dnf @ 166

The Little Mermaid meets African deities and Trans-Atlantic slavery

This was a little ambitious with all its moving parts, but the premise wasn’t bad. Orisas (differentiated from orishas(?)) made the narrative a bit distracting for me.

Personally, I would’ve liked the book to focus either on the involvement of the orisas or Simi’s amnesia. Simi’s fractured memory of her previous life before being made into a mermaid was the most promising part to me.

Kola could’ve been a better companion. But his character was bland as was Simi.

Overall, this was too slow-moving for me, so it couldn't keep my interest. ( )

Slow start, What the ending of the book pushed me up to 4 stars ( )

Loved this book! It was quite a unique and different take on mermaids and I've always wondered about Mami Wata, so I loved getting to read this amazing story.
This is about Simi, who is a Mami Wata that collects the souls of those who die at sea and blesses their journey back home. One day while she's swimming about she goes to collect the soul of a boy who is thrown overboard and discovers that he's still alive. At the last minute, she saves the boy and has to make amends for breaking the rules in saving him.
As she and this boy, Kola set out on a journey to go to the Supreme Creator to make sure everything is fine, make amends and protect the other Mami Wata, they begin to be drawn to each other and have some sweet romance start to blossom between them. They meet and gather other members to accompany them along the way as they go to meet with the Supreme Creator that are great additions to the story with the fairy boy and Kola's friends/guards from his village. Along the way, they encounter various gods and legendary creatures and get to know one another. It all comes to a head when they get to their destination at the end and she has to communicate with the Supreme Creator to explain herself and make sure everything's okay and they face various dangers and there are inevitable losses as well. Simi, in the end, secures things to make things right with everything for everyone by making a bargain, and then it ends on an intense cliffhanger.
I can't wait to read this next installment of this story, which I'm hoping there is one because that ending was too much. Also, I would highly recommend this if you love learning and reading about West African Mythology, Mermaids, Fairies, and other such creatures. This also was a great story with the Mythology and history woven together about slavery and such, which this book reminds me of another take on the same or similar thing with the book, The Deep by Rivers Solomon.
If you haven't read this yet, go check it out! It's a fantastic read and I loved it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Children's for this awesome ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

The story and characters work, but the telling isn't compact or paced well to showcase the rich West African setting and lore to the best advantage. The choice to do a retelling of The Little Mermaid works well as an anchor for the mythic elements of the story, but has the unfortunate baggage of teenage longing between the mermaid and the young man she rescues. ( )

This was absolutely beautiful and it has been on my TBR since it came into the library LAST FALL. I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner. Bowen takes the mermaid myth and mixes it with Nigerian myth and sets it during the beginning of the slave trade. It has everything going for it - an amazing protagonist, great supporting characters, an epic quest, mythology and religion and world building. But not just fantasy world building (which is there too!) but it brought me to Africa, it took me to another time and reality that I knew nothing about and immersed me in it. That’s something I always look for in a book and Bowen absolutely brought it. ( )