The Moorings of Mackerel Sky is nearly my perfect book. Beautiful writing, perfectly balanced magical realism and characters that are so deeply human you can't help but root for him made this really stand out to me. It follows the residents of Mackerel Sky, a town that was allegedly founded by a man who had a tumultuous romance with a mermaid. The mermaids appear in this book only when they are most needed, both saving lives and wreaking havoc. Not to mention, my favorite setting of all time is an east coast beach town, and this beach town is very special. The people in it are special too. We focus on around half a dozen residents and their families. Their lives are complicated and tragic, but MZ makes sure there is always love and magic. I was partial to Derrick and Ricky, closeted gay teens who fall in love and whose story feels so soft despite all the hard edges they have.

My only issue was the pacing, which felt a little off at times but ultimately didn't ruin the experience that much. I can see this being a good book to read in high school classrooms, or book clubs, if you like something a little different.

This was a tale of healing, community, and the enduring power of myths. The writing is lyrical and deeply emotional. Love and lore are the threads that bind the community.
Many thanks to Hyperion Avenue and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

While this book wasn't for me necessarily, fans of the sci fi genre will find a lot to love in this debut nove. The poetic language and the mermaids make it feel like a dream you might not want to wake up from.

I wish I saw this book getting more hype. It's lyrical, beautiful, and masterfully put together. I know it's from a smaller press but it definitely deserves a big audience. Intensely atmospheric and fantastical, The Moorings of Mackerel Sky submerges the reader in its world, while MZ keeps them there. There's heart in this book, and the author's craft shines through. I will definitely be on the lookout for future works, and highly recommend this one.

This book is a combination of mermaid lore, poetry, magic, and humanity in many of its facets. It interweaves the lives of people in the Main lobstering town of Mackerel Sky both past and present, Legend has it that Captain Burrbank founded the town 300 years ago, as a way to maintain a relationship with the mermaid Nimuë, who subsequently cursed Mackerel Sky after 3 terrible betrayals. The echos of this curse are still felt in modern day, affecting the lives of abused child Leo, widow, Myra, pitcher Derrick, and a host of other engaging characters whose live weave in and out of each others as well as brushing against the curse and the possibility of finally breaking its hold on the town.

This was a very interesting read. I was expecting it to be a bit more focused on the fantasy elements, but instead I got such rich and in depth character work that was unreal and much appreciated. I also loved the way the author chose to lay out the story in layers so you learned just a little bit more at a time, it made the pacing feel perfect.

I was drawn to the book because I’m a New England girl who has spent a lot of time on the ocean, wishing mermaids were real. As an adult, I learned The Little Mermaid was just a story, but this book made me still want to believe in mermaids. This wasn’t just a novel, it was art. I loved the vignette style storytelling. It started off a little slow, but the writing was so beautiful, I didn’t mind lingering with the words. Equal parts magical and heartbreaking. Truly a great read.

This book has my whole entire heart in its pages. It's the good and the bad of the place I call home. All the things that make Maine difficult, unique, beautiful, and home. Reading it felt like home. I know all these people, I know the sounds and the smells and the thump of your tires on the heaves of an uneven side road and the sight of the sea striking the rocks. THE MOORINGS OF MACKEREL SKY is so much of my experience of Maine tucked into one magical tale full of pirates, mermaids, and love.

“At sixteen Ricky fell stone-sunk in love with the star pitcher of this baseball team, Derrick Stowe, for all the reasons one falls in love with the star pitcher of the baseball team: he was gorgeous, kind-hearted, tall, honest, and hopeful, and you could trust that bastard with a ball and a bat. Derrick Stowe fell in love right back with the soulful big-eyed and big-lipped poet. And for a long time neither knew and neither told the other.”

In true Bucky fashion, I forced myself to stay awake way later than I should have in order to finish this book… and I’m so, so glad that I did.

M.Z.’s The Moorings of Mackerel Sky was, from beginning to end, addicting. It carried me through a reading slump with the mermaids, the magic, and the cast of characters that I thought might be impossible to dislike. The writing itself was absolutely stunning. M.Z., for a debut author, has an incredible handle on the use of prose, and this novel showcases their skill beautifully. This story (the writing and the characters in particular) held me to my couch and kept me hooked from the very beginning.

I think my favorite characters were Derrick and Ricky – I saw that foreshadowing, M.Z., and I nearly sobbed during The Scene – but I can’t say that I didn’t absolutely adore Manon, Jason, Leo, and Myra. And Dog. We can’t forget Dog. These characters felt so… warm and familiar, like if I’d been swept into Mackerel Sky, I, too, would be taken under their wing and protected. (Am I jealous of Leo for finding someone as amazing as Myra? …No… Never… [yes].)

Honestly, I don’t really have a lot of thoughts other than that this novel was beautiful, and I’m definitely keen to see where M.Z. goes with their career. My overall rating is 4/5 stars for both Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for this ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow wow wow. I love poetry, fantasy, and some realistic fiction, and this book combined all those genres in such beautiful and wonderful ways. The writing was is so lyrically beautiful, and I fell in love with Mackerel Sky and its flawed inhabitants. I am also a big sucker for stories that intertwine separate story threads in unexpected ways, and this book succeeded in doing this so well.

I have admittedly not read much of the magic realism genre, but from what I have read, this fits snugly into that genre, with an honest blend of everyday life in a small Maine town with supernatural elements like curses and mermaids.

I am typically not one for comparisons between authors, but much of this book and its descriptions of everyday life struck me as similar to Fredrick Backman's narrative style. It struck the same emotions that Backman's work has struck in me, and I mean that as truly high praise!

I will eagerly await more releases from this author. Congrats on such an incredible debut!

Publication date: 27 February 2024

thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for a review!

happy pub day to this book! this is a book you ABSOLUTELY need to read while listening to florence and the machine. (mermaids, yes, of course, but also many others with the spooky, small Maine town vibes.)

i LOVE the writing style in this book. it's emotional and full of metaphors, and creates exactly the kind of environment that i was looking for. while the mermaid folk story lore was difficult to follow at times, what really mattered was the effect that the story had on the people of the present, and this book delivered on that fantastically. i think the story of myra and leo captured me the most, but all the varying threads came together at the end for one awesome finale. (maybe orchestrated by those three old ladies... they remind me of the fates)

i also liked the subtle king arthur reference with the name of the mermaid of old, Nimue (who i recognized as arthur's lady of the lake!) little details like that helped this book feel much deeper than just the story on the surface, filled with little details that can be explored even further.

this was an awesome debut, overall, and i had a great time

"I just finished reading this, and my heart is so full."

The exact words I wrote when I read the last page of The Moorings of Mackerel Sky by MZ. There is so much heartbreak in this story but also soo much love and magic. I loved it! MZ does such a remarkable job describing Mackerel Sky. She had me instantly googling to see if it is a real place. Laced with mermaid folklore, you're sucked into Maine smalltown life.

There are so many layers to this story with blossoming love, grieving over loved ones lost, and those finding their way back together again. And the friendship between Myra and Leo! It just makes my heart happy! I love how exquisitely told this story is! There is so much beauty in the lives of these seemingly ordinary people.
    
The Moorings of Mackerel Sky is a story of hope on the other side of heartbreak. Yes, there will be tears of sadness, but MZ reminds us of all the beautiful people that make this world special. From the endearing characters to the reverent way she describes Mackerel Sky, you will fall in love with Maine and the magic of mermaids. I wish every Manon had a Jason, every Leo had a Myra, and every Derrick had a dad like Stephane.

The Moorings of Mackerel Sky
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Read this if you like:
• Magical realism
• Heartwarming stories
• Small town fiction
• Mermaid lore

[This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review]

4.5 stars

What a debut! I will definitely be following this author’s career.

The Moorings of Mackerel Sky is a circular, heartfelt magical realism novel about a small seaside town in Maine that just so happens to have a deep history with mermaids. Several storylines intertwine, and although the action of the novel centers around a year, the narrative wanders unhurriedly across timelines, rather like the tide ebbing and flowing on the shores of the town’s crescent-shaped beach. At the beginning it felt a little more like a short story cycle than a novel, but like a fisherman’s net, the strands of narrative grew tighter and tighter as the story went on, ultimately binding the whole town together.

There are parts where the fact that it’s a debut novel show. Poppy’s narrative arc in particular felt forced, or a little less ‘true’ feeling, in its escalation and conclusion. However, those moments are few and far between. This is a town of sad stories, yet the book as a whole is a heartachingly wholesome tale of community, love, and the ties that bind us.

Atmospheric and utterly immersive, The Moorings of Mackerel Sky is a story of healing shared and individual traumas as a community.
MZ characterizes a small Maine coastal town through three main stories. Twelve-year-old boy Leo, whose mother struggles with substance use disorder, finds an unexpected connection with one of the town’s eldest residents, Myra Kelley. High school baseball sensation Derrick finds solace in poetry as he grieves the loss of his mother and hides his gay romance. And creative writing teacher, Manon Perle, tries to rebuild as she reels from the passing of her young daughter. The three storylines are bound together with each character’s relationship with the legend of Mackerel Sky’s founding, which revolves around a love story between a man and a mermaid.
If fantasy elements like mermaids are a turn off in books, rest assured that the human characters take front and center and the mermaids live in folklore for most of the book.
The storytelling is circular more than linear. With each new chapter, we understand another layer of our characters, their dynamics with each other, and the town’s history. Because of this circular nature, the plot itself can feel slow. But the author’s exceptional writing is more than enough to keep the reader hooked. MZ’s mastery of the English language is among the ranks of Louise Erdrich and Toni Morrison.
Mackerel Sky is a strong debut with experimental storytelling and authentic, lovable characters.

After reading other reviews, I think this book may just not be for me. I could not find any low-rated reviews that matched my reasons for disliking it, so who knows, you may love it.

For me, a book needs a strong plot or strong character development. This book, for me, had neither. So I didn't really understand the point.

Mackerel Sky, the town after which this book is named, has a creation myth involving a mermaid and a sea captain and everyone in the town is obsessed with it. People are naming their children after the mermaid, and people make crafts of this mermaid, and all anyone talks about is the freaking mermaid. I also happen to come from a town with its own creation myth. We do not care about this creation myth. The town name has the word 'bear' in it, so we have bears all over, but no one talks about the myth itself. So maybe that is something I couldn't get over that will have literally no effect on anyone else's enjoyment of this book.

This book overall felt like a love letter from the author to Mackerel Sky, which doesn't exist. I don't know why, but I just could not get myself to care. The writing, however, was beautiful.

Thank you to Hyperion Avenue and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the small town of Mackerel Sky, three tails are woven together to create “The Moorings of Mackerel Sky”. Basically, three depressing lives somehow intertwined with the myths of mermaids. If you were expecting a detailed dive into mermaid lore, this book may not be for you, but if you were expecting a story based around grief, loss, tragedy…etc. than check this out. There are mermaids, you just won’t actually read about them for quite a while. But in that defence, it’s tagged as Literary fiction, not Fantasy.

I struggled with the prose, which was excessively metaphor heavy. It was also extremely repetitive. The same myths were retold so many times, almost like the author was afraid the reader would forget what she wrote 3 chapters back. There were certain descriptions of love that I really enjoyed, and the author did write a beautiful atmosphere.

It was a unique story, and I am glad I read it if only to learn how a myth can truly affect those around it. The character’s stories were interesting, albeit not thoroughly developed. There are also snippets of poetry throughout which was intriguing.

Ultimately, not a story that will truly stick with me, but it was fun to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Hyperion Avenue for the ARC of The Moorings of Mackerel Sky by MZ.

First, this is such an amazing book cover. It immediately peaked my interest. Second, as someone who grew up in New England, a Maine tale not written by Stephen King caught my attention.

In terms of actually reading the book, wow, this is so beautifully written. It's atmospheric and magical both in terms of prose and setting. There is poetry written that I might go back through the book to reanalyze its meaning to the characters and storyline - but in reading through the story the first time each poem was haunting and lyrical and added such interesting layers in the moment.

The story unfolds with different townsfolk in the town of Mackerel Sky, and all of their individual tales are tangled with each other and the town's historic curse for a span of about 10 weeks during the annual mermaid festival and torch night festivities.

The history of the curse cause by Captain Burrbank's three betrayals of Nimue the Mermaid is doled out slowly over the entire book, and parts of the story are often repeated through different character interactions that add more and more detail. The history of the curse is discussed more than its impact in the present - so the story itself is not about an overextended century long push to end its hold on the town. Instead, the story is about how the lives of current townspeople themselves balance what occurred 300 years ago.

My only wish after finishing the story was that it were longer - I would have loved more in-depth time with Myra and her life, with her Christmas cabinet, with Derrick's mother, or with the Three Bats who monitor the happenings of the town. What we see is beautiful, and it is obvious there is more depth to each of the characters and their pasts than we see with the three young men. While Leo, Derrick, and Ricky each have wonderful and heartbreaking stories of their own, there is much afoot with all the adult characters in the book. We learn so much about Manon and Jason, but it seems like everyone else still has many secrets I'd like to uncover.

An excellent debut novel! I'm excited for what comes next for MZ.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mackerel Sky is a fishing village off the eastern coast that has rumored legends od mermaids as part of its past and present. The inhabitants of the village include a grieving mother and father, a young boy who finds a mother when his own can't be trusted to do the job, and a myriad of elder townspeople who have seen much.

I love this book. The characters are realistic even with the fantasy embedded in the storylines. The ending is amazingly satisfying.

My thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion for this ARC of The Moorings of the Mackerel Sky. I would give it 3.5 stars if that were possible.

First, this is not a fantasy novel about mermaids per se. Readers anticipating that will be disappointed. It is instead the tale of a small seaside village marked by a mermaid myth, one that winds up being true. The inhabitants of Mackerel Sky likewise wind up being descended from the original mermaid in various ways, or sea witches, or genetically part-merwin.

The author uses the mermaids to explain several tragedies that strike the town, as well as one character’s homosexuality and another’s birth defect. Readers are likely meant to sigh with satisfaction that the gay teenager isn’t “other” because he is gay but because his mother was (shhh) a mermaid. Likewise, a disabled child born with a rare syndrome didn’t really die of her condition. She was (shhh) really a real mermaid. Rather than this move affecting the magical realism the author probably aimed for, it comes off as an offensive apologia for queer and disabled individuals. So after hundreds of pages of tragedy for the three main characters (a young mother, a gay adolescent baseball player, and an abused unwanted boy), the resolution is —-ta da —- mermaids!?

Also, the book is far too long, the structure a diffuse mess (where were the editors for this?), and the author retells the origin myth no less than a half dozen times. What made me finish this was that some of the characters were appealing, such as the sea witch Mrs Myra. Other characters, such as the three old women in wheelchairs blatantly representing the Fates, made me roll my eyes, caricatures than characters. What’s more, the mermaid lore itself is inconsistent, with a variety of mermaids popping up to save lives, take lives, wage war,any time the author needs a dues ex machine to do some heavy lifting (or wet work, as the case may be). If this were a book about the inconsistencies of oral history in the small town, or a book in which otherness was the core and mermaids but a motif, that might have worked. But I am left with a sense of at once too muchness and not enough. How can such a long yarn feel ultimately so forgettable?

This was a very sweet, lovely book. I love when books manage to balance the magical aspects and emotional depth instead of favoring one, and the author did very well, allowing the characters to shine while keeping the fantastical elements. This is definitely more magical realism than fantasy, so if you are someone who typically reads more general fiction/literary fiction, I think you will still really enjoy this. I would say the strongest aspect of this book is the atmosphere, the author really nails it and I felt truly immersed in this town and the community. I think the book was missing the “oomph” factor that would make this a five-star, but I still really enjoyed my time with it.

ARC provided by NetGalley