This novella can perhaps best be described as body horror. It is the story of two characters: the narrator, who is called a mermaid but isn't one by usual definitions; and her associate, called the "plague doctor," who is given annoying and distracting they/their pronouns (my gripe is in the using of a plural term for a singular entity). The pair have escaped the destruction of the mermaid's husband's world, which has been devoured and destroyed by the unrelenting teeth of their daughters. The pair meet some odd children, mired in the worship and rituals of three mysterious surgeons, who kill, maim, and even bring the children back to life. Of course there is a clash between the differing parties. It results in an impressive display of different kinds of bodily mutilation. The prose is dense, sometimes smooth but often clotted. I'm not sure there is a point to it all. The ending is cliched. And oddly, after the acknowledgements at the end of the book, there is a seven page story giving the set-up for the book. If it is extraneous, why include it at all? Or rather, if is is essential, why isn't it at the beginning of the book? Much about this novella seems half-baked, when it isn't being deliberately pretentious. Intriguing, but with considerable problems.
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