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queer_bookwyrm's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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? No
4.0
4 ⭐ CW: violence, misogyny, torture/whipping/water boarding, suicide mention, slavery, homophobia, implied rape mention, descriptions of blood and gore
"There's freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we've been given."
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuoda-Hall is a stand alone fantasy that has everything you could ever want: pirates, mermaids (obvs), magic, nonbinary pirates(!), Sapphic love, spies, and sentient Sea. Do I even need to say more?
No. But I will 😆. We follow Flora/Florian, a gender confused pirate on the Dove who is assigned to watch over an Imperial girl, Evelyn. Evelyn is incredibly sheltered and doesn't really understand the danger she's in, but decides to teach Florian to read, and thus starts their love story. Flora and Evelyn escape with aid from the Sea, since Evelyn figured out how to save a captured mermaid, and though they end up separated, both go through transformations.
I loved the characters in this! Flora/Florian is one of the only Black people aboard, and I loved seeing their journey toward gender acceptance and understanding that they can contain both of their identities. Evelyn is spiteful af and I'm here for it. I love the way Tokuda-Hall uses the story within a story as a device to connect the plot as well as the circular nature of it. The magic being propelled by a story is a love letter to those of us who believe and hold stories in our hearts. Tokuda-Hall shows us that stories can and do change us.
I also appreciated the criticism of imperialism and colonialism and the governments who claim they are "saving" or "civilizing" other nations, when they are in fact the barbarians bent in war and conquest. I almost wish this were a series, so I could continue to follow Flora and Evelyn as well as the Pirate Supreme (who I'm pretty sure is agender 😍).
"There's freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we've been given."
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuoda-Hall is a stand alone fantasy that has everything you could ever want: pirates, mermaids (obvs), magic, nonbinary pirates(!), Sapphic love, spies, and sentient Sea. Do I even need to say more?
No. But I will 😆. We follow Flora/Florian, a gender confused pirate on the Dove who is assigned to watch over an Imperial girl, Evelyn. Evelyn is incredibly sheltered and doesn't really understand the danger she's in, but decides to teach Florian to read, and thus starts their love story. Flora and Evelyn escape with aid from the Sea, since Evelyn figured out how to save a captured mermaid, and though they end up separated, both go through transformations.
I loved the characters in this! Flora/Florian is one of the only Black people aboard, and I loved seeing their journey toward gender acceptance and understanding that they can contain both of their identities. Evelyn is spiteful af and I'm here for it. I love the way Tokuda-Hall uses the story within a story as a device to connect the plot as well as the circular nature of it. The magic being propelled by a story is a love letter to those of us who believe and hold stories in our hearts. Tokuda-Hall shows us that stories can and do change us.
I also appreciated the criticism of imperialism and colonialism and the governments who claim they are "saving" or "civilizing" other nations, when they are in fact the barbarians bent in war and conquest. I almost wish this were a series, so I could continue to follow Flora and Evelyn as well as the Pirate Supreme (who I'm pretty sure is agender 😍).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Torture, and Blood
Moderate: Misogyny, Slavery, and Homophobia
Minor: Rape and Suicide
alouette's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-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? Yes
5.0
okay, so this was gorgeous, huh? absolutely breathtaking. i loved the simple things, like the relatively short chapter lengths and the representation and the magic system being loose, undefined and dreamy. and then i loved the epic, more complex things like the love and the gender feels and the pirating and the balance of darkness and softness and moral ambiguity. and of course, that ending (holy sh*t, that ending!!!)
the characters felt like i met them, the plot felt like i was living it, the intensity of emotion felt like a tidal wave wrought by the Sea herself. seriously, i'm obsessed with the beauty of how the world can bring two souls together and also tear them apart, but how broken hearts are not a destiny and love finds its ways. and then the themes of colonization and imperialism and storytelling and what it's like to live when you're not free?
can't say it enough, this book is spectacular.
the characters felt like i met them, the plot felt like i was living it, the intensity of emotion felt like a tidal wave wrought by the Sea herself. seriously, i'm obsessed with the beauty of how the world can bring two souls together and also tear them apart, but how broken hearts are not a destiny and love finds its ways. and then the themes of colonization and imperialism and storytelling and what it's like to live when you're not free?
can't say it enough, this book is spectacular.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual violence
Minor: Suicide and Vomit
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