A very "different" kind of story and an impressive debut. The writing didn't appeal to me at first, and I probably would have dropped it after the first chapter if it wasn't a novella, but I ended up liking it well enough. At first glance, it is a mermaid fairytale / fantasy in a modern setting, but it quickly turns out to be more of literary fiction instead. Although there is a decent amount of plot and character development packed into less than 200 pages, the narrative is structured more like a short story, and the main point of the book is in the thematics. Topics such as memory, history and heritage, solitude and belonging, violence, and trauma play a central role throughout and are discussed explicitly and frequently. I liked the exploration of such concepts, though I'd prefer them to be embedded more subtly in a longer, more fully developed story.