Week 9 Review: When Oceans Rise

From Goodreads:

Submerged in a toxic relationship and disconnected from everyone, she turns to the sea to decide her fate. Its decision? Toss her to the sea witch.

Seventeen-year-old Malaya is cursed. In her family, every girl's first love ends in death after falling for someone evil. Good thing Malaya's dream guy isn't monstrous.

Except the curse is real and preventing Malaya from noticing how much he has gaslit and isolated her until she can't be saved. With no other options, the sea witch is the only one to help her. Bartering her voice for a new life where she and her abusive boyfriend never met, Malaya accidentally swaps places with an alternate timeline version of herself who didn't make her mistakes. As she tries to undo the switch, the sea witch uses Malaya's voice to unleash Filipino mythological creatures into the worlds.

Can a champion, an alternate timeline sister, and Malaya fight these beasts and stop the sea witch before she destroys both timelines?

My Review:
I loved reading this book! I loved watching Malaya deal with her abusive relationship by making a deal with a sea witch, only to discover that instead of her own life and reality, she's switched places with a version of her who made different decisions, and that Malaya is living in her life, dealing with her problems. So of course she can't leave things like that! 

Honestly I felt so sorry for Malaya. She's in an abusive, gaslighting relationship, and she can't find a way out. Part of it was because their family is cursed with their first loves, but even in real life, he took away her support system, so that she would stay with him. It was such a horrible situation to be in, and she recognized that she wanted to get out, but she wasn't able to. 

This is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, but with Philippine mythology, which added such a fantastic element to the story! I know next to nothing about the Philippine mythos, so watching her deal with gods and monsters was so fantastic! 

I loved watching her go on this quest to reverse her wish, and really, she needed that time, to live a life similar to hers, but different, and realize that it wasn't perfect, either. As well as meeting the guy who was predicted for her to meet. I just had to read more, and I loved how it ended! 

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Robin Alvarez! 

Author: Robin Alvarez
Read: February 28th, 2024
Source: NetGalley 
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a 2024 Retelling Reading Challenge Book, DAC Book and a SAC 2024 Book! 
Publisher: Tides Collide Publishing
Published: December 19th 2023

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars