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A review by yourwordsmyink
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
3.0
I strongly considered DNFing this book at one point. Now I'm not saying this book was bad. But it wasn't terribly good either. It was very middle of the road for me, and those reviews are often super hard to write. I'm going to try my best to use more descriptive words than "meh".
Characters
Let me start off by saying that this book is wonderfully queer. We have a queer MC (she might be pansexual but I'm not sure), a genderfluid MC, a character that uses they/them pronouns, and many other queer characters. I loved that about this book, and I really enjoyed the diversity among the characters. I won't get too much into their characters though, and I would recommend reading some ownvoices reviews for the different identities used.
However, I do want to comment on the relationships between these characters. They all felt really shallow. Especially the romance between Evelyn and Flora/Florian. I just didn't feel it, and it didn't add much to the book for me.
Characters = 6
Atmosphere
I love pirate stories. There's nothing hotter than a pirate. The time we spent on the Dove was amazing and I loved seeing the daily workings of a pirate ship (even though it was in disguise). The rest of the worldbuilding was a little lacking. Most of the world has been colonised by a Japanese-inspired Empire, and it would have been amazing to dive into some of those finer details.
This book tried to be too many things at once, and as a result, we don't get very in-depth with most things.
Atmosphere = 4
Writing
I had no issues with the writing, but it, unfortunately, didn't hook me enough to enjoy this book. We also follow multiple POVs in the book and I felt like some of them weren't really necessary. I wasn't a big fan of Genevieve's POV, and I did not like her as a character. Rake, on the other hand, was my favourite and I would read an adventure with him and the Pirate Supreme any day.
Writing = 6
Read my full CAWPILE review at https://www.yourwordsmyink.com/the-mermaid-the-witch-and-the-sea-book-review/
Characters
Let me start off by saying that this book is wonderfully queer. We have a queer MC (she might be pansexual but I'm not sure), a genderfluid MC, a character that uses they/them pronouns, and many other queer characters. I loved that about this book, and I really enjoyed the diversity among the characters. I won't get too much into their characters though, and I would recommend reading some ownvoices reviews for the different identities used.
However, I do want to comment on the relationships between these characters. They all felt really shallow. Especially the romance between Evelyn and Flora/Florian. I just didn't feel it, and it didn't add much to the book for me.
Characters = 6
Atmosphere
I love pirate stories. There's nothing hotter than a pirate. The time we spent on the Dove was amazing and I loved seeing the daily workings of a pirate ship (even though it was in disguise). The rest of the worldbuilding was a little lacking. Most of the world has been colonised by a Japanese-inspired Empire, and it would have been amazing to dive into some of those finer details.
This book tried to be too many things at once, and as a result, we don't get very in-depth with most things.
Atmosphere = 4
Writing
I had no issues with the writing, but it, unfortunately, didn't hook me enough to enjoy this book. We also follow multiple POVs in the book and I felt like some of them weren't really necessary. I wasn't a big fan of Genevieve's POV, and I did not like her as a character. Rake, on the other hand, was my favourite and I would read an adventure with him and the Pirate Supreme any day.
Writing = 6
Read my full CAWPILE review at https://www.yourwordsmyink.com/the-mermaid-the-witch-and-the-sea-book-review/