seemed to be something that they do yearly - and yet, when their destination was changed to the location it was a huge contention. Once again, I think a lot of this could be solved by just having a longer book that can go into detail about these (and other) things. Also, with such a short book, I think the other character’s histories and pasts should not have been explained in detail - they don’t really do much for us, the reader, other than adding more confusion to the plot.
I will also confess to not liking the ending, as it felt like a rather cop-out versus an actual conclusion to the story.
I’m not the biggest fan of the first person narrative that this story is told through. It wasn’t done poorly, but at times it didn’t feel like there was much variation in the storytelling voice. Even when the one telling the story wasn’t the main character, the voice still felt like the same character speaking. This isn’t the biggest deal, but it was kind of stark to have no difference in speaking voice between Jaq and the snake, during their chapters.
Overall, I can absolutely see the potential in this story and would absolutely be willing to give it another chance if it’s ever extended into a full novel. When the story was flowing well I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately for me there were too many rough patches to rate this higher than 3 stars.