Genre: YA Folklore
Published: May 1, 2024
Pages: 338
Submerged in a toxic relationship and disconnected from everyone, she turns to the sea to decide her fate. Its decision? Toss her to the sea witch.
Malaya is cursed. In her family, every girl’s first love ends in death after falling for someone evil. Good thing Malaya’s dream guy isn’t monstrous.
Except the curse is real and preventing Malaya from noticing how much he has gaslit and isolated her until she can’t be saved. With no other options, the sea witch is the only one to help her.
Bartering her voice for a new life where she and her abusive boyfriend never met, Malaya accidentally swaps places with an alternate timeline version of herself who didn't make her mistakes. As she tries to undo the switch, the sea witch uses Malaya’s voice to unleash Filipino monsters into the worlds.
Can a champion, an alternate timeline sister, and Malaya fight these beasts and stop the sea witch before she destroys both timelines?
Malaya is cursed. In her family, every girl’s first love ends in death after falling for someone evil. Good thing Malaya’s dream guy isn’t monstrous.
Except the curse is real and preventing Malaya from noticing how much he has gaslit and isolated her until she can’t be saved. With no other options, the sea witch is the only one to help her.
Bartering her voice for a new life where she and her abusive boyfriend never met, Malaya accidentally swaps places with an alternate timeline version of herself who didn't make her mistakes. As she tries to undo the switch, the sea witch uses Malaya’s voice to unleash Filipino monsters into the worlds.
Can a champion, an alternate timeline sister, and Malaya fight these beasts and stop the sea witch before she destroys both timelines?
I received the audiobook version of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.
Early on in this story, I thought that I was getting a Little Mermaid retelling. And although it eventually became clear it's not really that, it still had a similar vibe to it for me. And even though they aren't connected, this story actually made me relate more to King Triton for the first time ever.
As the parent of a teenage daughter, I really struggled to relate to Malaya and her choices, because so many of them are things I strive to protect my child from. But a part of me does remember being a teenager making questionable choices of my own, so I do understand how she got there. And I was happy when she saw what was going on in her relationship and tried to get away from it.
I'm not very familiar with Filipino mythology, so that aspect of the story was really intriguing to me. I cannot speak to its accuracy though.
Overall I give When Oceans Rise 4.0732 out of 5 stars. - Katie
Robin Alvarez is the author of the #1 New Release When Oceans Rise. She is the editor and author of OwlCrate's anthologies: The Darkset Chronicles. Emotive characters, monsters, and a multiracial perspective are hallmarks of her work. While she's spent the majority of her life in beach towns, having almost drowned several times, she currently resides in a desert where the waters are less likely to kill her.Robin's work has been featured on EpicReads, the New Orleans Review, OwlCrate, ABC, NBC, and CBS news affiliates.
No comments:
Post a Comment