A Song Below Water (A Song Below Water, 1); Bethany C. Morrow

First and foremost, I would say that “A Song Below Water” fits more comfortably in the magical realism realm of fantasy, rather than urban fantasy, and here’s why. In this version of America (and Portland where the story takes place) mythical creatures like sirens, elokos, sprites, and mermaids are real and their existence is not questioned. Tavia is a siren, and her best friend/sister is not, but is sent to live with Tavia for her own protection. They have a gargoyle that sits on their roof and people don’t really care outside of the creature being rare and therefore a bit of a novelty, even though Tavia’s dad really wishes it wouldn’t come around. Because Tavia’s father is terrified of his daughter and doesn’t want the added attention to their home. He’s not scared for her, not anymore, but of her. But the story doesn’t focus a ton on that aspect of the relationship outside of Tavia’s extreme pain and isolation centered around her feeling like her family hates her and wishes she was anything other than a siren. There’s a lot of trauma this book addresses, both familial and racial, but the racial aspects take front and center, as they should, but it leaves the family aspect a bit unresolved. For “A Song Below Water” is not about Black sirens, but about being Black while being a siren.

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This is why I say the story is more magical realism than urban fantasy, and that’s not a bad thing, I mention it mainly to manage expectations. The magic that these different creatures and races have, along with the mythical races themselves (mainly the sirens) are an allegory for the social issues presented in the book, specifically Black women’s voices within the BLM movement. The whole story focuses on both Tavia and Effie using their voices, and in the case of Tavia, having people terrified of the power within that voice, for in this version of the mythos, only Black women can be sirens. It’s a strong message, and well delivered especially for the teen audience it was intended for, but the book is tragically short for the plethora of issues it attempts to cover.
 
While Tavia is dealing with the fear of being a siren and keeping that secret, she also desperately wants and needs to use her voice to stand up for herself, and others, and to be seen. To be allowed to live without people’s immediate reaction being to respond to her with fear and violence. Plus, Tavia has her own family trauma to contend with, including a father who can be, at times, kind of abusive. And that’s just Tavia’s story! Then you have Effie who is struggling with her own identity and troubled past, all while the adults in her life keep huge secrets from her (in the most infuriating way possible). And then you have characters like Naema who are marvelously complex in being not only a Black woman, but a Black woman that is an eloko and is therefore seen as acceptable by pretty much everyone and what that can do to bolster, and harm, her identity. But the book needed more time to fully explore those complexities. Which is why the magic is very loose in this book, and why, to me, it fits better with the magical realism camp. Which is something I, personally, would have liked to have known before starting as it would have given me a better lens with which to read this story.

The book can kind of meander a bit, focusing more on random high school interactions that get too detailed in between dialogue, but it felt a bit true to how a teenager would tell this story so it sort of fits. But the issue there was with how similar Tavia and Effie’s inner voices sounded, despite Effie being, supposedly, so shy as to be crippling when she isn’t playing a role in the ren faire. The representation in this book is wonderful though and I love the relationship these two friends turned sisters had with one another, the book just needed more in order to do all the topics and themes justice, hence the 3.5 stars. But this is definitely a story I’ll be giving to my young niece as I think she’d love it, and would benefit from it greatly!