{"id":6572,"date":"2021-07-10T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/?p=6572"},"modified":"2021-07-08T11:41:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T18:41:09","slug":"a-song-below-water-teen-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2021\/a-song-below-water-teen-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"A Song Below Water &#8212; Teen Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Review by Jasmine Sov, 15<\/p>\n<h3><em>A Song Below Water<\/em> By Bethany C. Morrow<\/h3>\n<div>Tavia and Effie, best friends to the end, have been supporting each other all the way up to their junior year of high school. It\u2019s always been them against the world. Tavia must conceal her siren powers to avoid persecution, and Effie must fight her own demons, metaphorical and literal, as she unearths secrets about her family\u2019s past. But in the aftermath of a siren murder trial, Tavia\u2019s powers start slipping from her control, and strange things start happening around the city and to Effie as well. With dangerous magic abound in Portland, Oregon, Tavia and Effie must stick together throughout all the things they are faced with.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><em>A Song Below Water<\/em> is a clear allegory for the role of Black women in the Black Lives Matter movement, and it brings the message across well. In today\u2019s context, with the important topics of racism and sexism finally being brought to light, this book explains the different facets of those issues with skill. The worldbuilding, while initially fascinating, becomes confusing as the story goes on. Early on, we are introduced to the concept of an \u2018eloko\u2019, another type of magical humanoid species, but it isn\u2019t very well explained even though an important side character, Naema, happens to be one. Because of this, I often had to reread pages in order to understand what was happening in the story at the moment. The book jumps in between Tavia and Effie\u2019s individual points of view with each chapter, but their voices are very similar. As a result, I found it hard to tell who was talking at the moment. All in all, <em>A Song Below Water<\/em> is an interesting but slightly clunky urban fantasy that also serves as an excellent treatise on meaningful subjects.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>3.5 stars.<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Find this book in our catalog: <a href=\"https:\/\/pasadena.ent.sirsi.net\/client\/en_US\/default\/search\/detailnonmodal\/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:226054\/one\">Title<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Catalog Number: YA SF MORROW,B<\/p>\n<p>229 pages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review by Jasmine Sov, 15 A Song Below Water By Bethany C. Morrow Tavia and Effie, best friends to the end, have been supporting each other all the way up to their junior year of high school. It\u2019s always been them against the world. Tavia must conceal her siren powers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-teen-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2021\/07\/81Ro-IFSsGL.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ZwbD-1I0","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4527,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2018\/generation-one-teen-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6572,"position":0},"title":"Generation One &#8212; Teen Review","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"January 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"review by\u00a0Jacob Chon, age 15 Generation One\u00a0by\u00a0Pittacus Lore \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Generation One follows Taylor, a teenage girl living in a sleepy Midwest town. 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And being a witch, she\u2019s got some big secrets to hide\u2014like her own mother, turned into a monster by the inexplicably souring magic of the Bend. 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This book is set in modern day, and it really puts the fiction in science fiction, with magical science that does not check out.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Book Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/category\/teen-reviews\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/18\/files\/sites\/18\/2018\/11\/whisper.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1573,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2015\/red-queen-teen-reviews\/","url_meta":{"origin":6572,"position":3},"title":"Red Queen &#8212; teen reviews","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"March 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Reviews by Kara and Hadley, teen reviewers Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard was fascinating. In it, Mare Barrow, a Red, endures. Reds make up the majority of this dystopian society, but are dominated by Silvers, whose blood gives them great powers. After an incident\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Teen Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Teen Reviews","link":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/category\/teen-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.syndetics.com\/index.aspx?type=xw12&isbn=0062310631\/LC.GIF&client=pasap&upc=&oclc=","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5068,"url":"http:\/\/pasadena-library.net\/teens\/2019\/twice-dead-teen-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":6572,"position":4},"title":"Twice Dead &#8212; Teen Review","author":"Teen Blogger","date":"June 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Review by Jasmine Sov, 13 Twice Dead\u00a0By\u00a0Caitlin Seal \"Twice Dead\", a story by Caitlin Seal set in the fictional land of Belavine City, is about a girl named Naya who meets her untimely death within the first chapter while on a trading mission for her merchant father. 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