Book of the Day Roundup: March 13-17, 2023
The Sea in You
Jessi Sheron
Iron Circus Comics
Softcover $15.00 (224pp)
978-1-63899-111-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
A teenage girl and a sea creature find love in The Sea in You, an inspired, modern LGBTQ+ twist on The Little Mermaid.
In Ocean City, Maryland, Corinth encounters a creature that resembles a mermaid, except with fangs and bad intentions. The creature spares her life, though. Using spoken words and sign language, they soon become friends—with sparks of a potential romantic relationship. The creature, Skylla, wants to grow closer to Corinth; through magic, she transforms into a human girl. The cost is Skylla’s voice and a mysterious task that needs to be completed. When Skylla balks at the task, her life is threatened, and Corinth risks everything in a desperate attempt to find a solution, leading to a surprising, satisfying conclusion.
Though based on a classic story, the plot is fresh, exciting, and unpredictable. Corinth is a convincing, vulnerable heroine, and Skylla shows an intriguing combination of wild animal instincts and gentle curiosity. Corinth’s mother is deaf, and the use of American Sign Language is an innovative yet natural fit for the story of a mermaid-turned-girl who has otherwise lost her ability to communicate.
Some of the book’s most gripping moments are the complicated interactions between Corinth and Seth, her boyfriend, whose behavior toward her can be sweet, manipulative, and outright abusive. The art uses precision linework and a varied palette to create immersive imagery in land and sea-based scenes alike; of special note are the intricate details and kaleidoscopic colors of the book’s climax.
The Sea in You is an exciting, dramatic, and tender tale of adolescent self-discovery—above and below the ocean.
PETER DABBENE (February 27, 2023)
Bitter Medicine
Mia Tsai
Tachyon Publications
Softcover $18.95 (272pp)
978-1-61696-384-2
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Mia Tsai’s novel Bitter Medicine, two haunted immortals find love despite overwhelming obstacles.
Elle was once an aspiring artist and powerful glyphmaker. She has two brothers—one is arrogant, but fun and loyal; the other is perhaps past saving. When she interfered in her brothers’ feud, the choice had life-altering consequences, and the resultant disaster tore her family apart. Now, she does all that she can to stay hidden and be “mediocre.” She is tempted out of her shell by Luc, a handsome, half-elf fighter with a tragic past that he cannot talk about. Luc is under the control of despicable Oberon, who forces him to accept dangerous missions of questionable morality against all manner of supernatural creatures.
At first, Oberon and Elle’s inner demons combine to keep her from pursuing Luc, despite her feelings for him. Still, Elle begins to use her magic to protect Luc as best she can, risking her job and her anonymity to do so. Their frank, awkward, heartwarming banter shows how isolated they have been—and how much they have yearned for a real, human connection. When Elle does open up, their bond proves strong enough to overcome challenges from Oberon, Elle’s brothers, and their own self-doubts. Still, as the couple’s affections deepen, their respective secrets collide. Grasping the happiness that long eluded them requires a dangerous leap of faith.
In the end, only a daring scheme and the scariest of sacrifices could enable Elle and Luc to outsmart their adversaries. With support from snarky, loving friends, they hope to survive one final series of tense, frightening travails and earn their sweet ending.
Bitter Medicine is a magical novel in which two lonely people have to let go of their pasts and forgive themselves for the sake of their romance.
EILEEN GONZALEZ (February 27, 2023)
Gertie, the Darling Duck of WWII
Cathy Stefanec Ogren
Sleeping Bear Press
Hardcover $18.99 (40pp)
978-1-5341-1171-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Inspired by a true story that brought light in a dark time, this picture book shows how even a spark of hope can make all the difference. In 1945, Gertie the duck built her nest on a precarious post in the Milwaukee River. The local fascination turned into an international sensation as people around the world found inspiration and encouragement in this plucky duck and her family as they survived against all odds. The colored pencil illustrations reflect a war-weary city’s transformation as spirits rise.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (February 27, 2023)
The Woman Beyond the Sea
Sarit Yishai-Levi
Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann, translator
Amazon Crossing
Softcover $16.99 (415pp)
978-1-5420-3755-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Sarit Yishai-Levi’s sprawling historical novel The Woman Beyond the Sea, three generations of women consider what it means to love and the power of knowing your history.
Although its chapters are narrated by a rotating cast, the novel centers most on Eliya and her mother, Lily. Eliya is married to an emotionally abusive man, and when he ends their marriage, she returns to her parents’ house in Tel Aviv and attempts suicide. During her recovery and therapy, she explores her strained relationship with Lily, who was often distant during Eliya’s childhood. Orphaned herself, Lily is largely unknowable to Eliya, and both women have constructed elaborate defenses around themselves.
Through these different points of view, Lily’s story slowly unfolds; it’s a story rife with secrets and loss that informs her personality and actions.
This immersive and expansive book is also quite intimate. It wears down the defenses of each person at a gradual rate until more of their vulnerability is visible. These characterizations are often painful to read: Eliya’s immaturity and selfishness and Lily’s bitterness and anger are woven throughout the book, and it’s really only in the late second half of the story that this starts to lessen as their underlying traumas surface, providing some explanation.
The multiple viewpoints and timelines tangle together at times. While there are some answers provided to both women about their pasts and about themselves by the end of the book, there are no tidy resolutions. There are unforgivable, hard choices; there are traumas, and there are scars. Eliya and Lily learn just how powerful forgiveness can be, and that love can set the context for healing. The Woman Beyond the Sea is a compelling historical novel from a much-needed Sephardic voice.
JAIME HERNDON (February 27, 2023)
Bones Under the Ice
A Jhonni Laurent Mystery
Mary Ann Miller
Oceanview Publishing
Hardcover $27.95 (336pp)
978-1-60809-537-7
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
In Mary Ann Miller’s chilling mystery novel Bones Under the Ice, cold temperatures are no barrier to murder.
In the days following a blizzard, the body of a pregnant teenager is uncovered in a snowdrift outside of rural Fields Crossing, Indiana. At first, people presume that the deceased, Stephanie, was caught in the storm and froze to death, but after the body thaws, they discover hammer blows to her head and conclude that she was murdered. The cold temperatures might have done her in, but a person made sure that she was left to die. This realization sends the town into a tailspin of recrimination and worry.
The case is Sheriff Jhonni Laurent’s first murder case; it complicates her reelection bid. When a second body appears, Laurent must decide if they are connected or if there are two killers at large. At the same time, Laurent struggles with limited resources, a pesky reporter, and growing concern that this case might be her last. But she’s up to the challenge of finding the murderer, even in a town where everybody knows everybody and grudges run deeper than the winter snows.
Though the sheriff narrates, there are some alternate, tension-building points of view from townspeople whose actions show that they know more than they are saying. Indeed, the story holds tight to its rural roots, stressing the interconnectedness of small-town life. In Fields Crossing, farmers and retired people mingle at the Skillet, the local greasy spoon. And people also have cultural clashes, as with those between a hardworking farm family, the Martins, and the Tillmans, a collection of n’er-do-wells whose latest scheme is to add wind farming to their land.
Bones Under the Ice is an engrossing mystery novel in which a small-town sheriff’s skills are tested when she’s tasked with solving cold-minded murders.
JEREMIAH ROOD (February 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
