The mermaid seems devoid of, and possibly unable to, form attachments, even to their own offspring. The unlikeliness of these two experiencing love – real love, tenacious, messy, hard-won love – is epic given their past experiences and given the fact that the mermaid in particular has either never had or, more likely, been robbed of empathy, warmth, and tenderness. However, I’m going to maintain a stance that, while this is a work of horror fiction, it is also a deeply felt romance, a really beautiful love story. If you have any pent-up rage that needs a vicarious outlet, and who doesn’t, then these 112 pages should give you a bite-sized catharsis. When I say that the narrator burns it all down, I am not speaking metaphorically, nor am I speaking of a single event. Children die, animals die, the snow is painted red, etc. There are literal buckets, or at least jars, of blood. I cannot overemphasize to readers the amount of violence and gore this novella contains. They meet a group of children and teens who are locked in an endless sort of Lord of the Flies cult under the thrall of three surgeons – ones that the plague doctor remembers all too well from his past. She and the kingdom’s plague doctor (also unnamed) leave the kingdom in ashes and go wandering. …one who was captured, mutilated, and raped (in backstory, off-page) by a prince that she and her toothy children subsequently destroyed, and by destroyed I mean ate.
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