A Song Below Water by Bethany C Morrow

Welcome Back booklovers! It's been a slow reading week despite the long holiday weekend but I'm back at you with another review. This time for A Song Below Water by Bethany C Morrow. I was able to get my hands on an early copy courtesy of Tor Teen. And that it had the prettiest book cover I've seen all year was the first thing to intrigue me. The second was all the advanced praise it received.

One thing I do want to clarify because both the blurb on the back of my ARC and the blurb on Amazon stated there were Black mermaids. This is not a story about mermaids this is a story about sirens and in this story there is no overlap between the two. So don't pick up this book expecting for an underwater adventure. It's not an epic fantasy it's more of a character driven novel. This is a modern day story of two Black girls struggling to find their voice in a world that wants them to be silenced. It's a dual pov story where you follow two friends/sisters named Effie and Tavia who are navigating high school.

I never visited the Renaissance Fair so it was interesting reading about Effie's experience working as a mermaid there. I didn't even know there were mermaids there and actually stopped to look it up to discover that my state's Ren Fair also has mermaid shows. Effie gets joy from working at the Ren Fair every year playing this role that it sometimes blurs the lines between reality for her. 

This book uses magical realism with Tavia's siren experience to also talk about the real life struggles Black girl's face. Tavia is a siren who is not able to use her voice in a world where sirens are Black women and are seen as a threat. Sirens are often given silencing collars to stop them from speaking out due to fear of them using their abilities to manipulate others. But sirens must use their gift so networks exist to help protect sirens. Tavia is apart of the school chorus which gives her a way to unleash her call without drawing attention to herself.

Anyone who grew up around white people experienced some of these things like the questioning if your hair is real or fake when you wear braids or twists. Or that feeling of just not fitting in and being different because of appearance. 

I would've liked to see them have friendships outside of friendships with each other as well. I've never been one to have a big group of friends but even seeing them have relationships with other people at the school would've made a difference. 

One thing I wished was that the book dove deeper into the mythos. I wanted to see more of the magic. Because this is a world where everyone seemed to except that these beings existed even though they weren't receptive of them all. I wanted to know more about the sirens and their origins and networks. Why were people so receptive of some magical beings vs others? There was a gargoyle bodyguard that took residence on the roof of their house. Their encounters with it was fascinating. There were just so many questions I felt went unanswered here though the space was there to answer them. This book would've had more of an impact on me if the characters were fully fleshed out. It has a of important messages but the message becomes the story instead of being one part of the pieces that bring the story together. At times I felt like I was reading a think piece on Blackness in America.