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Verdict: A dark, beautifully written YA pirate fantasy with an anti-colonial heart and a starred Kirkus review, held back by a romance that falls into place too fast and a plot that tries to carry more than it can.
Best for: Readers who want lyrical, fairy-tale prose, a queer-normative world, and a fantasy willing to go to dark places, and who see the romance as one thread among several rather than the engine.
Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5 — young adult, sensual kissing, nothing explicit)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.79 Goodreads average across nearly 12,900 ratings, with instalove as the most repeated complaint)
Tropes: Pirate and noblewoman, forbidden love, arranged marriage escape, girl disguised as a boy, captive mermaid, sea witch, anti-colonial rebellion, morally grey leads, multiple POV, Little Mermaid echoes.
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is a young adult sapphic fantasy from Candlewick, the author’s debut and the first of two books in its world — a dark seafaring story in which a teenage pirate posing as a boy is set to guard a noble girl on her way to an arranged marriage, aboard a ship whose real cargo is a captured mermaid.
It holds a 3.79 average across almost 12,900 Goodreads ratings, carries starred reviews from Kirkus, BookPage and Shelf Awareness, and made several best-of-2020 lists along with a Locus Award shortlist for best first novel. Its readers agree on the prose and argue about almost everything else. Both sides are worth hearing before you set sail.
What Is The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea About?
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is a YA fantasy with a romance inside it, not the other way around. It is built like a dark fairy tale: an expanding empire, a lawless sea, slavers, a smuggling trade in mermaid blood, and the Sea itself as a presence with its own voice. The world is queer-normative — nobody is surprised that two girls might fall for each other — but it is brutal in other ways, and the book does not look away from violence, slavery or colonial cruelty.
Flora is a young orphan who survives aboard the Dove by living as Florian, a hard-edged boy among pirates. Lady Evelyn Hasegawa is the daughter of an imperial noble family, sent across the ocean to a marriage she did not choose. Both are fifteen, according to Kirkus. The story moves between them and adds interludes from the Sea and the mermaids, so you get a wide, mythic view of events — and, several readers say, a little distance from the leads’ hearts.
What Makes This Sapphic YA Pirate Fantasy Work
- The prose: Kirkus called it absolutely enthralling and praised how the writing holds gentleness and brutality side by side, and around five reviewers single out its fairy-tale quality.
- The anti-colonial story: Around seven reviewers, along with Kirkus, praise how the book confronts empire, exploitation and who gets to own the sea.
- The queer world: Around eight readers love that queerness and gender nonconformity are ordinary here, and Flora’s shifting relationship with her identity is central to the story.
- The Sea and the mermaids: The interludes and mermaid lore are a favourite of many readers, who call them the most original part of the book.
- The adventure: StoryGraph readers tag it adventurous at 96%, and its twists made readers gasp — a natural pick for sapphic mermaid and siren fans.
Book Synopsis
Flora has learned that the safest thing to be on a pirate ship is someone nobody looks at twice. Aboard the Dove she is Florian — tough, quick and loyal to a crew that trades in whatever pays, including people. She has a brother she is trying to protect and a captain she is trying to impress, and she has stopped asking herself what she actually wants.
Lady Evelyn Hasegawa has never been allowed to want anything. Her family is shipping her across the ocean to marry a man she has never met, for an alliance that matters to everyone except her. She boards the Dove as a passenger, and Florian is assigned to keep her safe. Neither of them knows that the ship is also carrying something else below deck: a captured mermaid, whose blood fetches a fortune and whose captivity has not gone unnoticed by the sea.
Guarding Evelyn turns into talking to her, and talking turns into something neither of them can afford. As the voyage goes wrong, the two of them are forced to choose between the lives that were planned for them and the much more dangerous one they might build together — while far below, the Sea is losing patience with the people who think they own it, and a witch waits at the end of the journey with a price of her own.
My Review
The writing is the reason to pick this up. Tokuda-Hall writes like a fairy-tale teller with a knife, and the book’s best passages — the Sea’s interludes, the mermaid lore, the quiet moments between two girls who should never have met — are genuinely beautiful. It is rare to find YA fantasy prose this confident in a debut.
The second strength is ambition. This is a book about empire, exploitation and who pays for other people’s comfort, and it means it. Flora’s complicity in the ship’s trade makes her a genuinely morally grey heroine, and the anti-colonial story gives the adventure real weight. Readers who loved it consistently name the themes alongside the prose.
Where it struggles is the romance and the structure, and this is the most repeated criticism across reader reviews. Around seven reviewers say Flora and Evelyn fall in love far too quickly — one notes they are in love about a fifth of the way in — and BookPage, otherwise glowing, also noted the speed. Around six say the book tries to do too much: it moves through three distinct sections, some threads and characters feel underused, and a couple of readers found the witch section unnecessary, though others call it a highlight. About four readers felt Flora’s genderfluid identity reads more like a disguise than an identity, a view other reviewers, including The Lesbian Review, firmly disagree with.
One expectation to reset: it is often shelved and sold as a sapphic pirate romance, and it is darker than that suggests. School Library Journal warned it is not for the faint of heart, and readers flag torture, mutilation and implied sexual violence. If you came for a swashbuckling love story, calibrate; if you came for a dark, mythic fantasy with a romance in it, this is exactly that.
My honest note: A gorgeous, ambitious debut whose love story moves faster than its world can support. If you need a slow, earned romance, this will frustrate you. If you want a dark sea fable with queer heroines and something to say, it is well worth the voyage.
| Element | In The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Flora (Florian) & Lady Evelyn Hasegawa — a genderfluid pirate and an imperial noblewoman, forbidden love |
| Core tropes | Pirate and noblewoman, arranged marriage escape, disguise, captive mermaid, sea witch, anti-colonial rebellion |
| Setting | The open sea between an expanding empire and its colonies, aboard the slaving and smuggling ship Dove |
| Heat level | 2/5 — young adult, sensual kissing, nothing explicit |
| Series | Book 1 of 2 — the central story resolves with a bittersweet, unconventional ending; the companion follows different leads |
| Content notes | Torture and graphic violence, slavery and trafficking, colonisation, murder and child death, implied rape and sexual assault (off-page), addiction and alcoholism, homophobia (crowd-reported on StoryGraph; flagged by SLJ) |
How Dark and Spicy Is The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea?
Spice: a 2/5. I could not get a romance.io reading for this title, so the number comes from the publisher and the readers. It is published for ages 14 and up, Kirkus lists it for 13 to 18, and Common Sense Media describes a few sensual but non-graphic kisses and making out. There is no on-page sex, and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books went as far as saying it is not really a romance at all.
Darkness is the bigger question, and it is real. School Library Journal flags whippings, torture, slashed throats and allusions to sexual violence; Common Sense Media adds detailed waterboarding and a finger amputation; and one reviewer suggests 16 and up. Sexual violence is implied rather than shown, and every source I found agrees on that. If you want a sapphic YA fantasy at a similar heat with a gentler touch, The Seafarer’s Kiss and Girls of Paper and Fire sit in the same band, though the latter is dark in its own way.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you read fantasy for prose and atmosphere, you want a queer-normative world with genderfluid representation, you like morally grey heroines and serious themes, and you can handle dark content in YA.
You may want to skip it if: instalove ruins a romance for you, you want one tight plot rather than three movements, graphic violence is a dealbreaker, or you need a conventional happy ending.
In short: a lyrical, dark, ambitious sea fable with queer heroines, whose romance moves faster than its story.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)
This book found its readers through the trade and the best-of lists, not through a viral moment. It launched in 2020 with starred reviews from Kirkus, BookPage and Shelf Awareness, landed on best-of-year lists from Kirkus, School Library Journal, BookPage and NPR, and was a Locus Award finalist for best first novel. The reader response is solid but split: a 3.79 average across almost 12,900 Goodreads ratings, with roughly a third of ratings at three stars or below; 3.82 across more than 6,300 StoryGraph reviews; and 4.4 from about 1,300 Amazon ratings. I found no Reddit conversation or BookTok trend behind it. The audiobook, from Brilliance, is narrated by Kate Rudd and runs about nine and a half hours; Booklist called her a perfect match for the story, and AudioFile praised her distinct voices for mermaids, witches and pirates.
Prefer audio? Listen to The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The queer world and the representation, first — around eight readers praise how ordinary queerness is here. Then the anti-colonial themes, named by about seven. The prose comes up constantly, with “fairy tale” the recurring description. The Sea’s interludes and the mermaid lore have a devoted following, and a handful of readers love the morally grey leads and the twists. The Lesbian Review called it one of its favourite books of the year.
What readers argue about and complain about: The romance, above everything. About seven readers call it instalove, and BookPage is the one trade review that notices the speed. Second: scope — around six say the book tries to do too much, with a three-part structure that feels disjointed and some threads left thin. Third, darkness: around five readers, and School Library Journal, warn it is far heavier than the cover suggests. The genuine splits are two. Readers divide on whether Flora’s genderfluid identity is portrayed as an identity or a disguise — about four critics against reviewers who found it validating. And they divide on the witch section, which a couple of readers call pointless and others call the best part. None of the starred reviews mentions the instalove, which is exactly what the three-star readers keep raising.
The series question everyone should ask first: book one stands on its own. Its central story resolves, without a cliffhanger, in a bittersweet and unconventional way that echoes The Little Mermaid — moving for some readers, unsettling for others. The companion novel, The Siren, the Song, and the Spy, came out in 2023 with its own Kirkus star and rates higher at 4.07, but it follows different leads, so read it for the world rather than for Flora and Evelyn.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea a romance?
Partly. Flora and Evelyn’s love story runs through the book, but readers and reviewers describe it as a dark fantasy with a romantic arc rather than a romance first.
How dark is The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea?
Quite dark for YA. Reviewers flag torture, mutilation, slavery and implied sexual violence, and one suggests it for readers 16 and up.
Do Flora and Evelyn end up together?
Yes, though not in a conventional way. The ending is bittersweet and echoes The Little Mermaid, and readers are divided on it. It is not a cliffhanger.
Is there a sequel?
Yes. The Siren, the Song, and the Spy was published in 2023 and is set in the same world, but it follows different main characters.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes — narrated by Kate Rudd for Brilliance, running about nine and a half hours. Booklist and AudioFile both praised her performance.
If You Loved The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, Read These Next
For another sapphic YA fantasy rooted in mermaid myth, The Seafarer’s Kiss retells the Little Mermaid story from a different angle. If the anti-colonial story was what held you, The Unbroken is the adult fantasy readers compare it to most. And for a dark YA fantasy where two girls fall in love inside a cruel system, Girls of Paper and Fire is the closest match on tone.
For more like this, browse our list of sapphic mermaid and siren romance books or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea is a debut whose reach is its glory and its problem. The prose is lovely, the queer world is refreshingly matter-of-fact, and the book takes on empire and exploitation with real conviction. It also rushes its romance, splits into three movements that do not always connect, and goes darker than many readers expect from the cover. If you want a lyrical, serious YA fantasy with sapphic heroines, it is worth the voyage. Check The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea ranks as a critically starred, reader-divided sapphic YA sea fantasy — lyrical, ambitious and unafraid of darkness, held back by instalove and a scattered structure, and best approached for the prose and the themes rather than the love story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ 3.79 average across 12,899 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ Starred by Kirkus, BookPage and Shelf Awareness
- ✓ 3.82 on StoryGraph from 6,359 reviews
- ✓ Instalove the most repeated complaint
Romance ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ Forbidden love with real stakes
- ✓ Tender moments between the leads
- ✓ Together by the end, unconventionally
- ✓ In love a fifth of the way in
Characters ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ Flora a genuinely morally grey heroine
- ✓ Evelyn more than a sheltered noble
- ✓ Genderfluid rep validating to many
- ✓ Leads feel distant to some readers
Writing ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Kirkus calls it absolutely enthralling
- ✓ Fairy-tale prose widely praised
- ✓ Sea interludes a favourite
- ✓ Exposition crowds character moments
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Anti-colonial themes land hard
- ✓ Stakes feel genuinely dangerous
- ✓ Ending moved many readers
- ✓ Darkness overwhelms some readers
Heat Level ★★☆☆☆ 2/5
- ✓ Published for ages 14 and up
- ✓ Sensual kissing, nothing explicit
- ✓ No on-page sex
- ✓ Not really a romance, per SBTB
Ending ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Central story resolves
- ✓ No cliffhanger
- ✓ Bittersweet Little Mermaid echo
- ✓ Unsettling for some readers
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ Prose rewards a second reading
- ✓ Kate Rudd audiobook praised
- ✓ Companion novel expands the world
- ✓ Heavy content discourages a revisit
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