This book was fascinating and helped me articulate something I wasn't able to before- I would love Gothic literature a lot more if the characters were more interesting. This book is exactly that/what the blurbs promised. It's a sweeping gothic fantasy with mer-people and other "monstrosities". Although nothing like myself, I found the main character to be well-constructed and engaging, so I was very invested in her journey. I was not able to fully guess all the secrets, which is always a plus for me, though the seeds were sown in the story. It reminded me just a little bit of What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo and Gallant by VE Schwab.