Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - The Mermaid of Black Conch

Beautiful and evocative language with the theme of the different types of isolation (literal and emotional) - I think this book would have benefitted from being twice the length, allowing the characters to flourish further and the themes to mature; the ending felt a little rushed and abrupt, but all in all a sweet, bittersweet story that doesn’t shy from the realities of colonialism’s lingering effects on community.

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challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

A beautiful book that addresses issues of vengeance, jealousy, misogyny, ableism and love.
With a little queer rep and a Caribbean slang and color we are told the story of a mermaid, Aycayia, that has lived under the sea for a thousand years due to a curse put on her by jealous women, her only company an old turtle-woman, cursed alongside her, and the fish and sea creatures, that is until she meets the young Black fisherman, David, and because of him gets caught by American fishermen.
But, David, enthralled by the lure of the mermaid, feeling she’s his destiny saves her and tries to help her, with patience and love, and with the help of the crazy white lady with the deaf son, descendant of the owners of the whole town, because she too knows of broken love, knows what it is to be apart, what it is to have a bright son misunderstood by the town’s people, just like Aycayia.
The story seems hopeful as the mermaid becomes more human and love brews between her and David, but will the curse and the town really let them be?
The story is told with a few POV and in two timelines, present and past when David met Aycayia.
With themes such as the ones I mentioned, the love stories - yes because there’s also the love between the white lady and the Black man who left her pregnant with a deaf son - and a beautiful lyrical writing I really enjoyed this read, even if it was slow going in the beginning and didn’t introduce or develop the turtle-woman Aycayia speaks so much about.

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