Two best friends navigate issues of identity, racial discrimination, complicated families, and sisterhood with a unique, mythological take. There is a lot to like about this book and I am certain that it will find its audience. Unfortunately for me, I kept bouncing off the story. For faults that are entirely my own, I found it difficult to differentiate between the dual POVs, and while the world-building information was intriguing, it was also easy to get lost.

*Given an advanced reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow follows two teen girls who call themselves sisters as they evolve into their true selves in an environment that discriminates against who they are.

Effie is changing. Her skin is unbearably itchy as she keeps scratching her scalp around her locs. She tries to conceal this irritation by remembering she’s Euphemia the Mer, the town faire’s cosplaying mermaid, along with Elric, the cosplaying merman. As the faire is set to begin, Effie can’t concentrate as a murder case of a siren becomes news. And Effie still hasn’t gotten over her friends turning into stone years before at the park while she was spared. In this story, sirens live among humans and are exclusively black females, so they face severe discrimination since society wants white sirens.

Tavia is a siren who lost her voice. She and Effie become sisters when Effie’s grandmother sends Effie to live with Tavia’s family. For Tavia, she’s having a hard time getting over her ex-boyfriend, Priam, an eloko, the beings connected to sirens who manifest in other races, so they don’t get the same degree of discrimination like sirens.

This fantasy YA novel mixes fantasy and reality, but the story can get lost in the weeds amid the constant world-building involving multiple magical beings. The racial thread is interesting, but most of the time blackness is described through Effie scratching her scalp and watching a natural hair YouTuber who turns out to be a siren. Effie’s hair and skin become the main issue, above the murder trial she’s paying attention to or Tavia getting pulled over by the police. The setting is Portland, Oregon, a community that has become notorious for not supporting its black population. Also, a gargoyle is perched on their roof at home. Making sirens black and emphasizing how they’re expected to be white is an interesting comparison, especially with mentioning a high-profile murder of a black woman suspected to be a siren and how it’s playing out in the media. The threat of showing magic affects both Tavia, who already knows she's a siren, and Effie, who’s not sure who she is yet though she suspects a siren.

Overall, the black girl magic theme underlies this story of two teen girls trying to find their place in high school among human beings and other beings while remaining true to their destinies.

I'll be honest, this was a DNF and j feel.bad about that. I loved the premise and was excited to read about the struggles faced by our two herpines. However, the writing left much to be desired. We're dumped into the middle of a world where the rules/structure is never explained. I couldn't understand what was motivating our characters. The first person view is also very casual and not descriptive. The "adult" characters are stereotypical Disney adults which was annoying. I'll give one extra star for the attempt to cover a series of deep topics, if only the writing was mature enough to match.

A Song Below Water follows Tavia and Effie. Two sisters, not by blood, but sisters nonetheless. Together they live in an alternate version of Portland, Oregon, and both of them have to fight their own battles with the usual high school drama, family secrets, crushes and magic.

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. MorrowThe story focuses on sisters Tavia and Effie. The two of them are not related by blood but still see each other as family. They live together in Portland – a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. Tavia has to keep her siren identity a secret and tries to find her late siren grandmother in order to give up her voice and her magical powers. Being a siren means to live in fear – just because sirens are said to manipulate the folk around them, causing society trying to keep them under lock and key. With non-siren parents, strict rules for her daily life and a siren’s call that’s burning her throat, Tavia’s life everything but easy.

Effie has different challenges to overcome but still needs to fight. She prefers to stay unseen and only ever starts to bloom when ren fair season starts. As Euphemia the Mer she feels free and like her true self. Her mother introduced her to this lifestyle and since her death, it’s the only thing that connects mother and daughter. But as Effie is being haunted by demons from her past and nothing adds up anymore, all she wishes for is to finally learn about her ancestry.

Overall I enjoyed A Song Below Water – it had so much potential with the system of magical beings and the topic of misogynoir against sirens (who are exclusively black women). The author paired different topics of racism, social justice and current politics with fantastical elements and created an interesting new world. I wished it had been executed a bit better – not in terms of the aforementioned topics. Those were on point and fascinating. But sometimes I felt as if there were some information missing – like some of the lore of the world. On top of that, the most action-packed scenes only happened in the last 30% of the book, though I would have preferred them to start earlier. This is one of the reasons why the rating isn’t as high as I’d liked it to be.

But I still enjoyed the story of Tavia and Effie, the overall lore and the important topics covering all of it. I connected easily with the protagonists and was excited to see what they would discover about themselves. The writing style itself was easy to follow – but the withholding of some important information sometimes made it hard for me to understand what exactly was wrong. This bothered me, because – as I said – I really liked the idea. Still, I’d recommend this book and would encourage anyone who’s interested to read it once it comes out June 2nd 2020 and read it as soon as possible!

I really enjoyed this story, I just did not like how it was written. It discusses many important topics such as race, gender and prejudice in a very interesting setting. Too bad the interesting setting was not explained a lot. One of the opening statements is ‘myths are not to be trusted’ but then the author goes on not to explain any of the rules of the world. I was confused and frustrated for the majority of the book, especially when lines like ‘x isn’t real, Duuuuh’ came up, like it was obvious despite the fact we were never given any information, so how would I know. Because of this some sentences, I assume were supposed to be world building, made very little sense. I said I enjoyed the story because what actually happened was interesting and I loved the characters, the female friendship which is the focal point of the story in particular. I just wished there was more world building and the book went through a couple more revisions.

3.5/5
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for giving me this advanced eARC in exchange for my honest review.
First of all, the cover is so gorgeous!! Right?
Second of all, mermaids are my thing. I LOVE reading stories about them and this one was pretty original. Its an YA dealing with some themes such as : prejudice, mythology, sirens, magic, racism, current politics. Liked the two sisters, Tavia and Effie but really didnt get along with the other characters.
The plot was a bit too slow for me, but some parts were compelling. If you like YA books, you can give it a try!

I got a free advance reader's copy in exchange for my honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor / Forge!

There's a term which I love: Black girl magic. Lately, being a black girl is like being part of an elite team in America. Looking on from the Caribbean makes me feel so proud of my sisters. A Song Below Water mixes that in with the racial conflict of our modern times. This story focuses on Tavia, a black girl who is a siren and her soul sister, Effie. Sirens are feared in America, mainly because they are black women. Not all black women are sirens, but there have not been any non-black sirens since the Second World War. Most people believe that sirens use their powers to convince people to do things they normally would not. This means that when a black woman is murdered and later found out to be a siren, the overwhelming opinion is that she did something to deserve it. As a matter of fact, that was what most of the story revolved around. The murder trial of the siren's killer has the entire nation's attention and Tavia is terrified that someone would find out that she too is a siren. Unfortunately, she uses her voice at the worst possible time and this starts a series of events which will change her and Effie's world forever. 

The writer crammed a lot into the pages within this book. I am not familiar with the mythological creature, the eloko, so I was quite confused by some of the folklore surrounding them. Sprites were also mentioned a lot without any background really. I really would have loved for her to go a little more into detail about the mythical creatures she wrote about.

The prejudice was very visible within the book, even from Tavia's own parents. That was something that got me upset. Her father was particularly harsh with her, which was not fair, considering it was not her fault who she was. Her mother, who I expected to step in and protect her, was no help. 

The redeeming point was the strong bond between Effie and Tavia. They were not biological sisters but they could not have been closer if they had blood to connect them. They protected each other no matter what. 

I feel like this book should have been longer so I could have understood the worlds of both girls better. I wanted to find out more about sprites and elokos. Effie was part of a fair in which she pretended to be a mermaid and I would have loved to know more about that part of her persona. The story was quite entertaining despite its flaws. I would not say no to trying another one of this writer's books. 


Suitable audience: Because of sensitive topics, I would suggest this book be read by older teens and adults. 

Recurrent themes: Magic. Mythology. Prejudice. 

Violence: There is mention of a murder. There is also mention of violence at a riot. There were also some scenes where people were changed and this may be disturbing for some readers.
Sexual Content: Kissing
Profanity: None
Religious Themes: None
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: None

Mini review:

I received this e-arc via the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

I was so excited to read this! When I saw it on Netgalley I didn't hesitate to request it. Unfortunately I didn't like it.

My biggest problem were the adults. I had absolutely no respect for Tavia's parents. I knew based on the synopsis that her father was 'protective' but I personally felt that he was controlling. Her mother wasn't any better.

I didn't get around to reading about Effie's grandmother, though I suspect I wouldn't like her either.

I still recommend. In large part due to the rep. It's not mentioned in the synopsis, both girls speak in ASL (American Sign language). Plus the writing style, and two main characters were enjoyable.

Fun fact: Sirens are my absolute favorite mythical creature. I literally never pass up on an opportunity to talk about how much every book needs more Sirens. A book about sirens, racism, and activism? I was ecstatic.

A Song Below Water tries to do too much in too little time. The world is complex and intricate and while not every aspect of a world needs to be explicitly explained, I legitimately checked to make sure I hadn't accidentally stumbled upon a sequel or same universe book. Dual protagonists are fun, but the combination of trying to get to know two MCs, their story lines, and the world in the short length of time made it really hard to get invested. I feel bad for not liking this book because in theory it's magnificent and I honestly think if it had a hundred or so more pages to properly delves into it's characters and politics it would have been great but as is I was mostly just confused.

Loved it! It so easily blends fantasy and magic with the current political senario and racism and social justice, in the town of Portland . It is a beautiful story about finding your place in the world. I loved the two main characters, Tavia and Effie, and Wallace too :)

The reason this wasn't a five star read is the myth-building was a bit confusing and felt incomplete. I wanted to know more about the sprites and how they work, especially since they play such an important role in the story. I also wanted to know how the world functions with all these magical beings roaming around, and what role they had in the world history. The pace was also slow at times. Also, what happened to Camilla? What happened to Naema? There are many unresolved plot points in the book.

However once you reach the 50% mark, the story becomes really captivating and moving. A lot of plot points are explained after this point. Although a little disappointed with the ending, I am glad I read it.

THIS COVER!!! Isn’t it gorgeous?! I love mermaids, sirens, mystery, and magic. A Song Below Water is urban fantasy with elements of today’s racial and political climate for a story that rings hauntingly true.

A Song Below Water is a story of family and chosen sisterhood, of fear of being your true self and the freedom of fully walking in who you are. I loved the juxtaposition of the mythos we are familiar of sirens and mermaids with the black experience in America. It was interesting to see how the author, Bethany C. Morrow, relates being a siren to being a black woman silenced and how one television personality willingly chooses to be silenced (with a ringed collar to prevent her from using her siren voice) to be accepted and seen as safe by white America. Even with the eloko, another magical type who are beloved and accepted within the culture, where Tavia and Effie have to hide their magical selves.

While there were parts that felt slow, I found the story well-paced and compelling. It’s a slow build as the sisters both grow together and apart as they discover more about themselves and their gifts, their families struggles with their gifts, and who they are becoming. It’s definitely black girl magic.

SOOOOOO GOOOOOD!

Fantasy novel that overlaps with modern discussions about racism, social justice, and the power of black voices. Must read!

This was really enjoyable! I loved the premise of this YA fantasy novel, set to publish by Tor Teen on June 2, wherein mythical creatures like Greek sirens and Central African elokos exist in our world. Set in Portland, Oregon, this story follows Tavia--a young black girl who also happens to be siren, although no one but her family and her "sister" Effie knows. Effie who, while is definitely not siren, also seems to have some magic within her. The novel opens when the two teenagers learn that a young black woman, Rhoda Taylor, who was murdered by her white boyfriend, may have been a siren. This sends the two best friends on a mission for justice as their fellow students (and some of their teachers) at their predominately white high school begin to use her abilities as a siren as proof of her boyfriend's innocence.

I loved the integration of the Black Lives Matter movement into this novel, as well as the use of mythical creatures to explore the oppression and silencing of black people through fear and misinformation, particularly women. Tavia and Effie were well-drawn, very realistic teenagers and I loved reading about their sisterhood and their love for one another. I also loved the Portland setting. Thematically, I think this is a really important and well-done read, and I applaud Morrow for her ability to explore these topics so well in this YA fantasy.

I did wish that the lore of the world had been explored a bit more, as I sometimes was confused about the defining characteristics of each of the different beings introduced. Additionally, I found the pacing of the novel to be a bit fast at times, particularly during the protest and the prom scenes in the second half of the novel, and I was sometimes unable to follow the action. Finally, as with many YA novels, I wish the parents had been a bit more developed, as I sometimes questioned their reasoning and motivations.

All in all, however, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA fantasy!

2.5/5

Wow. I was not expecting to have to DNF this book. There was so much happening in the first 20% of the book that I was too overwhelmed to continue reading. I had trouble keeping characters and their storylines apart and I didn’t understand several of the words used to either describe family members of mythological beings.

The POV switches between two black girls, one is an undercover siren and the other, I don’t think I even got far enough to find out what she was. There’s loads of mentions of different mythological creatures, but after a while it just got a little hard to keep up.

I also found that the lack of world building was kind of disorienting. What am I expecting to picture in my head? It would’ve been nice to have seen a little more of the world so that I know whether to expect something like Zootopia or New York with werewolves.

However, I did enjoy the bond that the two girls seem to have. It’s a solid friendship. But it wasn’t enough to keep me interested :(

I’m super sad to have to DNF this book, because I had such high hopes for it. I think the premise is honestly so amazing and I don’t think you should base whether or not you read this book solely on my opinion.

In modern day America, there are some people who carry a mythological heritage: They are mermaids, gargoyls or sirens.
Tavia has to face not only the racism and sexism that comes with being a black girl in the US, she also has to keep a big secret, that impacts the life of her whole family: She is a siren. But while Tavia is trying to find her place in society and fights for her rights, her adopted sister Effie struggels with the mystery of her own family and heritage.

This book is a really nice story about finding out who you are and finding your place in the world or - in short - about growing up. It manages to do this while connecting modern day issues with magic.

The basic story was intriguing, taking on current social issues in an urban fantasy setting. There are elements of interesting world-building here, and I appreciated the bond between Effie and Tavia (though I continually bumped on the term "play-sister" or "play-family").

However, I found parts of the world-building half-baked or unexplained - sprites, for example, are referenced frequently, but the way they work in this world is never really laid out (mostly they're minor annoyances but following the major and tragic incident in Effie's childhood everyone was just like, "oh, guess it must have been sprites ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"). It also doesn't really follow for me that supernatural creatures are an accepted part of this world and yet have had seemingly no effect on history - they aren't mentioned in the Bill of Rights, military conflicts and colonization and their outcomes seem to have been the same, the story of The Little Mermaid still exists even though mermaids are real. (On a more minor note: the Renaissance Faire is apparently so big and popular that there's fanfiction devoted to it even though it only runs two weeks a year?)

I also didn't find it particularly appealing that Effie and Tavia were nearly the only characters who were sympathetic or seemed to act in explicable or supportable ways. Tavia's parents, Effie's grandmother, and Naema often came off as pretty monstrous, even when supposedly acting out of concern. And while I thought that the passages about Tavia's support network were often quite beautiful, the idea of it didn't super make sense to me. The fact that you wanted to be in the gospel choir at this particular high school meant that you were also signing up to help hide a siren? What if you just liked gospel music?

This one might just not have clicked with me, but I think it might work better for others.

I was pretty excited to read this book. When you list what it's about it sounds pretty stunning and a great idea for a book! Though unfortunately I don't think that the full potential of this book was reached, this more than anything upsets me because it wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't a great one and it had the potential to be incredible but sadly it just... well wasn't.

In Short: Mermaids / Sirens / Mythical Creatures + Racial Tension + Found Family = A Song Below Water

The problem with this book is that it's so messy. For the first half it genuinely felt like i'd been swept off my feet but not in a good way, the story either made no sense and failed at building its world and lore or it made sense and felt incredibly slow and somewhat boring, with no in-between. I felt like i'd accidentally been approved for a sequel novel instead of a standalone/first book in a series. There is so much that isn't explained and is left to pick up or google that it felt too overwhelming at times. Don't get me wrong, i'm all for books that leave the reader to their own devices when it comes to not explaining cultural things but A Song Below Water didn't leave cultural or things that could be left to the reader to learn about out of the book. It left out key information like what exactly is a Siren in this world? What is an Elko? What's the difference between the two and why are Elko's loved and not feared? It just felt like a mess at times where things weren't fleshed out enough.

Talking about fleshing out this story there are SO many unresolved plot points that are just left hanging by the end of the book. What happened to the Camila the awesome YouTuber? Why didn't the book expand on what happened to Naemia? Why wasn't the relationship between Tavia and her Dad expanded upon? These are just some of the thoughts I had when i'd finished this. It felt like there was so much going on eventually that there wasn't enough time to resolve all the plot points in a satisfying way.

Though this wasn't all negative, if you manage to force yourself to read past the 50% mark at around 55/60% the story suddenly becomes captivating, moving and everything else you wanted from the book at the start. Things you thought should have been explained at the beginning are finally explained and make sense and the plot ramps up as well. I did enjoy this book and I didn't expect it to end up where it did and I am glad I read it, it's just there are some major gapping holes that I think should have been fixed before it was released. Though I did love the addition of all the mythical people because how often do you get to read a book that has sirens and other ancient greek/roman lore in?

Overall, It's not a bad book it's just disappointing it has such an amazing idea behind it and an incredible cover but the contents of the book and the way it just felt messy and unorganised let it down. If it was a 1/3 shorter or a 1/3 longer I think this book could have been amazing. It should have either been tightened up as a story or been allowed the time and pages to set up the story properly and expand on everything the author wanted to say. There's clearly a lot of powerful messages trying to get through in this book and it lands a few of them but due to lack of coherence at points in the book not all the powerful messages get across properly and it's sad really.

(2.5 stars out of 5)

Bethhany C. Morrow is an amazing writer and storyteller. I read MEM last year and was so excited to see her branch out into YA. A Song Below Water is about two teenage girls, sisters and best friends, Tavia and Effie, living in Portland, Oregon. In a city with a small population of Black folks and an even smaller community of magical people, Tavia struggles to keep her identity as a siren secret. Sirens, who are always Black women, are persecuted and discriminated against. While Tavia struggles to keep her siren powers from coming out, Effie, who stars as a mermaid at a local Renaissance faire, begins fighting strange changes to her body and weird blackouts where she cannot recall what happened. Is she a mermaid? Or someone else who the world rarely encounters? This book has an amazing story about finding yourself and your family and is woven through with contemporary topics such as race, police brutality against people of color, and the killing of Black boys. The book is both fantasy and fiction, but rooted in today's times with a call to activism. I highly recommend this book and, besides, how could you ever resist that gorgeous cover?

After years of wanting good siren or mermaid books and being disappointed, finally there is an amazing book to love! This is set is an alternate Portland where some mythical characters do exist but sirens are kept secret because society distrusts them so much. I’ve never read a book like this and loved how it blended fantasy creature elements into a world that otherwise looked like our own. Two sisters, one a secret siren and one not sure of who or what she is, go to school and deal with a gargoyle who perched on their house. The fantasy elements alone are enough to recommend this book and make it stand out from anything else in YA right now, but there’s even more to enjoy.

I loved their relationship, the strong and newly forming female friendships, and the close yet uncertain family ties. The persecution of the sirens brought up many parallel of discrimination and social issues we’d recognize today. This story amazingly blended fantasy and suspense with social commentary and activism. I couldn’t put this book down until I knew what happened to the sisters and the answers to the questions about their identities. The book is unique, captivating, and I wish there was more.

The sister’s in this book are amazing, their relationship and love for each other is so well written. They are wonderfully supportive of each other in everything they are going through in regards to both the magical elements of their lives and being young women of color. I appreciate how the author isn’t just alluding to real life events and using magic as an analogy to explore this, but rather combines magic and reality making the magical realism of the book intertwined with political events.
I also really enjoyed how the magic was depicted in the book. It was beautiful, strange, and sometimes even a little scary. The balance between these different elements was really interesting. The magic itself is not blessing or a curse but is so complex. The settings were another place were the magic elements really shined and overall were just well written. All around this was a well done book and the relationship between Tavia and Effie really drove the story forward and made it particularly compelling.