Title: A Song Below Water

Author: Bethany C. Morrow

Publisher: Tor Teen 2020

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 288

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook; Monthly Theme

In a society determined to keep her under lock and key, Tavia must hide her siren powers.

Meanwhile, Effie is fighting her own family struggles, pitted against literal demons from her past. Together, these best friends must navigate through the perils of high school’s junior year.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice at the worst possible moment.

Soon, nothing in Portland, Oregon, seems safe. To save themselves from drowning, it’s only Tavia and Effie’s unbreakable sisterhood that proves to be the strongest magic of all.

I wanted to love this book so much! I was intrigued about the siren aspect of the summary. I was craving another really good exploration of current social issues. And just look at that cover! How could I resist? Unfortunately the reality is not great. Bottom line: Morrow tries to do too much in a short amount of pages leading to a muddled mess of topics and storytelling. Explained more: there are multiple aspects that I did not like.

• The pacing is incredibly slow for the first half of the book. And then the second half of the book turns it up to 11, leaving me with whiplash while reading.

• The writing style is somewhere between straight first person and stream of consciousness and it’s confusing and annoying. Both main characters often trailed off in the middle of explaining to focus on something else leaving me with confusion.

• Speaking of explaining, there is none when it comes to the mythical creatures. We are never treated to a true look at how they exist within our society. They seem to just be thrown in randomly. Why include them if there’s no real exploration? Just make this a contemporary YA novel, no fantasy.

• The focus of social justice was lost completely in the rest of the mess.

If you want to read a good fantasy novel that explores race and identity, pick up The Deep by Rivers Solomon. Amazing book! And it has actual mermaids! Or grab Solomon’s other book, An Unkindness of Ghosts, for a science fiction version.

Next up on the TBR pile: