Goodreads Monday (12/9/19)–A Song Below Water

Happy Monday, bibliophiles!

Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme created by Lauren’s Page Turners. All you have to do to participate is pick a book from your Goodreads TBR, and explain why you want to read it.

This one caught my eye not long ago: Not only is it a premise set around sirens, but a) they’re POC sirens, and b) it’s a pretty obvious metaphor for the other? COUNT ME IN! I’ve yet to read it (obviously…), but I’ve got high hopes…

Let’s begin, shall we?

GOODREADS MONDAY (12/9/19)–A SONG BELOW WATER by Bethany C. Morrow

Blurb from Goodreads:

Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Nevermind she’s also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she’s also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore—soon Portland won’t be either.

So why do I want to read this?

As I said earlier, I’m always aching for a good mermaid/siren novel. Not only that, our siren protagonists, Tavia and Effie, are both POC.

What I got from the synopsis is that the whole siren/human situation is an incredibly dicey one, with a history of prejudice, discrimination, and fear. (Sound familiar? Hello, almost every minority that I can think of in the U.S. and elsewhere…) If all goes well, this sounds like an excellent metaphor for minority groups and the other, well-supported by its plot and characters. And who wouldn’t swoon over that gorgeous cover?