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A review by xeni
Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn
3.0
I'm kind of "meh" about this book. I liked the premise a lot. I liked how the sirens are nonbinary (unless it's time to reproduce) and how their biology is mentioned as other to humans, but never focused on.
I like our main character - Perle - a lot too. She's smart and tenacious and willing to do anything for loyalty. Dejean, their main human interest, is also intriguing, if superficial. Perle is also disabled (prolonged captivity in one position caused her spinal damage and she can no longer use her tail, along with other injuries that heal along the way).
Because Perle doesn't speak the way humans do, most of their communication is limited to sign language. The book takes a lot of liberties with this (conveying rather complex ideas with vague "and I signed it to him" statements), but even that I didn't mind too much.
What I minded the most was the utterly banal and boring plot. It's very straight forward, exactly what you expect. Any mystery is cleared up by the end of the story. It's a bit too simple for my tastes. While not badly written, the writing itself is serviceable and does it's job well.
I think this would be a good book to recommend to a younger audience, as I think that's when I would have appreciated it the most.
I like our main character - Perle - a lot too. She's smart and tenacious and willing to do anything for loyalty. Dejean, their main human interest, is also intriguing, if superficial. Perle is also disabled (prolonged captivity in one position caused her spinal damage and she can no longer use her tail, along with other injuries that heal along the way).
Because Perle doesn't speak the way humans do, most of their communication is limited to sign language. The book takes a lot of liberties with this (conveying rather complex ideas with vague "and I signed it to him" statements), but even that I didn't mind too much.
What I minded the most was the utterly banal and boring plot. It's very straight forward, exactly what you expect. Any mystery is cleared up by the end of the story. It's a bit too simple for my tastes. While not badly written, the writing itself is serviceable and does it's job well.
I think this would be a good book to recommend to a younger audience, as I think that's when I would have appreciated it the most.