★Kelley, Venessa Vida. When the Tides Held the Moon. Erewhon. Apr. 2025. 464p. ISBN 9781645661535. $29. FANTASY

DEBUT When a young Puerto Rican immigrant begins to fall for the merman he helped capture, he risks losing his career, community, and life. Only one person ever cared for orphaned Benny, his Tití Luz, who must send him to New York before she dies. There, Benny’s blacksmith skills gain him the attention of a Coney Island amusement park owner—and a new job. Though the park’s workers and side-show performers accept Benny into their family, he is used to hiding his true self, and it’s only his interactions with the imprisoned merman Río that begin to set him free. But even if he can admit that his growing feelings are romantic, will Benny risk harming the only community he’s ever felt like he belongs with? Kelley’s debut novel features their own lovely illustrations, which pair well with the beautiful prose and the message that true freedom only comes with self-acceptance. Fans of C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End or Ruthanna Emrys’s Winter Tide will be particularly delighted by the novel’s romance and worldbuilding. VERDICT Kelley’s debut might draw comparisons to Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, but this powerfully queer story will stand tall in its own right on any shelf.