“Womanhood was a dangerous business if you didn’t get it right.”

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Wordies, I finally listened to this audiobook that has been languishing on my list for 3-4 years. But as it turns out, it was just the right time coming after my last read, Mirrored Heavens.

This is a tale anchored in Caribbean folklore and set on the fictional Caribbean island of Black Conch, where, early in 1976, a fisherman finds himself enthralled by a cursed mermaid.

Told through prose, poems, letters and diaries, this short novel felt rich and expansive, touching on misogyny, racism, and more. The pacing was spot on and POVs easy to follow. I felt like I’d somehow read a much longer book by the end.

The characters were realistic and memorable… so much so that I felt rage for a large portion of the book because of the behaviour and mindsets of the men.

“I loved who she was and how she made me feel.”

It seemed to me that in this book, love and abuse of power aren’t that different when it comes to men and their idea of love. The men were quite willing to ‘love’ a woman who was badmind or smelly or a complete stranger (things that might be a problem in other circumstances) as long as they had some sense of ownership over her otherness or virginity or whatever other sort of fetish happened to stir their groins.

Meanwhile, women (who didn’t get enough of a voice for my taste), lived mostly in jealous isolation, and measured their womanhood entirely on ‘sexing’. Having power threatened men and therefore womanhood.

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the male-gaze centering and fetishism throughout, the fact that this was so stirring and thought-provoking (and because Reggie was the best), means that this title will linger in my mind for some time.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars)

Format: Audiobook

Listening Length: 7 hours and 37 minutes

Category: Magical Realism

Published: 02 April 2020

About: March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch. A fisherman sings to himself, waiting for a catch – but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn’t expect. A beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid has been swimming the Caribbean Sea for centuries. And she is entranced by the fisherman and and his song.

But her fascination is her undoing. She hears his boat’s engine again, follows it, and finds herself at the mercy of American tourists. After a fearsome battle, she is pulled out of the sea and strung up on the dock as a trophy. The fisherman rescues her, and gently wins her trust – as she starts to transform into a woman.

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