Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For ed. by Zoraida Córdova (review)

Reviewed by: Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For ed. by Zoraida Córdova Amanda Toledo Córdova, Zoraida, ed. Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For; ed. by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker. Feiwel, 2023 [320p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250823816 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781250823830 $11.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr 9-12 In this collection of gripping YA short stories, fifteen fantasy authors lure readers in with their siren songs featuring mermaids and other creatures of the deep. Consistent themes flow through the tales, including fraught relationships between mothers and daughters, vengeance against predatory men, and the elusiveness of self-acceptance. The stories include warm, budding romances like Kalynn Bayron's "Return to the Sea," in which high-schooler Keisha, wary of her human classmates' appropriation of mermaid culture, connects with a cute new girl, helping her with a sickly turtle. Kerri Maniscalco's "The Nightingale's Lament," meanwhile, leans more into a suspense-filled sensuousness with a cat-and-mouse game between a society siren and her deceptive prey. Divinely fleshed out worlds are also on offer, from the chilling and moving "sea-borns"—once human, now monsters of the sea after having their hearts broken—in Little Badger's "The Deepwater Vandal" to [End Page 52] the banal routines of life under the sea in Chhibber's "The Dark Calls," before the darkness of a ravine draws in a young mermaid. Fantasy and horror, queer romances and devoted friendships, intergenerational trauma and oppressive regimes all appear in various stories, united especially by the cultural diversity of the mermaids. What Cordova and Parker have put together is the best of what short story compilations have to offer: engaging stories that leave readers wishing each one were its own complete novel. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois