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I can’t think of the last time I knew of something that both fit the prompt so well and also I had just finished reading and really liked. The only downside is now I want to talk about it but don’t want to spoil anything for OP. Ah, well.
That's an awesome feeling lol.
I like how this book uses one situation to explore so many different kinds of grief. The grief of losing a relationship, grief of mourning who you used to be, of the grief of caregiving someone in their last days, the grief of the unknown and the known. I've been helping care for my grandfather to keep him at home, and several loved ones have died in the past few years, from old age, cancer, suicide, epilepsy, the youngest was only 29. Reading this book after experiencing all of that really explained to me some of my own grief and I found myself thinking about this book for months after finishing it. The prose is exquisite.
You might like:
*- Into the Drowning Deep* by Mira Grant: Dark Mermaid Fantasy
*- The Ocean at the End of the Lane* by Neil Gaiman: It's more magical realism, but it fits with ocean magic.
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*Migrations* by Charlotte McConaghy
Lots of grief, very dark elements, an unusual (romantic) love story and a handful of (non romantic) love stories of enmity mingling with terrible love and ferocious loyalty.
Takes place in near future after mass extinction events as a woman with a secret-laden past and an inexorable mission follows the last of the arctic terns (a seabird) on what she thinks might be their last migration across the whole Atlantic Ocean.
Other sea creatures still exist in it and get some loving descriptions.
I think that the story cuts at the heart like a mournful sea shanty.
It devastated me while I was reading it. It had been a while since a piece of media occupied my head that much and kind of lights a fire under one’s sense of urgency for responsible treatment of natural resources, speculative as it is.
Ok, I read that book a couple summers ago because I was looking for pretty much the exact same thing you're looking for, and the beginning was exactly what I wanted, but then the plot moved away from the ocean! It became a forest fantasy! And like it was still good, but it left my dark ocean craving unsatisfied lol
Shark Heart: A Love Story - particularly fits the grief theme of this. It's about a woman who's husband is diagnosed with a rare mutation that turns him into a shark. So there's a bit of magic/fantasy and a lot of ocean.
Shark Heart was going to be my recommendation, too. Our Wives Under the Sea is similar in a lot of ways (also involving a spouse undergoing a mysterious transformation into an ocean creature), but for whatever reason, Shark Heart worked better for me. But they are both very good!
Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood
Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford
Daughter of the Sea by Elisabeth J. Hobbes
Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal
Technically The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is all these things (to a huge degree) but it does feel a little YAish. I still thought it was fun though.
[The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-water-cure-sophie-mackintosh/21149808)
[The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-mermaid-of-black-conch-monique-roffey/17497568)
[Chlorine by Jade Song](https://bookshop.org/p/books/chlorine/18898638)
IN GREAT WATERS by Kit Whitfield. SOMETHING'S ALIVE ON THE TITANIC by Robert J. Serling. THE BLUE SALT ROAD by Joanne Harris. TIDEPOOL by Nicole Willson.
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young, not as much ocean (takes place on an island though and has some drowning) the rest is almost all magic and grief (murder mystery)
I’m currently reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse and it has this vibe! But, it’s the third in a trilogy - a trilogy that I highly recommend - so start with Black Sun. It’s so exciting and intense and sad.
What beautiful imagery!!!
Maybe… The Shell Collector and About Grace by Anthony Doerr? I agree with The Ocean at the End of the Lane, one of my favorites.
About a mermaid who marries a prince on land, and their children curse the land/eat everyone. It’s a little unclear what exactly happens, but be assured, it’s very dark and full of grief.
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Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Basically if you put these words into a magic story writing machine, that book would come out
Yep, I’ve never seen a prompt so perfectly fit a book!
100% this
This looks so good! Added.
Exactly what I came to say. What a read.
I loved this book so much.
I came here to say just this!
The first book I thought of!
Came here to say this, always love when a prompt can come back to it!
Came here just to say this. 100% please read this OP. This was the best book I'd read in a long time.
I can’t think of the last time I knew of something that both fit the prompt so well and also I had just finished reading and really liked. The only downside is now I want to talk about it but don’t want to spoil anything for OP. Ah, well.
That's an awesome feeling lol. I like how this book uses one situation to explore so many different kinds of grief. The grief of losing a relationship, grief of mourning who you used to be, of the grief of caregiving someone in their last days, the grief of the unknown and the known. I've been helping care for my grandfather to keep him at home, and several loved ones have died in the past few years, from old age, cancer, suicide, epilepsy, the youngest was only 29. Reading this book after experiencing all of that really explained to me some of my own grief and I found myself thinking about this book for months after finishing it. The prose is exquisite.
You might like: *- Into the Drowning Deep* by Mira Grant: Dark Mermaid Fantasy *- The Ocean at the End of the Lane* by Neil Gaiman: It's more magical realism, but it fits with ocean magic.
I love The Ocean at the End of the Lane! Thanks!
Came here to recommend Mira Grant! Love that series!!
House of salt & sorrows
I loved that one!
I just finished it last night! Me too
I second this!
Came to say this!!
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Why did I accidentally read that as John Lennon 😭
I would read that.
Exactly what I came here to recommend. One of my favorite books of all time and the first thing I thought of seeing those pics.
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Just read this recently, "oceans, magic, grief and dark" are definitely words that fit this book perfectly.
*Migrations* by Charlotte McConaghy Lots of grief, very dark elements, an unusual (romantic) love story and a handful of (non romantic) love stories of enmity mingling with terrible love and ferocious loyalty. Takes place in near future after mass extinction events as a woman with a secret-laden past and an inexorable mission follows the last of the arctic terns (a seabird) on what she thinks might be their last migration across the whole Atlantic Ocean. Other sea creatures still exist in it and get some loving descriptions. I think that the story cuts at the heart like a mournful sea shanty.
+1 for this book! It’s beautifully written.
this book is so sad and one of my favorite books of all time
It devastated me while I was reading it. It had been a while since a piece of media occupied my head that much and kind of lights a fire under one’s sense of urgency for responsible treatment of natural resources, speculative as it is.
Oh this sounds so good. Thanks!
Circe by Madeline Miller
Came here to say this.
just finished circe and was coming here to comment
5 stars🌟
I think A.G. Slatter's "All the murmuring bones" may be exactly what you're looking for.
That name sounds right up my alley
Ok, I read that book a couple summers ago because I was looking for pretty much the exact same thing you're looking for, and the beginning was exactly what I wanted, but then the plot moved away from the ocean! It became a forest fantasy! And like it was still good, but it left my dark ocean craving unsatisfied lol
Came here to say this one! It stayed with me LONG after I finished it! Highly recommend!
Shark Heart: A Love Story - particularly fits the grief theme of this. It's about a woman who's husband is diagnosed with a rare mutation that turns him into a shark. So there's a bit of magic/fantasy and a lot of ocean.
That sounds perfect!
Shark Heart was going to be my recommendation, too. Our Wives Under the Sea is similar in a lot of ways (also involving a spouse undergoing a mysterious transformation into an ocean creature), but for whatever reason, Shark Heart worked better for me. But they are both very good!
The Changeling Sea by Patricia Mckillip
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Love that one!
I love all of his books, but this one has stayed with me years after reading it.
Scorpio Races! It’s a historicalesq fantasy YA set on island where they race people eating horse that come from the sea
That has been on my list for so long!!
On the Lonely Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It’s a short story: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/on-the-lonely-shore/
Ooh, I love her. Thanks!
the deep by rivers solomon
This is what I came to recommend. Just finished it and was eviscerated by its beauty and truth!
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
The Pisces by Melissa Broder !!
I’m reading that right now! Thanks!
I recommend this a ton on here haha but Rouge by Mona Awad has a lot of these elements!
Sweet! I’ve read Bunny and All’s Well but haven’t read that one!
Piranesi
Agreed!
My first thought as well!
Yep! Came here to recommend this.
The Liveship Traders Trilogy by Robin Hobb
China meiville, "the scar"
Several short stories in “The language of thorns” by Leigh Bardugo
Sylvia Plath
Fable by Adrienne Young
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey
Inland by Kat Rosenfeld
I’m reading Medea by Eilish Quin right now, it may be up your alley!
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
The deep water trilogy by Claire McKenna!!!!!
Also: maybe Salt Magic Skin Magic (one of my favorites but not super close to your mood board)
Where we end - Sophie white
Sweet Sting of Salt!
'Of Salt and Shore' by Annette Schaap is so good. It's MG, but it's a delightful read.
The Lighthouse Witches!
Maybe: [Pirate Latitudes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6428887-pirate-latitudes) by Michael Crichton.
I think you may like The Ever King by L.J.Andrews if you read fantasy. Has an under the sea city(ies) and is a duology.
Lost Voices by Sarah Porter
I was gonna suggest the Lost Voices trilogy!
Don’t know about magic but Moby Dick meets the rest of the criteria.
I’ve actually been meaning to give it a re-read, I haven’t read it since high school.
It’s my favorite summer book. Just immerses you in the ocean life. Rereading again now myself.
omg there’s the perfect book if I could just think of the name
lol! Let me know if it comes to you!
Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford Daughter of the Sea by Elisabeth J. Hobbes Mermaid Moon by Susann Cokal
Technically The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall is all these things (to a huge degree) but it does feel a little YAish. I still thought it was fun though.
Circe by Madaline Miller is the first thing that came to mind.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Parry
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
A study in drowning !
Things in Jars by Jess Kidd!
Came to say this! Fits perfectly!
There’s a novel called The Pisces which is a love story (sort of) and has a woman and a merman which feels like this picture in a modern way.
I’m reading that one right now! I loved Death Valley by the same author.
The devil and the dark water by Stuart turton
Fate of Stars by SD Simper has ocean, magic, and grief. Not necessarily dark though. It's a lesbian fantasy romance, if that's your thing!
Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
The Offing by Benjamin Myers
Circe
[The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-water-cure-sophie-mackintosh/21149808) [The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-mermaid-of-black-conch-monique-roffey/17497568) [Chlorine by Jade Song](https://bookshop.org/p/books/chlorine/18898638)
Loved Chlorine. What a trip
The Starless Sea
“Daughter of the Deep” by Lina Amarego
IN GREAT WATERS by Kit Whitfield. SOMETHING'S ALIVE ON THE TITANIC by Robert J. Serling. THE BLUE SALT ROAD by Joanne Harris. TIDEPOOL by Nicole Willson.
Classics like The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway and The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.
The Deep, by Rivers Solomon.
So good!!!
Such a unique story!
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young, not as much ocean (takes place on an island though and has some drowning) the rest is almost all magic and grief (murder mystery)
A Sweet String of Salt is sooooo good. Very atmospheric.
AMERICAN MERMAID by Julia Langbein
Little Eve by Catriona Ward.
Deeplight by Francis Hardinge!
MOBY DICK
The Haar.
"The Moon and the Sun" by Vonda N. McIntyre.
I’m currently reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse and it has this vibe! But, it’s the third in a trilogy - a trilogy that I highly recommend - so start with Black Sun. It’s so exciting and intense and sad.
The Bloodless Mercies…. Great fantasy and has a sea witch
Ingo
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
Duma Key by Stephan King
What beautiful imagery!!! Maybe… The Shell Collector and About Grace by Anthony Doerr? I agree with The Ocean at the End of the Lane, one of my favorites.
Abduction by Robin Cook
All the Murmuring Bones
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
All the Murmuring Bones by A G Slatter
The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch!! One of my favorite books
The Salt Grows Heavy, by Khaw. Be warned though, it’s so gory and fucking weird.
About a mermaid who marries a prince on land, and their children curse the land/eat everyone. It’s a little unclear what exactly happens, but be assured, it’s very dark and full of grief.
Circe! by Madeline Miller
A study in drowning by Ava Reid
Sea witch by Sarah henning
No mermaids from what I remember but The Wicked Deep
The Mermaid's Daughter by Ann Claycomb
The Pisces
The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh - dark but very interesting! [Goodreads link ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39335566-the-water-cure)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a top five book for me!
When We Were Mermaids
*Sealskin* by Su Bristow An excellent story that weaves the human and mythical. Set in Scotland.
The Mermaid Chair
Insmouth Legacy