Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Agency. Though uneven pacing and an excess of dropped subplots congest the book’s first half, this triumph of black sisterhood and female resilience is sure to draw readers. In this thought-provoking YA debut, Morrow ( Mem, for adults) excels at grounding her fantastical reimagining of the modern world through depictions of marginalized experiences: social justice takes on fantastic proportions in a society occupied by gargoyles, sirens, sprites, and elokos, all occupying differing public statuses of reverence and fear.
And as Effie’s inexplicable abilities grow, the world outside becomes increasingly dangerous for the girls, whose secrets cannot remain so forever. When the murder of a recently slain black girl is tacitly justified by rumor that she may have been a siren, Tavia’s heavily insulated world is turned upside down, with Effie as her only constant. Effie, who plays a mermaid at Renaissance fairs, doesn’t know what brand of mythical creature she is, only that she’s changing day by day. Tavia, who is selectively nonverbal, is a siren in a world that persecutes sirens and seeks to silence their mythic voices. A Song Below Water somehow manages to be intensely happy and sad at the same time and all in the balance of great, riveting storytelling. Morrow's A Song Below Water is the story for today’s readers a captivating modern fantasy about Black sirens, friendship, and self-discovery set against the challenges of. Play-sisters Tavia and Effie are both black Portland, Ore., teens with secrets. Morrow delivers a blistering modern classic with this gorgeous tale of friendship and power.
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