When the Tides Held the Moon: 05/14/25

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley (2025) is a historic fantasy set at a failing carnival show at Coney Island. Benigno "Benny" Caldera is hired to build a cage to hold a mermaid.

An accident and an opportunity lead Benny to work for the people who hired him after the cage is built. Except instead of catching a mermaid, they capture a merman, a triton as Benny calls him. Benny, is utterly captivated by him and over the course of their awkward friendship, ends up naming the merman, Rio.

There's a lot of attention to detail to this piece. Folks who care about the finite aspects of a historical setting will like the work put into the research. Others might find the minutiae to be tedious in places. The characters are diverse and interesting. I enjoyed the scenes set in the home where the performers live. I like their interactions, their squabbling and their backstories.

What drags for me is the very slow burn of the romance/friendship between Benny and Rio. Rio spends the majority of the book trapped in the cage Benny so expertly built. Their scenes end up being long philosophical discussions and trauma dumping.

Three stars

Comments (0)