This book had so much potential. A mermaid-like creature leaves the kingdom she helped destroy with the assistance of a plague doctor. As they travel, they come upon a village of murderous children and the surgeons they worship as gods. 

If I were to just judge this book off of the general plot and the vibes, I’d say it was phenomenal. I loved the spooky, introspective thoughts from the narrator, and the gloominess of the world they inhabited. The mystery of the plague doctor’s origins, and their general willingness to assist the mermaid were fascinating as well, and I loved their dynamic. 

Unfortunately, those aspects of the book were completely overshadowed by how confusing and annoying the actual writing was. This author was trying too hard to make this sound poetic or like some deep literary fiction, and the actual story got lost with the attempts at deep-sounding sentences or overly flowery descriptions that seemed to be randomly cut and pasted into places. I can think of a few authors that would have made this story great, but as it is now, it’s just not there for me. Sad.