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A review by shamelesslyintroverted
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
Did not finish book.
2.0
A Song Below Water is a young adult contemporary fantasy that switches between the perspectives of Tavia and Effie. Tavia is a siren, determined to know all of the secrets about herself. Effie is… well, we don’t know exactly. She’s trying to figure out how she fits into the world because she’s clearly not a mere human.
Going In Expectations
I wanted to love this book. I really did. I pre-ordered it and everything. I love books that are set around water and I thought that’s what I was going to get. I thought I was going to see what it’s like to a siren in Morrow’s world, but that’s not what I ended up getting. The cover is gorgeous and I squealed when it came in the mail. I really, really wanted to love this book. I didn’t.
Raves & Critiques
A Song Below Water is a difficult book to describe. When asked, “What is it about?” I would literally shrug. I don’t know. That’s part of the reason why I put it down. I ended up DNFing A Song Below Water at around 60%. I was trying to push through it, but I didn’t want to. Life is too short to push through books you don’t want to read.
There were some really good things in this book, too, though. Just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t. The writing is well executed and the characterization is great. There are significant differences between Tavia and Effie, which makes it easy to tell whose perspective you’re reading from.
My issues were plot and world building. The plot was confusing. I have no idea what this book is about because the things mentioned in the description are not the main headers. Yes, they happen, but the story doesn’t revolve around it. I think this A Song Below Water is supposed to be a self-discovery novel, where the girls figure out how they fit into the world.
That leads into my second problem: the world. My main reason for picking up this book was sirens! There would be sirens! At 60% in, we don’t know much about them, despite the main character being one. I feel like I know more about sprites and gargoyles than about sirens, which turned me off. I wanted to interact with the world more and this book wasn’t scratching that itch.
As a side note, I think Morrow missed a great opportunity to incorporate deaf culture into A Song Below Water because she uses sign language as a communication tool. I’m almost fluent in sign and I feel as though she couldn’t touched on that a bit more than what she did.
I acknowledge that I’m reviewing this book without reading the ending, so if she did end up checking any of these boxes that I think went unchecked, please let me know in the comments!
Reason for Rating ~ Should You Read It?
I would recommend A Song Below Water for fans of light fantasy and self discovery. And Renaissance fairs.
Going In Expectations
I wanted to love this book. I really did. I pre-ordered it and everything. I love books that are set around water and I thought that’s what I was going to get. I thought I was going to see what it’s like to a siren in Morrow’s world, but that’s not what I ended up getting. The cover is gorgeous and I squealed when it came in the mail. I really, really wanted to love this book. I didn’t.
Raves & Critiques
A Song Below Water is a difficult book to describe. When asked, “What is it about?” I would literally shrug. I don’t know. That’s part of the reason why I put it down. I ended up DNFing A Song Below Water at around 60%. I was trying to push through it, but I didn’t want to. Life is too short to push through books you don’t want to read.
There were some really good things in this book, too, though. Just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t. The writing is well executed and the characterization is great. There are significant differences between Tavia and Effie, which makes it easy to tell whose perspective you’re reading from.
My issues were plot and world building. The plot was confusing. I have no idea what this book is about because the things mentioned in the description are not the main headers. Yes, they happen, but the story doesn’t revolve around it. I think this A Song Below Water is supposed to be a self-discovery novel, where the girls figure out how they fit into the world.
That leads into my second problem: the world. My main reason for picking up this book was sirens! There would be sirens! At 60% in, we don’t know much about them, despite the main character being one. I feel like I know more about sprites and gargoyles than about sirens, which turned me off. I wanted to interact with the world more and this book wasn’t scratching that itch.
As a side note, I think Morrow missed a great opportunity to incorporate deaf culture into A Song Below Water because she uses sign language as a communication tool. I’m almost fluent in sign and I feel as though she couldn’t touched on that a bit more than what she did.
I acknowledge that I’m reviewing this book without reading the ending, so if she did end up checking any of these boxes that I think went unchecked, please let me know in the comments!
Reason for Rating ~ Should You Read It?
I would recommend A Song Below Water for fans of light fantasy and self discovery. And Renaissance fairs.