Genre: Fantasy, Alternate Universe
LGBTQ+ Category: Eule Grey
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
All Luce wants is to go home, but how can she? Since the war, her beloved city has been under an enchantment. Rivers run dry and the streets are haunted, or so they say.
When she hears a rumor that the curse has been lifted, Luce writes a heartfelt letter to the leaders. It begins ten years ago, when she’s thirteen-years-old and dying of a broken heart. Dying, I tell you!
Luce’s account takes the leaders into the cold heart of a mermaid. To when she, and her bestie, Adu, live in a spidery, clifftop house with a tiny dog.
Not even Sea Mother’s magic or mermaids can hold back the war. When the world goes dark, it takes a wind magician and the strongest love of all to save her family and friends.
Light up the skies, little mermaid!
The Review
The Flying Mermaid by Eule Grey is 1.5 in the I, Volcano series, but read perfectly well as a standalone. Luce is anxious to go home, but the war that has erupted in her home of Craw has chased her family from their lives. The story has Luce as a young woman in her twenties writing a letter to the former leaders of Craw that recounts the event of a decade earlier when she was around thirteen.
This was very well written, and done in a style reminiscent of a young girl retelling the story. There are small bursts of emotions, like a young teen’s reaction to the situation, and acknowledgement that her memory may not be clear or trustworthy but the things she remembers are important. The violence is peripheral, such as hearing gun shots and screams but not knowing what happened. But the emotions of loss, heartache, and love are poignantly detailed.
It’s a strangely sweet story, recounting the days spent with family as they worked on Luce’s mother’s mermaids. At first, it’s not clear what those are or how they’re important, but as the work continues, so do the effects of war on their country. There are strangers in the yard and soldiers checking everyone as they come and go. Luce notices that the soldiers aren’t much older than she is, and it saddens her, and makes her appreciate her family’s love and attention.
This is a beautifully told tale of strength in times of hardship and resistance during times of conflict. I have not read the other stories in the I, Volcano by Eule Grey series, but I have definitely put them on the list of things to read.
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.