Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

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

135 reviews

bbpettry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

Flora/ian is my favorite kind of adventure protagonist: scrappy, conflicted, wise, and confused about their gender. Their counter is Evelyn, a noble girl embarking on what is supposedly her life’s purpose. Her things packed into her future casket, she is to sail to the Floating Islands to marry a conveniently wealthy man she’s never met. She boards a ship called The Dove. Despite her dread at the uprooting of her life, she expects this passenger vessel to safely get her where she’s going. Florian and the crew know that at some point The Nameless Captain, his memories rotted from mermaid’s blood, will round up the aristocratic passengers, plunder their possessions, and sell them into slavery. This has been their con for a few voyages now and Florian, growing up cold and hungry meters away from a palace full of food and finery, has found it very possible to push away any sympathy for these privileged marks thus far. When they’re ordered to guard Evelyn, Florian is taken aback by her humor and openness. Tokuda-Hall switches perspective by chapter, mostly between Florian and Evelyn but we also hear from the first mate of The Dove, Rake, and even The Sea herself. While that can be a treacherous route, the author has maintained a depth of voice and character with each of them so that the narrative is deeper for it, not spread thin and shallow as some sprawling fantasy can get. This book is definitely for older teens, but any fantasy/adventure fan would certainly get a lot from this book - it has moral quandaries weaved in, intrigue, lore, and romance to die for! The sequel comes out fall ‘23 and I’ve been blessed to read it, the follow-up is just as strong and lovable.

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scrambledark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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sundayfever's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fantastic read, dark but with a bittersweet ending. Great plot twists along the way.

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reviewsbyleyla's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I’d rather I hated a book than feel nothing for it, yet I really did feel nothing for this. Why were the lead 2 characters in love? I can’t tell you. There was no personality or depth to them at all. The plot moved fast but everything was written so flatly that there was no sense of adventure, excitement or curiosity. The only reason I finished the book was sheer stubbornness. Then the end which was meant to be emotional, I couldn’t have cared less. I really feel like with this book, I just went through the motions. I can’t even put it down to me not being the right target age audience because i read and love middle grade books all the time, and I’m pretty sure middle grade books shouldn’t have violence written in them as graphically as this one did. I don’t know, this book just had so much potential and didn’t follow through at all. Really sadly disappointed.

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dokushoka's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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maeverose's review against another edition

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2.5

I think this might be one of those books that just didn’t work for me because I’m not within the target age demographic. I did love the casual non binary and queer rep, even if there is still homophobia (and a sh*t ton of misogyny) in this world. But tbh that’s really it.

I didn’t feel connected or invested in the romance between Evelyn and Flora at all personally. It seemed like their only reason for liking each other was they found the other pretty, and I definitely didn’t buy their love for each other by the end.

It also made me uncomfortable with how okay Flora was with the slaving until she found one of their victims pretty…

. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. Evelyn the most maybe, but not until about two thirds in, and even then not much. All the characters felt pretty bland to me, they needed to be fleshed out better.

I found it a bit slow, especially in the middle. Even though there were more povs with different (though still connected) storylines, I found none of them particularly interesting so it felt like it dragged on. Which is weird because it really was trying to do a lot, there were a ton of things happening but it just felt slow to me. Maybe because I didn’t care? I heavily skimmed the last 20%.

This book gets dark at times, almost gratuitously. It’s not extreme I wouldn’t say, it’s still appropriate for upper YA, maybe 14 and up, if they’re okay with reading about death of children, gore and threat of rape (non explicit for that last one but still). To be fair I watched horror movies much more gruesome than this when I was 11, so it really depends on the person.

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anna_stazija's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Amazing in addoram kak je gender predstavljen in pac kak je acepting in sweet in lovable. Tko res je dober edino mau se vece pr carovnici oz. na dele se res lahku vlece.

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colloreda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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lord_lut's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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sea_sea's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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 love this book! It is incredibly diverse and has really good sapphic, gender-fluid and non-binary rep. It is written absolutely beautifully! Reading it was such an amazing experience. The characters, the world building, the words, everything just fit and was so beautiful. It was so mythical and magical, the author just transports you straight into this amazing and beautiful world. I was invested the whole time, the story never felt dragged out or disconnected. The ending was so sljdlslskslsj T^T. I would 100% recommend this book. Already in the first chapter I knew it would become one of my favorites! 💕🌊🪼

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