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wintertrees's review against another edition
4.75
A phenomenal novella. The prose is artful and clear, with a spectacular use of metaphors. The main characters are interesting and well-drawn; the mermaid's POV lends itself to a unique view of the events and facilitates many of the previously mentioned metaphors, and the plague doctor contrasts them in all the right ways and compliments them just as well. Foreshadowing in the plot is well-handled, the events building on each other in subtle ways. The themes in the book are handled in interesting and unique ways. The setting, though sparse in details, never feels underdeveloped, and is very intriguing. And of course, the gore is visceral and well-described.
The only comment I might call a complaint is that I personally felt like certain aspects of the ending didn't quite land for me. Personally, I felt like a more poetic ending for the plague doctor would've been to die and stay dead. I did not feel like their resurrection received the necessary thematic back-up. However, I acknowledge that this is likely a result of differing priorities of me and the author; the love story was clearly very important to the author, but this is a story element I always have throuble getting invested in, and this book was no exception. I felt like the heart of the story were its themes of consumation, and (im)mortality; I think I would've been more on board with the ending if I'd considered the love story the heart instead. I am happy the plague doctor survived and had a happy ending; the reuniting of lovers, sticking together no matter how terrible the circumstance, with one building the other a new body like their torturers did so many times, only subverting it by creating every aspect with deep respdct for their love's agency, absolutely is poetic in its own way. However, to me, I feel like the continuation of the cycle of horror, with the mermaid becoming the surgeons, was far more obviously set-up than the subversion. I expect others will disagree, though, and that's fine.
Other than that, a near perfect novella.
The only comment I might call a complaint is that I personally felt like certain aspects of the ending didn't quite land for me.
Other than that, a near perfect novella.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Gore
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