I'm not gonna try to write a super serious good review but I l o v e d this book so much so I just need to say a few things. OK

I got this book as soon as it had been released because I had read both the Newsflesh and Parasitology trilogies and loved them so I was like "hey it's Mira Grant, it has to be good, right?" AND IT WAS. IT WAS FANTASTIC. Mythology/sci-fi but with a science that genuinely make me believe it is definitely my favourite genre. Like I was fully convinced that I should've studied marine biology instead of laboratory biomedicine. Mermaids are real and I've chosen the wrong science branch. 100%

Apart from the fake but believable science, I also just loved the characters. The main characters were LGBT, disabled, autistic, POC, and all so incredibly well written. AND there's no unnecessary romance (!!!), all the love made sense and fit in the horror story. The horror felt so real because of the "science" behind it and I cried several times (in public! I have no shame) and held my breath even more times than that AND procrastinated reading the last 50 or so pages because I was genuinely distressed. THAT'S GOOD WRITING BABY

I can't say more without spoiling stuff so I'll just spoiler mark these next paragraphs because I have to scream.

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I was SHOOK™ by the mermaids/sirens communication skills. When the captive siren told the others to leave Hallie and Daniel I honestly gasped in real life. They had managed to communicate with another intelligent species! A species which just wanted to eat humans! And they did it so well that these sirens decided to NOT eat them! That is amazing. Imagine what could've happened if the encounter had been peaceful. Wow.

Spoiler

And I loved that the sirens looked ugly. No conventionally beautiful bull, just basic mimicry for hunting/luring humans at a larger distance. Once you got close enough to actually see them it was too late. I loved it.

Spoiler

TORY! AND! OLIVIA! THAT IS GOOD SHIT! I was so sad for both them and for Tory's parents and for Luis when Tory fell into the water. I did not know whether she was going to live or die at all because I know Mira Grant isn't afraid of killing off main characters. Was she going to get eaten as soon as she hit the water? Was she gonna get eaten when she tried to dive? Was she gonna drown right next to the pool, as close to safety as she could get at the moment? I HONESTLY HAD NO IDEA AND IT STRESSED ME OUT BIG TIME.

I probably have a thousand more things to say about this but that's enough for now. This turned out way longer than I expected.

There's only one single negative aspect to all of this: the fact that I let this book collect dust in my bookshelf for a year before picking it up.