The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

By Maggie Tokuda- Hall

The pirate Florian, born Flora, has always done whatever it takes to survive—including sailing under false flag on the Dove as a marauder, thief, and worse. Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, a highborn Imperial daughter, is on board as well—accompanied by her own casket. But Evelyn’s one-way voyage to an arranged marriage in the Floating Islands is interrupted when the captain and crew show their true colors and enslave their wealthy passengers.

Both Florian and Evelyn have lived their lives by the rules, and whims, of others. But when they fall in love, they decide to take fate into their own hands—no matter the cost.

I liked this quite a bit more than I was anticipating.  I know, why read a book if you don't think you're going to like it? I'll be grossly honest:  the part where Flora/Florian the pirate falls in love with the Lady Evelyn, I was not interested in at all.  But the temptation of the title, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea was too evocative, too enticing for me.  Eventually it wound up on my hold list, and onto my little e-reader.  And in all fairness to myself, whom I know quite well, the romance was the part I enjoyed the least. The mermaid, the witch, and the sea, all came through. And also the feel of the book is much more adult than I think the cover implies.  Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful cover, but it feels more middle-reader or YA than adult, and I would really push this into an adult fantasy category (which is great, sometimes YA fantasy feels too "easy"). 

So, okay, this island world revolves around the Empire, which is colonizing every island it can, while also dealing with pirates marauding the seas (and drinking illegal mermaid blood) and colonial problems.  There's some loose Japanese influences there, some references to a not-yet-colonized island with dark skinned people, etc.  Evelyn is basically sent off by her parents to marry some up-and-coming soldier on one of the colonies, partly because she's a real disappointment at home (among other reasons, she makes out with her servant and doesn't care about tea service), and partly for reasons that are a complete SHOCK later in the book.  I really disliked Evelyn from the start.  I always find it hard to like characters like that, who are privileged but do nothing except complain about their circumstances (or make really stupid decisions) and yet are well-liked by non-privileged people for unknown reasons, and in this particular case, someone who also puts their servant at risk too, selfishly.  And when Evelyn takes off, her servant's out there crying and getting fired, and Evelyn's like, well, "I wasn't in love with her, she was just a warm body pretty much." Then she ends up on this pirate ship, assumes she'll make friends with everyone, and winds up getting Florian's finger chopped off (spoiler!) because she's mad that Florian doesn't want to hang out with her for ONCE and she insists on going up top, whereupon Florian's desertion is discovered and punished. What a catch!  Although, to be fair, Florian is also lying to her about the fact that they're planning to kidnap and enslave her and sell her as a prostitute. I mean, I'm not sure exactly why Florian likes her, but Tokuda-Hall does a decent job of making me believe that it's not the dumbest decision Florian could make.

But aside from whatever attraction draws them together (which is a little mystifying, I guess, but to each their own) the real juicy parts of the book make up for that weaker link.  The shifting allegiances of the crew members, Florian's very real worry about his alcoholic brother's fate, and the fate of their passengers, the mysterious Lady What's-Her-Name (the mother's friend) who serves a much larger role than initially suspected.  And when the crew does make the switch from cruise to slaver (FINALLY) the action really kicks up - then we get midnight escapes, gun fights, cast aways, witches, Empire-spanning PLOTS, assassins, double agents, spies, and all sorts of fun new characters, or new sides to characters we thought we knew.  I wish the first part hadn't taken up so much time, but I guess it was necessary to get you invested in Florian/Evelyn's relationship.  

Even though we get resolution to the storylines, it's really setting things up for a Book 2: Lady What's-her-name's "servant" from Quark is last seen drifting toward the Red coast, we know the Witch and the Pirate Supreme (which, brief aside: that is one of the dumbest titles I can think of and it really jarred me every time I read it.  Really, Pirate Supreme? Is he/she a pizza? Even Supreme Pirate sounds better.  I don't know why I'm so aggrieved by it, but I AM. Aside over!) are former lovers and will probably end up meeting again (or it's one hell of a Chekhov's Gun), and I assume there's going to be more Empire plots.  So for all that it really is basically an enclosed story, it feels weirdly incomplete. 

I would also classify it among the new(er) strain of fantasy books which make more explicit references to diversity.  Flora/Florian for one (although my first introduction to sex/gender fluidity in fantasy was twenty years ago in the Tamir Trilogy, starting with The Bone Doll's Twin (and which I still need to finish, since it was a series that was incomplete when I started and I never got back to it)), and the many references to various skin/hair tones throughout, not to mention the implicit, then explicit oppression of the Empire, and the by-play with the mermaids.  I didn't find it awkwardly placed, preachy, or distracting, but I assume others may find it so, because some people are never satisfied unless they're dissatisfied.  Also, everyone has different levels of tolerance.

And I don't want to really spoil more here (BUT I WILL), but how good was that reveal that the whole "slaver ship drops off virginal Lady Evelyn to be despoiled" turned out to be an actual plan for invading the Red coast and adding more territory to the Empire thing?!  And like, all these people were in on it!  I loved it.  That's when the book really started coming together for me.  Honestly, I thought it was really well done - things that you ( i.e., "me") never suspected of someone, but also not out of character for them, plus plugging plot holes (like, "why invite the Empire's wrath by doing this to a whole bunch of citizens really brazenly?" and "why wouldn't they take the minimum safety measure of changing the name of boat when they do this?") that I was willing to overlook in the interest of "story" but are so much better now they're not actually holes.