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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“Between Starfalls” is an epic fantasy with a robust world and a large cast of characters. Our main characters are part of a culture that reveres nature and sacred rituals (think elves) but is kind of anti-magic, even though several of their members have psionic abilities. They are a society often plagued by attacks by an enemy they know nothing about. When, Kameada, one of the main characters, is attacked before their Starfall celebration, she decides to take her adopted son up the mountain path alone, where a series of very convenient unfortunate events leads to legends becoming life, and repercussions that they never see coming. This book takes a while to get going, but once it does, you’re in for a treat. This is pretty much "Saga" meets DnD with some super sassy, modern babes leading the charge. This whole bindup was just feral FUN honestly. I love me some unapologetically badass babes with strong friendships and swords. My only issue was that, at times, the story could be a bit disorienting with what was happening, the story arcs could have been tied together a bit better to where the story flowed. As it was, there were times where I thought I was missing a volume or something, which is impossible given the bindup. Hazel in “The Final Rider” is a kind of protagonist I haven’t encountered before, but hope we get to have more of in the future. Forced to leave her little village, Hazel toils away in a mine, not wanting to be noticed by anyone, when she uncovers a dragon egg. When it hatches for her, she becomes the first, and last, dragon rider since dragons and the majority of magic left their world centuries ago. In a land with tense alliances and creepy, mysterious witches, Hazel is thrust out of her simple life into one of violence and adventure—both of which she doesn’t want anything to do with being so introverted, and easily overwhelmed with people and the luxury suddenly a part of her daily life. Hazel is not the confident YA fantasy heroine that has become so common today, which makes her incredibly relatable and likeable, even if at times I wanted to shake her. This book fell victim to the hype for me—both positive and negative. I was honestly expecting amazing things from this book because it has, I thought, so many of the things I adore: dragons and riders where the dragons choose who they want based on merit, and a heroine that no one expects to survive. I love everything about that. But the hype train on this sold me on the idea that this was THE book I had been waiting for all year and, while it had a strong start and an exceptionally strong finish, I soon found the middle to be lackluster, to feel like it was slogging through a checklist of tropes that are better suited in YA novels, where this book definitely does NOT belong (not a dig at YA either, just saying). |
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