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mar's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Death and Gore
frantic_vampire's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-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
This was a really fun read! I honestly don’t know why I waited so long to read it. I loved Perle and Dejean so much! I loved getting to see the queerplatonic relationship that developed between them over the course of the book. They made this beautiful connection that led to them making a pod based on trust and a willingness to help those that need a place to recover or rest or that need a home. They just kind of started collecting people little by little. I also loved just how queer this whole book was! It was really nice. Our Bloody Pearl is getting a four out of five stars from me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Trafficking, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Ableism
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Gore
Minor: Sexual violence
emtees's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I really enjoyed this book, mostly because I love these characters so much I am getting emotional just thinking about them.
This book was very different from what I was expecting. Based on the summary, I assumed it would be an action-adventure type story with sea creatures fighting pirates. Instead, it was something softer, quieter and more emotional. There is an evil pirate in Captain Kian, as well as good pirates in Dejean, Simone and their crew, and there is eventually a battle of humans and sirens, but most of this book is taken up with the story of Pearl, a siren captured by Kian, as they recover from their captivity, accept that they are now disabled, find love and a found family, and adjust to happiness in a very different life than the one they expected.
What makes this book so good? Let’s start with the protagonist, Pearl, a snarky, acerbic, often hilarious and extremely loyal siren. Sirens in this world are basically merpeople who also have the ability to hypnotize humans with their songs, and Bryn manages to make Pearl both extremely lovable and distinctly alien. (They express affection with statements like “if someone hurts you, I will eat them.”). At the start of the story, Pearl has spent a long time as the prisoner of the cruel and terrifying Captain Kian, a pirate with a grudge against sirens, who has found a way to overcome the power of their songs. Pearl is rescued when Kian’s ship is taken by a crew led by Dejean who is… also a pirate, but a nice one. Dejean is a pretty perfect love interest: handsome, sweet, a fighter and a pirate captain but still a compassionate person. He immediately decides that he’s going to take care of Pearl as they recover from their injuries, and once it becomes clear that some of those injuries won’t ever heal, Dejean and Pearl are set on a path to building a new life together.
The majority of the book is taken up with the development of this relationship, as well as the building of a found family that includes Dejean’s sister, Murielle, a hilariously quirky inventor, and her fiancé, Dejean’s second-in-command Simone. The main plot of defeating Kian only comes back near the end. Instead, we get a lot of time devoted to Pearl adjusting to life as a disabled person…er, well, siren… and figuring out how much of their old life beneath the sea they will be able to recover - and how much of it they really want back, considering how attached they are getting to these humans.
If you wanted to, you could maybe criticize the book for how easy all this is. There are conflicts and misunderstandings, but compared to most romances (and this definitely has the structure of a romance, though the actual relationship that results felt more to me like a queerplatonic partnership) there isn’t real tension to this. There are some major obstacles in the way of Dejean and Pearl being together - not just that they are members of enemy species, literally evolved to survive in different environments, but that Pearl has for all their life considered humans food - but rather than drama and angst, we get adults talking things through like adults, with compassion and open-mindedness. It is very refreshing.
So much of this book feels like that. The diversity is beautifully done and not at all token. Most of the (human) major characters are POC. Queerness is widespread and universally accepted - not only are all the major characters queer, but things like offering pronouns are a norm in this world. I liked that while the author did some interesting things with gender and sexuality in the fictional species - sirens appear to be all genderfluid and nonbinary, and a bit bewildered by human gender - they didn’t restrict those things just to the nonhumans. And the disability representation was beautiful. A lot of the book focused on Pearl’s acceptance of their disability, but it avoided a lot of the tropes that those stories sometimes fall into. Pearl had to deal with new restrictions and challenges but they never feel helpless or out of control of their own life once they are freed from captivity, and on several occasions we see them defending their human companions. My favorite thing may have been the magic-powered mobility devices that Pearl ends up with, and the fact that they don’t just take what is provided to them, but find a way to adapt that works for them.
The world of this book is a really cool one, full of different species and magic-fueled technology. I’m excited to see that there are more stories set there.
This book was very different from what I was expecting. Based on the summary, I assumed it would be an action-adventure type story with sea creatures fighting pirates. Instead, it was something softer, quieter and more emotional. There is an evil pirate in Captain Kian, as well as good pirates in Dejean, Simone and their crew, and there is eventually a battle of humans and sirens, but most of this book is taken up with the story of Pearl, a siren captured by Kian, as they recover from their captivity, accept that they are now disabled, find love and a found family, and adjust to happiness in a very different life than the one they expected.
What makes this book so good? Let’s start with the protagonist, Pearl, a snarky, acerbic, often hilarious and extremely loyal siren. Sirens in this world are basically merpeople who also have the ability to hypnotize humans with their songs, and Bryn manages to make Pearl both extremely lovable and distinctly alien. (They express affection with statements like “if someone hurts you, I will eat them.”). At the start of the story, Pearl has spent a long time as the prisoner of the cruel and terrifying Captain Kian, a pirate with a grudge against sirens, who has found a way to overcome the power of their songs. Pearl is rescued when Kian’s ship is taken by a crew led by Dejean who is… also a pirate, but a nice one. Dejean is a pretty perfect love interest: handsome, sweet, a fighter and a pirate captain but still a compassionate person. He immediately decides that he’s going to take care of Pearl as they recover from their injuries, and once it becomes clear that some of those injuries won’t ever heal, Dejean and Pearl are set on a path to building a new life together.
The majority of the book is taken up with the development of this relationship, as well as the building of a found family that includes Dejean’s sister, Murielle, a hilariously quirky inventor, and her fiancé, Dejean’s second-in-command Simone. The main plot of defeating Kian only comes back near the end. Instead, we get a lot of time devoted to Pearl adjusting to life as a disabled person…er, well, siren… and figuring out how much of their old life beneath the sea they will be able to recover - and how much of it they really want back, considering how attached they are getting to these humans.
If you wanted to, you could maybe criticize the book for how easy all this is. There are conflicts and misunderstandings, but compared to most romances (and this definitely has the structure of a romance, though the actual relationship that results felt more to me like a queerplatonic partnership) there isn’t real tension to this. There are some major obstacles in the way of Dejean and Pearl being together - not just that they are members of enemy species, literally evolved to survive in different environments, but that Pearl has for all their life considered humans food - but rather than drama and angst, we get adults talking things through like adults, with compassion and open-mindedness. It is very refreshing.
So much of this book feels like that. The diversity is beautifully done and not at all token. Most of the (human) major characters are POC. Queerness is widespread and universally accepted - not only are all the major characters queer, but things like offering pronouns are a norm in this world. I liked that while the author did some interesting things with gender and sexuality in the fictional species - sirens appear to be all genderfluid and nonbinary, and a bit bewildered by human gender - they didn’t restrict those things just to the nonhumans. And the disability representation was beautiful. A lot of the book focused on Pearl’s acceptance of their disability, but it avoided a lot of the tropes that those stories sometimes fall into. Pearl had to deal with new restrictions and challenges but they never feel helpless or out of control of their own life once they are freed from captivity, and on several occasions we see them defending their human companions. My favorite thing may have been the magic-powered mobility devices that Pearl ends up with, and the fact that they don’t just take what is provided to them, but find a way to adapt that works for them.
The world of this book is a really cool one, full of different species and magic-fueled technology. I’m excited to see that there are more stories set there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Ableism, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Rape
Major themes of injury, recovery and disability; internalized ableism in a character adjusting to new disability; one brief, non-graphic discussion of rape in a character’s backstorybeforeviolets's review
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-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? It's complicated
3.5
This book was essentially How To Train Your Dragon but from the POV of Toothless.
But also if there was a romance between Toothless and Hiccup.
And also if Toothless ate people and... was a siren.
Through the perspective of a nonbinary siren, this book takes us through the mental and physical journey of gaining a disability and learning to live with it.
Our main character, Perle, travels the path of mourning a life once loved in order to adjust to a completely new way of living. They find themself relying on those they would once consider enemies and having to redefine their understanding of freedom, independence, and strength. Over the course of this book, they learn to not only accept, but thrive, in their new reality, and through this are able to pave the way to a future that is better than one they could’ve ever imagined before their disability.
The characters were enjoyable, I thought the pacing was fairly well done, and I think the length was just perfect for the story that needed to be told. I will say, the high intensity moments were quite a bit repetitive, and after the third time the LI got knocked unconscious, the "is he alive??" moment we were meant to have as an audience lost its power. It just needed a bit of variety. I also felt that the romance element could've been a bit more cathartic towards the end, as I felt there was quite a bit of build and then just a brief little discussion about it in the final moments. But I did love the clarification of the quality of their relationship.
It's a really sweet story of healing, second chances, and creating support systems one can call family.
CW/TW: gore, blood, violence, injury detail, death, murder, imprisonment, gun violence, drowning, medical content, PTSD, paraplegia, emesis, physical abuse, sexual abuse (mention, past)
But also if there was a romance between Toothless and Hiccup.
And also if Toothless ate people and... was a siren.
Through the perspective of a nonbinary siren, this book takes us through the mental and physical journey of gaining a disability and learning to live with it.
Our main character, Perle, travels the path of mourning a life once loved in order to adjust to a completely new way of living. They find themself relying on those they would once consider enemies and having to redefine their understanding of freedom, independence, and strength. Over the course of this book, they learn to not only accept, but thrive, in their new reality, and through this are able to pave the way to a future that is better than one they could’ve ever imagined before their disability.
The characters were enjoyable, I thought the pacing was fairly well done, and I think the length was just perfect for the story that needed to be told. I will say, the high intensity moments were quite a bit repetitive, and after the third time the LI got knocked unconscious, the "is he alive??" moment we were meant to have as an audience lost its power. It just needed a bit of variety. I also felt that the romance element could've been a bit more cathartic towards the end, as I felt there was quite a bit of build and then just a brief little discussion about it in the final moments. But I did love the clarification of the quality of their relationship.
It's a really sweet story of healing, second chances, and creating support systems one can call family.
CW/TW: gore, blood, violence, injury detail, death, murder, imprisonment, gun violence, drowning, medical content, PTSD, paraplegia, emesis, physical abuse, sexual abuse (mention, past)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Death
Minor: Sexual assault and Vomit
cheye13's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, Torture, and Death
Moderate: Ableism, Murder, and Gore
Minor: Death of parent and Trafficking
It's hard to align this story with typical warnings, as the sirens aren't human, but aren't fully animal. The majority of the content warnings apply to the treatment of sirens, mostly predictable from the synopsis.amysreading_nook's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-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
3.5
TW: blood, near-drowning, violence, implied torture (not explicit)
REP: f/f relationship, non-binary/genderfluid character (uses they/them pronouns and changes gender), character uses mobility aid on fin/tail, use of sign language to communicate
4/67 TBR
I really wanted to love this one but there was just something about it that I couldn't quite connect with. The characters were good and diverse but I felt underdeveloped to an extent. We see them in quite a limited zone - mostly just one room - and whilst the relationships are established I never felt quite sucked in by them. Perle is a brilliant character and I really enjoyed their wit and humour but I never quite grasped where they changed their mind on humans and how it happened quite quickly. They've spent a period of time being tortured but they seem to trust other humans quite quickly. I feel this could have been better if it was more character focused rather than plot focused. I just couldn't quite picture what was happening or what Perle even looked like so I just felt disconnected from the story. This is definitely more of a personal issue than the book itself and I would recommend picking this one up if you love pirates and mermaids, it just wasn't a complete winner for me.
REP: f/f relationship, non-binary/genderfluid character (uses they/them pronouns and changes gender), character uses mobility aid on fin/tail, use of sign language to communicate
4/67 TBR
I really wanted to love this one but there was just something about it that I couldn't quite connect with. The characters were good and diverse but I felt underdeveloped to an extent. We see them in quite a limited zone - mostly just one room - and whilst the relationships are established I never felt quite sucked in by them. Perle is a brilliant character and I really enjoyed their wit and humour but I never quite grasped where they changed their mind on humans and how it happened quite quickly. They've spent a period of time being tortured but they seem to trust other humans quite quickly. I feel this could have been better if it was more character focused rather than plot focused. I just couldn't quite picture what was happening or what Perle even looked like so I just felt disconnected from the story. This is definitely more of a personal issue than the book itself and I would recommend picking this one up if you love pirates and mermaids, it just wasn't a complete winner for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Violence
Minor: Torture
line's review
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Violence
minervacerridwen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
relaxing
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
3.0
At the start of the book I'd have given Our Bloody Pearl 4 stars, but in the second half only 2 - though I did like the very end. I think I didn't quite have the right expectations for this story after seeing several people say that this was a comfort read for them; it turned out to contain a lot more persistent violence and torture than I expected from that description. However, let's start with the things I loved: the story pulled me in right from the start, and I immediately liked the main character and the way the "foreign" siren logic was presented in first-person pov. The other characters were also likeable and I felt we got to know them very quickly, which helped to connect to the story right away. The first half of the book was very easy to read and the fast pace kept me intrigued. And of course there's a lot of queer representation: the sirens having different views on gender than humans, as well as ace, trans, polyam, and F/F representation among the humans. I discovered the book through GreatAce.Club, so that was awesome!
But somewhere about halfway, there was an event in the story that made me like the main character less.Namely, Perle makes the selfish decision of returning to the cove with the humans very soon after another siren, Storm, hurt Dejean. I'm not a siren and yet I realised that surely Storm would still be there, but Perle was apparently happy to risk the lives of their human 'pod'. This really bothered me because it could so easily have been avoided!
From that point on, we were thrown from one action scene to the next fight and yet another threat, and perhaps it was because it took me a long while to find time to read again, but it no longer felt to me like the intriguing series of events that it had been at the start. I was happy when the end of the story was in sight. Still, the story had a proper climax, and I think it's impressive that the writer pulled that off after so many other action scenes! But all in all, I think the second half of the book simply didn't come at the right time for me to read.
But somewhere about halfway, there was an event in the story that made me like the main character less.
From that point on, we were thrown from one action scene to the next fight and yet another threat, and perhaps it was because it took me a long while to find time to read again, but it no longer felt to me like the intriguing series of events that it had been at the start. I was happy when the end of the story was in sight. Still, the story had a proper climax, and I think it's impressive that the writer pulled that off after so many other action scenes! But all in all, I think the second half of the book simply didn't come at the right time for me to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Torture
Moderate: Death
achillea's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
MANY THOUGHTS HEAD FULL BOOK GOOD
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Physical abuse
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Minor: Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual assault
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