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A review by bibliorama
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Enjoyment - 3.75
This has an interesting premise and pulls in different mythical creatures that aren't typically shown in most media. I think that fits well with the themes. This book is definitely a message book rather than a fantasy focused one and its setting is a contemporary Portland. The lives of the teenagers seem to be fairly normal, just with the occasional magical creature thrown in. I like this combination of real and fantasy, it just was hard to get a full grasp of how these magical aspects fit into our real world. This is partly because the main perspectives aren't outsiders to this world and and their first person narrative doesn't tend to offer more information beyond what is needed for the scene at hand. There are leaps that I could make though considering the real-world conflicts this book touches on, so I could work through what some of the mythical aspects are supposed to represent. Granted, it didn't feel like we got to see a lot of magic being used because Tavia is trying to hide hers and Effie doesn't know what hers even is. Mainly, I feel like this book would have been able to hit harder if it had an extra 100 pages. It jumped from point to point so quickly that I really wanted some of the books scenes to have breathing space. It also hit a lot of its points on the head and felt like it didn't trust me as the reader to understand the metaphors of the magic, particularly how the siren voices relate to the voices of black women. However, some people might want that overt messaging. The best part of this book by far were the characterizations of Tav and Effie.
Start - 3.75
I liked the start, it really drops you in the world and expects you to pick up the magical creatures as you go. The magic comes second to the struggles of being a black girl in America, and I think from the opening the book is clear on that point. I also think that Tavia's struggles with her siren nature are introduced really well.
Characters - 3
I really like Tavia and Effie. They are so specific and youget to know a lot of details about their lives from their hair to interests, to how they feel about their family relationships. They felt very real and I love when characters have those small traits about them that bring them to life. For Effie it was her itchy skin, while for her the issue is magic related, it was described so realistically. Maybe it helped that this time of year my skin absolutely hates me as well, but I digress. For Tavia, I enjoyed her talking about her love of hair, and youtube, and choir. Their sisterhood and love is also very real and I liked getting to see such a healthy depiction of friendship. The reason that this category is lower than what it sounds like it should be is because all of the side characters fell flat. They felt far more 2 dimensional in comparison, especially when they're put up against Tavia and Effie and how fleshed out they were.
Atmosphere - 3.5
Like I said early, I like the idea of combining these mythical beings and the modern world. I even like how a lot of the creatures had twists to them and weren't cookie-cutter from the myths. I just didn't like the full execution of how these elements were conveyed to the reader. Some of it felt like it was more confusing than it needed to be and some felt like pieces of information were missing. Personally, the Eloko's didn't feel fleshed out. Not that it felt like the author didn't know how they interacted with the world, just that it wasn't written very specific. They seem to be liked by everyone but how their power works and why people are okay with what seems like influence over others (but not being okay with the influence of sirens) I wish had more time to be explored.
Plot - 2
This is the lowest score and the main contributor to my overall feelings. This book is pretty short for how much ground it's trying to cover. This leads it to feel like it jumps from major-plot-point to major-plot-point. It doesn't have the smaller scenes that let its ideas and plot develop fully. It also jumps time a lot moving us forward too rapidly. The fact that it is also told in first person perspective gives some of the scenes a more stream of consciousness feel which sometimes seems to lead the focus of the reader towards non important things. Which can make some of what it talks about confusing, like "why are we now here when we were just there?" Hopefully my description even makes sense XD. If not we can all be jumbled together.
Ending - 3.75
I think it's resolved too quickly and some of its points I don't feel were foreshadowed enough, but I like the idea of how all of these points came together by the end. I could see why they were all brought up by the end, but like I said earlier another 100 pages I really think would've done this story a service.
Style - 2.5
Combined with the stream of consciousness feel, so many plot points it was trying to cover, plus the sometimes heavy-handed writing, it didn't feel like the strongest part. I enjoyed pieces of it, mostly when we got to see the girls experiencing their magic. Those moments felt compelling. I also really liked the writing involving the little kid statues in the park, how they got there and the resolution that comes from them. Those moments were some of my favorite. They felt really grounded and unique.
Overall - 3
This has an interesting premise and pulls in different mythical creatures that aren't typically shown in most media. I think that fits well with the themes. This book is definitely a message book rather than a fantasy focused one and its setting is a contemporary Portland. The lives of the teenagers seem to be fairly normal, just with the occasional magical creature thrown in. I like this combination of real and fantasy, it just was hard to get a full grasp of how these magical aspects fit into our real world. This is partly because the main perspectives aren't outsiders to this world and and their first person narrative doesn't tend to offer more information beyond what is needed for the scene at hand. There are leaps that I could make though considering the real-world conflicts this book touches on, so I could work through what some of the mythical aspects are supposed to represent. Granted, it didn't feel like we got to see a lot of magic being used because Tavia is trying to hide hers and Effie doesn't know what hers even is. Mainly, I feel like this book would have been able to hit harder if it had an extra 100 pages. It jumped from point to point so quickly that I really wanted some of the books scenes to have breathing space. It also hit a lot of its points on the head and felt like it didn't trust me as the reader to understand the metaphors of the magic, particularly how the siren voices relate to the voices of black women. However, some people might want that overt messaging. The best part of this book by far were the characterizations of Tav and Effie.
Start - 3.75
I liked the start, it really drops you in the world and expects you to pick up the magical creatures as you go. The magic comes second to the struggles of being a black girl in America, and I think from the opening the book is clear on that point. I also think that Tavia's struggles with her siren nature are introduced really well.
Characters - 3
I really like Tavia and Effie. They are so specific and youget to know a lot of details about their lives from their hair to interests, to how they feel about their family relationships. They felt very real and I love when characters have those small traits about them that bring them to life. For Effie it was her itchy skin, while for her the issue is magic related, it was described so realistically. Maybe it helped that this time of year my skin absolutely hates me as well, but I digress. For Tavia, I enjoyed her talking about her love of hair, and youtube, and choir. Their sisterhood and love is also very real and I liked getting to see such a healthy depiction of friendship. The reason that this category is lower than what it sounds like it should be is because all of the side characters fell flat. They felt far more 2 dimensional in comparison, especially when they're put up against Tavia and Effie and how fleshed out they were.
Atmosphere - 3.5
Like I said early, I like the idea of combining these mythical beings and the modern world. I even like how a lot of the creatures had twists to them and weren't cookie-cutter from the myths. I just didn't like the full execution of how these elements were conveyed to the reader. Some of it felt like it was more confusing than it needed to be and some felt like pieces of information were missing. Personally, the Eloko's didn't feel fleshed out. Not that it felt like the author didn't know how they interacted with the world, just that it wasn't written very specific. They seem to be liked by everyone but how their power works and why people are okay with what seems like influence over others (but not being okay with the influence of sirens) I wish had more time to be explored.
Plot - 2
This is the lowest score and the main contributor to my overall feelings. This book is pretty short for how much ground it's trying to cover. This leads it to feel like it jumps from major-plot-point to major-plot-point. It doesn't have the smaller scenes that let its ideas and plot develop fully. It also jumps time a lot moving us forward too rapidly. The fact that it is also told in first person perspective gives some of the scenes a more stream of consciousness feel which sometimes seems to lead the focus of the reader towards non important things. Which can make some of what it talks about confusing, like "why are we now here when we were just there?" Hopefully my description even makes sense XD. If not we can all be jumbled together.
Ending - 3.75
I think it's resolved too quickly and some of its points I don't feel were foreshadowed enough, but I like the idea of how all of these points came together by the end. I could see why they were all brought up by the end, but like I said earlier another 100 pages I really think would've done this story a service.
Style - 2.5
Combined with the stream of consciousness feel, so many plot points it was trying to cover, plus the sometimes heavy-handed writing, it didn't feel like the strongest part. I enjoyed pieces of it, mostly when we got to see the girls experiencing their magic. Those moments felt compelling. I also really liked the writing involving the little kid statues in the park, how they got there and the resolution that comes from them. Those moments were some of my favorite. They felt really grounded and unique.
Overall - 3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death of parent, Hate crime, Police brutality, Murder, Racism, and Grief
Some of these tags seem like they'd be quite intense, but the book handles them all in a way where they aren't in such explicit detail or over sensational. I think high schoolers would be able to handle the content of this book, they might just need to talk about some of it afterwards.