Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - A Song Below Water

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow

31 reviews

haylzno's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

High schoolers Effie and Tavia not only have to navigate their way through high school life as teenagers but also as mystical creatures that are often ostracized and discriminated against. The two girls use their sisterly bond to help each other through pressing times and personal changes.

I very much enjoyed the magical realism of this book. I imagine that if sirens and serpents and gargoyles were incorporated in todays social atmosphere that it would be very much like this novel. Racism and xenophobia are always hard to read about but just it's important that these issues be talked about.

I wish there was a tad more about the sirens outside of the high school POV, but overall I enjoyed this novel. The narrators were fantastic!

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.0

Because fantasy is not my typical genre, I had a hard time understanding some of the different types of characters that came up and the world building wasn’t as encompassing as I would’ve liked for it to be. That said, the allegory used to connect this fantasy story to present day was incredibly powerful. I loved the characters, Tavia & Effie, and their bravery, their commitment to each other, and to being authentically themselves. This was an enjoyable YA book for me and I learned a little about fantasy lit along the way.

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serena_hien's review against another edition

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hopeful informative relaxing 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? No

3.0

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anna_wa's review

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adventurous challenging tense 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

Last night I couldn't put this book down. I stayed up until 3 AM going all the way from page 107 to page 288 (the final page of the book). There was twist after twist after twist and I needed to know the answers to all the questions I had. It was both satisfying and heartbreaking when I finally got those answers (heartbreaking for what the characters had to go through).

The reason I couldn't give this a full five stars in my brain is because of the beginning. The beginning was extremely confusing, and I don't mean it was confusing in a "we're leading up to something" way that all Fantasy/SciFi books are confusing. I mean that it was confusing in an "I don't know what the author is trying to get at here with this dialogue/description" way. For a while I thought about rating it 3 stars because of how confusing the beginning was.

But then I hit the second half of the book and it all clicked. Morrow was in her element there and no longer did anything feel out of place or like it needed more editing. She kept me going, on the edge of my seat, to find out what would happen to Effie and Tavia and their gargoyle, to find out if my theories were correct. (Some of them were but then some of them weren't, and in both cases I was delighted.)

I don't want to spoil too much but I will warn anyone who intends to read it that, despite this being a story of sirens and elokos and other magical creatures, it deals with a lot of very real issues from our world. From the very first chapter Murrow makes it clear that the real life police killings of Black people are gonna be a very important part of the story. But there's a lot more than that (which you can see if you choose to click on my content warnings). However, each and every one of these issues is handled with the sensitivity they deserve from the author. The seriousness of them isn't skimmed over because "it's a magical world so magic can solve everything!" No, there are some things magic can't solve (and some things magic makes worse).

But it also isn't completely a sad story either. Without revealing too much, the ending is promising, tentatively optimistic. And the love between Effie and Tavia is strong from beginning to ending no matter what. Definitely recommended for fans of magical realism and fans of found-sisters-loving-each-other-despite-all-the-obstacles.

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exlibris007's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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sarah984's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

There were parts of this book that I liked a lot and then parts of it that I couldn't stand, so this was an uneven read for me. Overall, Tavia’s story was compelling, and her arc of learning to find her voice and take pride in who she is really worked for me. I loved the idea of a network of other Black girls who protect her so she can still sing, but the details on that were too murky for me. Why is a girl who doesn't like sirens on it? Who runs it? Are there actual consequences for outing her? It's not clear. The rivalry with the eloko girl didn't make sense to me either. I get why Tavia would be jealous of her but like if you don't want to protect a siren don't join a network? Overall though, I thought this section was spot-on, and the metaphor worked alongside the real-world anti-blackness that comes up.

Effie’s story, on the other hand, is a mess. Nothing happens with her for so long aside from a few vague things, and then she does something awful but it's immediately reversed, so I'm not really sure what the point was. Everything about her relationship to her bio family was uncomfortable to read.

I did love the way the two girls supported each other like sisters, but the book just did not come together as a whole for me.

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