A review by thebakersbooks
Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn

4.0

4/5 stars — a quick, entertaining story about a carnivorous siren and their found (human) family

Our Bloody Pearl was a fun, easy read, simple in its premise but solidly constructed and with an unexpected amount of substance for such a short novel.

The story is character-driven, told from the perspective of a siren named Perle. Although the steampunk-esque setting and the high-stakes plot are interesting, the characters are where the novel really shines. Perle escapes Kian, an antagonist whose backstory is the epitome of "cool motive, still murder," and recovers from their imprisonment with the help of three humans. Getting into specifics would involve quite a few spoilers, but Perle and their found-family "pod" weather the challenges of living with post-traumatic stress, adapting to disabilities, and learning to communicate across language barriers—all while evading Kian, who is determined to recapture Perle.
I appreciated the asexual rep, too; at the end of the book, Perle and Dejean exchange I-love-yous but say they don't feel sexual attraction to each other. I'm happy the author had Dejean specify that he wasn't sexually attracted to other humans, either, so it wasn't just a matter of disparate biology getting in the way.


My only real complaint about the book is that despite the quality of editing being higher than many self-published works, there was a persistent error in using "lay" instead of "lie," which is one of my grammar pet peeves. There were a few other minor proofreading errors, but none of that counted against my rating.

Our Bloody Pearl is a light read with well-developed characters, tense pacing, and high stakes. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys mermaid/siren mythology. It's sort of like a cross between "The Little Mermaid" and Mira Grant's Rolling in the Deep, if you can imagine such a thing!