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tifftastic87's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Synopsis: There are kind of two stories given in the book. The first is Liv's story and it is unfolded as she tells it as part of a police interview. The second is Andie's and she tells it as she conducts the interview.
We learn about Liv exploring an abandoned bunker while acting as a camera crew for her two friend's YouTube channel. She goes on this adventure with the two friends, one of whom is her ex, the other is someone she has a crush on, the younger brother of the ex, and the new camera woman. She survives, against a lot of odds, the attack of three deadly sirens. Upon her escape she goes directly to the police station to report it.
That's where we meet Andie, she is the police sergeant assigned to the case by her father the chief of police. We learn that she is having problems with her wife and it is causing her to spend more time at work. She listens to Liv's story for the better part of a month while falling in love with her the whole time.
My Review:
The premise is wonderful, I honestly added this to my TBR after I saw it on one of my favorite Booktubers wrap-ups. I really liked the idea of killer mermaids and was looking forward to it. But I was not a fan of a lot of this book. First off while the book is inclusive of race, disability, and sexuality, it made the bi characters assholes and cheaters. The lesbian character is just a reskinned alpha male who is willing to throw away her marriage and his career for a wounded damsel in distress. Andie uses her position of authority to get access to Liv's phone number and private space to confess her feelings in the middle of the night. Not to mention this is less than hours after she ends her marriage. Liv talks like she knew the different personalities of the mermaids and how they would react to things, even though she has only been directly around them for less than an hour.
A troubled marriage was set up for Andie so that she could be with Liv in the end, only for her to just end it for Liv anyway. During their discussion of ending things Joy, the wife, makes a comment about how it would be easier if one of them had done something to cause it. Less than 50 pages ago we had been told that Joy cheated on Andie a couple of months before the story started and had been sleeping on the couch since. Clearly, that was doing something! Apparently Andie agreed to help raise Joy's son that she was pregnant with in the beginning of their relationship because Joy was also sleeping with some dude? But then the kid died? And it has no impact on the story at all! We never found out why, we never saw it change her behavior, it was just there.
As soon as the first of the group dies to a siren, the brother confesses his love for the best friend. But Liv is jealous because she too loves the best friend. Best friend just so happens to be an overly handsome Korean man. For literally no reason is he Korean. Liv is jealous of the other camerawoman because they hired her after Liv quit for school. She was gone for three years and is jealous of the person hired to replace her and feels the need to compete. WHY? Just so we can have women fighting with each other over the affection of men?
The Unspoilery Bit:
The characters act irrationally and not in line with how they are presented. They are initially introduced and shown to be one way through minimal exposition, fine for a novella, and then they all act more and more irrationally as the plot moves. The women are either in love with each other or in competition with each other, there is no in between. The men are used for siren fodder, or to make the women's lives harder - honestly, no notes.
But there is a scene that I will give a mild spoiler two, Liv and Claire are discussing how to get the sirens on their side for escape and they agree to "use the patriarchy" whatever that means, they end up talking about how they have a family and in two sentences have convinced the siren to help them. I genuinely don't know if Morgan just doesn't know what the patriarchy is by definition or if she took a break and forgot what she was supposed to be writing before coming back to it? Claire and Liv also choose the siren they will speak to by deciding she is the leader, I honestly couldn't have told you she was the leader by how they trio were presented to us.
Another issue I had is that the chief decides that Andie is too close to Liv and needs to be pulled off the case. She convinces him to let her just take the backseat instead and says that means she will let her partner do all the questioning. Chief agrees and then Andie IMMEDIATELY walks in to question Liv alone, with no other officer, and no one questions it? It is like Morgan completely forgot that she wrote that in because we never see Lyle do the questioning even though Andie was ordered not to. Presumably everyone would be told that Andie isn't supposed to be alone with Liv?
Lastly, the ending. I like ambiguous endings as much as the next horror bitch, but this one was just awful. Nothing was explained or wrapped up or even hinted at. It wasn't ambiguous, it just stopped. There wasn't a "it might have happened this way, or it might have happened this way" thing, it just kinda ended.
Basically, there were a bunch of plot holes, inconsistent characters and a really lack luster ending. I was bored and kind of frustrated while reading it.
We learn about Liv exploring an abandoned bunker while acting as a camera crew for her two friend's YouTube channel. She goes on this adventure with the two friends, one of whom is her ex, the other is someone she has a crush on, the younger brother of the ex, and the new camera woman. She survives, against a lot of odds, the attack of three deadly sirens. Upon her escape she goes directly to the police station to report it.
That's where we meet Andie, she is the police sergeant assigned to the case by her father the chief of police. We learn that she is having problems with her wife and it is causing her to spend more time at work. She listens to Liv's story for the better part of a month while falling in love with her the whole time.
My Review:
The premise is wonderful, I honestly added this to my TBR after I saw it on one of my favorite Booktubers wrap-ups. I really liked the idea of killer mermaids and was looking forward to it. But I was not a fan of a lot of this book. First off while the book is inclusive of race, disability, and sexuality, it made the bi characters assholes and cheaters. The lesbian character is just a reskinned alpha male who is willing to throw away her marriage and his career for a wounded damsel in distress. Andie uses her position of authority to get access to Liv's phone number and private space to confess her feelings in the middle of the night. Not to mention this is less than hours after she ends her marriage. Liv talks like she knew the different personalities of the mermaids and how they would react to things, even though she has only been directly around them for less than an hour.
A troubled marriage was set up for Andie so that she could be with Liv in the end, only for her to just end it for Liv anyway. During their discussion of ending things Joy, the wife, makes a comment about how it would be easier if one of them had done something to cause it. Less than 50 pages ago we had been told that Joy cheated on Andie a couple of months before the story started and had been sleeping on the couch since. Clearly, that was doing something! Apparently Andie agreed to help raise Joy's son that she was pregnant with in the beginning of their relationship because Joy was also sleeping with some dude? But then the kid died? And it has no impact on the story at all! We never found out why, we never saw it change her behavior, it was just there.
As soon as the first of the group dies to a siren, the brother confesses his love for the best friend. But Liv is jealous because she too loves the best friend. Best friend just so happens to be an overly handsome Korean man. For literally no reason is he Korean. Liv is jealous of the other camerawoman because they hired her after Liv quit for school. She was gone for three years and is jealous of the person hired to replace her and feels the need to compete. WHY? Just so we can have women fighting with each other over the affection of men?
The Unspoilery Bit:
The characters act irrationally and not in line with how they are presented. They are initially introduced and shown to be one way through minimal exposition, fine for a novella, and then they all act more and more irrationally as the plot moves. The women are either in love with each other or in competition with each other, there is no in between. The men are used for siren fodder, or to make the women's lives harder - honestly, no notes.
But there is a scene that I will give a mild spoiler two, Liv and Claire are discussing how to get the sirens on their side for escape and they agree to "use the patriarchy" whatever that means, they end up talking about how they have a family and in two sentences have convinced the siren to help them. I genuinely don't know if Morgan just doesn't know what the patriarchy is by definition or if she took a break and forgot what she was supposed to be writing before coming back to it? Claire and Liv also choose the siren they will speak to by deciding she is the leader, I honestly couldn't have told you she was the leader by how they trio were presented to us.
Another issue I had is that the chief decides that Andie is too close to Liv and needs to be pulled off the case. She convinces him to let her just take the backseat instead and says that means she will let her partner do all the questioning. Chief agrees and then Andie IMMEDIATELY walks in to question Liv alone, with no other officer, and no one questions it? It is like Morgan completely forgot that she wrote that in because we never see Lyle do the questioning even though Andie was ordered not to. Presumably everyone would be told that Andie isn't supposed to be alone with Liv?
Lastly, the ending. I like ambiguous endings as much as the next horror bitch, but this one was just awful. Nothing was explained or wrapped up or even hinted at. It wasn't ambiguous, it just stopped. There wasn't a "it might have happened this way, or it might have happened this way" thing, it just kinda ended.
Basically, there were a bunch of plot holes, inconsistent characters and a really lack luster ending. I was bored and kind of frustrated while reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Body horror, and Infidelity
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Biphobia, Misogyny, and Suicide
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