Diving In: Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn

Our Bloody Pearl (2018)
Written by:  D.N. Bryn
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 230
Series: These Treacherous Tides
Publisher: Avos Publishing

Why I Chose It: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair review. However, I accepted the book in the first place because I enjoy a good siren story and they’re so hard to come by these days. I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed.

The Premise:

The ocean is uncontrollable and dangerous. But to the sirens who swim the warm island waters, it’s a home more than worth protecting from the humans and their steam-propelled ships. Between their hypnotic voices and the strength of their powerful tails, sirens have little to fear.

That is, until the ruthless pirate captain, Kian, creates a device to cancel out their songs.

Perle was the first siren captured — but the only one Kian still keeps prisoner. Song muted and tail paralyzed, Perle’s hope for escape finally rekindles as another pirating vessel seizes Kian’s ship. This new captain seems different, with his brilliant smile and his promises that Kian will never again be Perle’s master. But he’s still a human, and a captor in his own way. The compassion he and his rag-tag human family show can’t be sincere… or can it?

Soon it becomes clear that Kian will hunt Perle relentlessly, taking down any siren in her path. As the tides turn, Perle must decide whether to run from Kian forever, or ride the forming wave into battle, hoping these newfound human companions will fight with them.

No spoilers.

Discussion: Initially I thought this was going to be an adventure tale: Dejean (the pirate that rescues Perle from imprisonment) and Perle together on his ship, growing strong together and bonding while they hunt down Kian — or constantly run from Kian — and have a few side quests along the way until the final confrontation.

As it turns out, it’s more of a recovery story. Dejean helps Perle to trust people and learn to swim again. One of his companions, Murielle, even makes a prosthetic to help with Perle’s damaged tail. So, think along the lines of How to Train Your Dragon, I suppose. While Perle doesn’t speak human language and vice versa, they manage to communicate what they need to via gestures, body language, and so forth. Readers receive Perle’s words in italics, which I’m totally fine with.

The fact that we’re not actively on a ship hunting down Kian doesn’t make the story less interesting, nor does it make it boring. One might think it would be slow-going since Perle is, more or less, landlocked while trying to regain mobility, but there’s always the tension of Kian rediscovering where Perle is, other humans finding out Dejean has a siren in his possession, and other sirens discovering Dejean with Perle during what is essentially physical therapy. As you read, you also learn about Perle’s and Dejean’s histories and watch them as they learn more about each other’s world. And there is still plenty of action to be had overall.

The story is told through Perle’s point of view in first person. And by the way, if you’re expecting Perle to automatically be female due to the general concept of mermaids and sirens as such, you’d be wrong. In this universe there’s a lot of hate between humans and sirens (the whole “eating humans” thing tends to lead to animosity, though there’s more to the story than one realizes), and humans equate sirens with bloodthirsty creature and often refer to them as fish, something that really irks Perle. Since Perle isn’t human either, with scales, a tail, gills, and so forth, when Dejean asks what he should refer to Perle as (he/she/they), there’s a bit of confusion on Perle’s part since that’s not a thing in the siren world. It’s one of the many times I wish the English language had a gender-neutral singular pronoun. “They” is obviously an option, and it appears here and there, but it feels impersonal somehow, though that’s probably just me.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Dejean and Perle as they snarked at one another and learned to get along. Dejean is one of the classic good-guy pirates, and as tropey and historically inaccurate as that concept is, I will always be a sucker for it. I kept wondering if they would somehow become an item because they were so cute together. Don’t make that face at your screen — have you not seen The Shape of Water?

In Conclusion: I had a good time with this book. It was different from what is usually found on the shelves, and I like different. The end makes it seem like there could easily be a second book, and given that this one falls under the series umbrella of “These Treacherous Tides,” there very well may be at some point. Until then, go give it a read — and also marvel at how neat the cover is.