A Song Below Water

This was an interesting, timely urban fantasy about being Black and the power of a voice told through mythological creatures (like sirens). This book is a powerful tale involving the current Black Lives Matter moment with fantasy elements. The creatures are interesting. The magic is definitely something I want to know more about.

The pacing was a bit off in places, especially at the beginning. I was also occasionally confused about how the magic worked in this world.

Overall it's a good story and one well worth supporting! Pick it up

 Imagine my surprise as I went into this book expecting contemporary and what I got what magical realism 🙃🙃🙃
I was so shook holy shit 😂😂
This was a really interesting read that went in probably every single direction I WAS NOT expecting. I have a habit of going into books without knowing much about them, but I usually at least know the genre. For this I didn't lmao. But I enjoyed it despite some flaws. Overall, it was intriguing and engaging, despite my early pacing complaint.
I adored the relationship between the two sisters, and I found myself being very intrigued by the people Effie was getting closer and forming bonds with. I really liked Wallace too, I wanted more of him, and I wished we could have seen more of the friendship between Effie and Isabella too. However, I thought Tavia's storyline was somewhat tame in comparison. Don't get me wrong, I loved the self-acceptance and confidence she found, but I think I actually just would have liked to see her interact with more people. I don't know.
I wish the world had been more flushed out in general. I felt thrown into a parallel world, but I never really felt comfortable with it. It could have benefited from more exposition in that regard. The ending also felt a bit rushed in comparison to the pacing of the majority of the book (which, aside from being slow in the beginning, I really liked! It was a very comfortable pacing for the most part) 

This was a fun, magical book. It included many important discussions on racism and prejudice, while creating this urban fantasy world of sprites and sirens and gargoyles. The relationship between the 2 sisters was so sweet and wholesome and really incredible. However, I found myself bored a few times throughout. The magic of the world was confusing to me and wasn't that interesting. I think this is more of a personal preference, however, than a fault in the writing. I'm not into urban fantasy often, and I also listened to this as an audiobook, which sometimes lends to me being confused and missing certain things.

All in all, I would recommend this book. It really highlights the struggles of Black people, especially Black women, in a way that is really impactful.

Every complaint I've ever had with the YA genre has been lifted through this book. I loved the mythology, I loved the play sister dynamics, I loved the activism and real situations involving racism (mysogynoir specifically) that demands activism, I loved that I wasn't annoyed by any of the characters for falling into shallow or cliched tropes, and I cannot wait for the next book. I felt like I was reading from an actual teen's perspective. There was an appropriate amount of angst and teenage insecurity without being contrived or whiny. When I was a teenager, I hated that the YA characters I was supposed to feel connected to were all selfish poor decision making bitches. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres so I appreciate that the mythical creatures in this story are lesser known and from a wide variety of cultures. Gorgons and sirens from Greece, gargoyles from France, elokos from Mongo, and sprites from all around Europe. My favorite scene was when Tavia and Effie are just lying on Gargy's back in the reserve and having a normal sister conversation. Effie and Gargy are the real otp.

This urban fantasy does what all good speculative fiction should: uses the lens of fantasy to examine our reality. In creating a world where mythical/fantastical beings are real - and not just Euro-centric ones there are elokos of Central African myth - Morrow naturally discusses Otherness, racism, respectability politics, police brutality, victim-blaming, microaggressions and more. At first glance, and to a white reader, this could seem like a lot to put into a teen book. But Morrow is a Black woman writing about Black women and how they face these issues all the time. She does it so naturally and with such emotion, this book gives readers a lot to think about. Highly recommend to teens and adult who like fantasy because they care about our real world.