Mermaids Never Drown is the next anthology you must dive into

I love an anthology. Why? Because not only do you get multiple stories in one book, and you get to explore so many more characters than you ever could in a novel, but you also get to discover many authors at once. And if you find a new author you like, you then get to buy all the other books they’ve authored! But that’s only one of the reasons I loved Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For.

The Mermaid anthology was edited by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker and includes the following authors: Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julian Winters, Gretchen Scheiber, Preeti Chhiber, Kalynn Bayron, Darcie Little Badger, Kerri Maniscalco, Adrianna Herrera, Julie Murphy, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, June Hur, and Julie C. Dao. There is also a story by the two editors as well.

Chances are that if you read young adult fiction, one of your faves is in this anthology!

These stories are as diverse as their authors. While mermaids may be the overall topic, the stories could not be more different. They explore love, race, sexuality, families, being your true self, myths, and so much more.

Mermaids Never Drown allows you to dive into 14 new mermaid short stories

They are all so different from each other that it’s like diving into fourteen different worlds.

Some of my favorites included “Storm Song,” “The Story of a Knife,” “Six Thousand Miles, “The Nightinggale’s Lament,” “Nor’Easter,” and “The Merrow,” but all the stories are honestly worth a read. I guarantee everyone will have a different combination of favorites.

My ultimate fave is probably “Storm Song” because it expertly uses second-person perspective, and I LOVE it when a story plays with perspective. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do and not have the reader feel disconnected from the story, but Rebecca Coffindaffer does it so well. You feel like you’re in the story and that your siren song is not doing what it’s supposed to do and causing harm to your fellow sirens until the moment you finally believe in yourself. It’s extraordinary! And that’s only the first story!

It also doesn’t hurt that the main character feels like a bit of an outcast and that’s highly relatable for me.

“The Story of a Knife” also stands out as a fave because it explores the idea of a mermaid getting rid of her tale and what that would mean. It leaves scars and not just physical ones. The story is both tragic and exhilarating.

If you’re a mermaid fan (or a siren fan; they are not the same thing), this is an anthology you need to check out. It’s fourteen stories about mermaids, sirens, sea creatures, and everything to do with the sea. What more could you ask for? If you’re into mythical sea creatures and people (like me), you’ll love this anthology.

It also probably doesn’t hurt that I am also a water sign and drawn to any kind of open water, so the way many of these characters feel in these stories is very familiar to me. Every time a character returned to the water as their true home, I cried.

Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For is also the second anthology in the Untold Legends series. The first was Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite. Netflix’s First Kill  (which should not have been canceled) was adapted from one of the stories from that first anthology., Fingers crossed we get a mermaid show sometime in the future.

But while we wait, we can only hope that this anthology series continues. Who knows what we’ll get next? I’m voting for werewolves.

Mermaids Never Drown: Tales to Dive For is available now in ebook, hardcover, and paperback formats.