Stuck on the glacier with no food or means of escape, it appears she’s doomed as well. Ragna was kindapped from her village and is the only survivor of the shipwreck that killed her abductors. When she discovers a Viking shield maiden, Ragna, stranded on their glacier after a shipwreck, her first instinct is observe her, not commit murder.
I didn’t want children, so why was I proud of that?Įrsel is also described as having rolls of fat, which I think is both logical given she lives in a polar climate, but it also felt super body positive.Īnyway, like I said, Ersel is fascinated by humans, even though her king, King Calder, has ordered all the mer folk to drown any humans they come across (because humans are dangerous and Calder is a dick). Even if they could only find a single follicle, my fat reserves could nourish a hundred developing eggs. Vigdis could say what she liked about my sunbathing habits, but I ate well and my body showed it. Her deft hands needed my doughy stomach and I allowed myself a small grin of satisfaction. Then she began to massage the fleshy area above the line of my tail scales. The mage stretched her fingers over my belly. One thing that I liked was that Ersel isn’t a fifteen year old in a clamshell bra. I mean, imagine living in a world where as a woman your value was tied to your sexuality, your fertility, and your ability to fit in with gender norms…oh wait…. She wants adventure, and to better understand the human world (a thing that the Mer King has expressed forbidden). When they come of age their fertility is measured in a process called The Grading.Įrsel doesn’t want to be judged based on her ability to produce children. As a result, the mermaids’ value is tied into their ability to produce offspring. Since moving to a harsher climate, Ersel’s people have been struggling to keep their population up–cold water affects the female mermaid’s ability to make eggs. They live in an ice palace carved out of a glacier, which is super cool in a “Let it go!” kind of way, but isn’t great for mermaid fertility. There was a war some time ago that Ersel’s people lost, and they were forced to move to a colder climate.
It works really amazingly as a feminist retelling of a beloved fairytale, and it’s rich in detail about what mermaid life would be like, but purely as a romance, the heroines spend too much time apart to be satisfying.Įrsel is a mermaid struggling to find out where she fits into the world. I bet a whole bunch of you just one-clicked, didn’t you? The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember is a f/f retelling of The Little Mermaid wherein the little mermaid falls in love with a Viking shield maiden.
Genre: LGBTQIA, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult
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