A review by ladykaylee
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

inspiring medium-paced

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

4.75

This book did a lot of things well.  I really loved the realistic characters.  Every single character in this book had very real flaws, and real problems that you don't always see in fantasy, especially not in YA.  I also really liked the way the author showed gender flexibility, with the Pirate Supreme who uses they/them pronouns to the main character of Flora/Florian who was able to figure out her own gender identity, taking the trope of a girl disguising herself as a boy and turning it into a genderfluid character who contains multitudes.  

One thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the ending, and that might be entirely based on the book I read immediately before this one. 

In Out of the Blue and in this book, the queer merperson had to choose between family and a world they had always known, and staying/becoming a merperson.  This book chose the love of a significant other and becoming a merperson (which is clearly the correct choice), leaving behind a family member in the process.  I wish the dichotomy of sea vs. land weren't so set it stone in these queer YA merperson books.