Sometimes you read a book and either it’s the perfect time or tide or star sign, but it just lands exactly right. This is the type of book that I’m not sure I would’ve loved last month or last year or two years from now.

And, honestly, I kind of didn’t expect to it that much now… I was assuming maybe good to middling. This is not my genre, and from the first chapter I knew it had more earnest feeling than I’m generally capable of relating to. But…I guess this was its perfect moment and Holy moly, I freaking adored this book. , nearly without caveat, loved this book.

The prose is dense in metaphor and poetry in the best way. (Though that is coming from someone who admittedly doesn’t poetry, so maybe don’t take my word for it. Also someone who admittedly does have a weakness for kind of purple prose…(And there are your first caveats, you’re welcome.) ) There are so many lines I would best describe as gorgeous or gut-wrenching, or some other adjective I lack because I am not a poet or a writer. The descriptions of the sea and the sky, and the island are all so richly done, and sometimes the prose is just so rhythmic and lyrical and emotive that you kind of forget, you’re supposed to be reading a book with a plot. So maybe just don’t worry about the plot (there isn’t a ton, but what’s there is good) or the mythology within the narrative.

This book didn’t do its world-building in the usual way, the lore is more fairytale as told by a depressed sailor or an intentionally evasive barmaid. And while those who came for a detailed mermaid story may be disappointed everything about it just worked for me. *shrug*

There are many fascinating characters in this story, and so many complicated and beautiful relationships as well. I think the story of Myra and Leo will be the one that sticks with me indefinitely. (They brought me to tears a couple of times, not gonna lie.)

I am really failing to make my case for what struck me so entirely about this book, but I guess sometimes you can get away with calling it ineffable and reminding yourself probably no one is going to read this far in your ramblings anyway… so there.

My thanks to the publisher for the ARC, all my muddled, if effusively positive, opinions are my own.9 s Danielle 438 47

But her laugh shattered into a gut-dragging sob that shook her whole body, as her earth as she knew it split and crumbled and cracked and fell into the sea. Then she nodded and breathed because she was still breathing.

This was one of the most beautiful, haunting, and lyrical books I have ever read and probably one of my favorite books to date. It was written a fairytale or a fable, with vignettes that made a greater whole of a wonderful story and it worked so well. Anything with a seaside setting, with MERMAIDS and some witches, could be nothing short of magical, but this was so unexpected that it took my breath away and had me crying. This was grief in the time of mermaids, and the grieving was described so tenderly, accurately, and poignantly it really hit me in the gut. I loved these characters, I loved this town, I loved this book and I will be thinking about it for a long time to come. I'm dumbfounded it was a debut because it really was everything and I'm so grateful to the author for writing it.

When I was a little girl after a beach day with my mom (we had many many of those in my childhood), I sat across from her at a local seafood spot and asked her if mermaids were real. I felt at home by the sea (still do- I am a Cancer, after all) and couldn't imagine anything better. So were mermaids real? I loved them and desperately wanted them to be, but I knew my mother would tell me the truth. And my wonderful mom said back, Do you believe they are? Anything is real if you believe in it enough. I thought about that childhood memory over and over again as i read this. I still hope mermaids were or are real, still hope I can find that magic in the grief i have in missing my nana so much I ache wholly from it. 

"The tea will be good and strong even when you are not. It will steady your hands when the grief comes, and it can be your touchstone when you have a hard cry. The hard cries are good- that's the love we had yet to give them seeking them out. When in doubt, make a cup of tea"

I have to believe that magic is still out there- maybe if i believe in it enough. But until then....there's cups of tea and all the love I still have yet to give.favorites7 s2 comments Sarah Jay46 1 followerWant to read

WHERE ARE THE MERMAIDS? I quit after ~60ish pages. I tried, I really tried. I was lured in by such a mythical and magical premise, but it was hard to follow; especially as I drowned in excessive metaphors. This may work for some people, heck it might even work for future Sarah, but it was not working for right-now Sarah. dnf7 s Katyana Giovannini16 Want to read

This book was written by my old French teacher, and I am so exciting to be able to read this book of which she put so much work into. 5 s Annelise53 2 Read

I picked up an ARC at the ALA Convention in Chicago and finished it today.

Hm. Hmmm. I'm not quite sure how to rate this one.

I enjoyed the first half. The book switches between three groups of characters in a small town in coastal Maine. A young teenage boy from a troubled home and his growing friendship with an old woman, two older teenage boys who are hiding their relationship from their classmates and the one boy's incredibly homophobic and abusive father, and a woman who is rejoining society after being institutionalized after her daughter's death. These stories are linked in many ways, mostly by the closeness of the small town and by the legend of the town's founding: the story of a ship captain who fell in love with a mermaid, and how his betrayal cursed the town.

Unfortunately, the mermaids themselves are one of the weaker points of the novel--particularly, the inconsistency of their lore. Were this the case of oral history being confused as time goes on it'd be one thing, but this isn't the case. One mermaid made a deal with a witch to stay on land for a set amount of time before she has to return to the sea again, while one lives on land and goes on occasional swims for funzies. Mermaids can seemingly resurrect people from the dead and heal their mortal injuries, but sometimes they'll see a dead person and, whoops, even our magic can't save them.

This leads to another problem I had with the novel, which is a lot less fun than mermaids. The way mental illness is portrayed in 'Moorings' is... outdated, to say the least. Two of the most antagonistic characters are drug addicts, and while I don't want to say that people who suffer from addiction can't be abusive or scary, the narrative frames them as being beyond hope and unworthy of help. Similarly, while Manon's situation is treated with sympathy by the denizens of Mackerel Sky, her husband is about as supportive as wet bread. The town pressures her to pursue him again and they get back together, but he doesn't change at all or try to be emotionally available. He was probably my least favorite character in this book.

Lastly, I'm not thrilled about this book getting a 'queer' tag. Yes, one of the plot threads is about two young men navigating a romance in a homophobic small town, but everything else about the book is so cis- and heteronormative that it feels the gay romance is buried. A 'bury your gays' moment is narrowly avoided by mermaid magic, which is just... I mean, I'm glad he didn't die, but this magic is getting to be a little too much. I mean, the gays only get to have chaste kisses while we learn the conception stories for at least three babies! Motherhood does seem to be a big theme of the book, and M.Z. is a mother herself so I'm not going to be too mean about that, but it can be a bit of a drag when all of the female characters seemed destined for motherhood, are judged by their abilities to raise children, and make comments about how men need women around to cook for them.

...Also, why would a homophobic small town openly have a two-woman romance as a footnote in their founding legend? I'll give M.Z. credit for making the legend more diverse, but I feel that's the kind of thing that they'd try to hide, especially since it was one of the founder's paramours with a woman of color. Again, I think it's a cool part of the legend, but I also feel you'd have people saying 'They were just close friends!' or something. I mean, look at how people react today when female characters have feelings for other female characters in TV shows or books.

Overall, I think there are great ideas in this book, but I think the execution could use some work. I'll leave this unrated, since it was an advanced copy and I'm sure that some things could change before its official release next year. At the least, I'm excited to see the chapter illustrations.4 s CandiceAuthor 13 books34

I picked this book up from the ARC pile solely because of its cover. I finished it over a weekend because of the beauty of its poetry and the strength in its grief. I will forever be in my mermaid era especially when it's a town Mackerel Sky where the community is so tightly woven to each other and its stories and folklore, celebrating and denying them simultaneously.

The storytelling and multiple POVs gave way to vignettes which lent a fantastical, lyrical vibe to the lines, sometimes redundant in its storytelling but always revealing a new glimpse of the person doing the telling. I absolutely adored this novel and will be on the lookout for more MZ stories in the future.
adult book-hangover heart-squish-moments ...more4 s Aurora Gregg10

I absolutely ?adored? this book. Originally drawn in my the gorgeous cover art, but then fully immersed in the wonderful world that MZ created. A beautiful, coastal Maine town filled with Maine people and their typical way of life; intertwined with the their folklore of mermaids, magic and tragedy. This story weaves through a couple of different timelines, but brings them all together in an incredibly satisfying and touching way. And the prose, my goodness… the author desribes her style of writing as mixing the worlds of choreography, theater and poetry - thinking of her pages as a stage. Perfection in every way
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