When the Tides Held the Moon

When the Tides Held the Moon is about Benny, who finds himself in the center of a Coney Island oddities troop who has found a mer they want to include in their show. Benny ends up forming an unexpected relationship with the mer. My short blurb for friends has been MM The Shape of Water vibes. I loved the inclusion of other languages and how easily they switched. THE ART. Omg the art is such an added bonus. Given that the cover art drew me in first, I was so excited to see that more art was included throughout the story. So, so beautiful.

Lovely Art Nouveau cover and illustrations by the author, lyrical Spanish endearments and epithets decorate this romance between a Puerto Rican immigrant to NYC and his beloved merman, set in a 1911 Coney Island sideshow. Yeah, that's right, I fell in love with the cover, but stayed for the romance and experienced unexpected depths and current cultural relevance, in this excruciating time of immigration arguments, tariffs and the rich exploiting the poor.- Benny (Benigno Caldera) survived a hurricane as a child that wiped out his family in Puerto Rico, made a deathbed promise to the Aunt that raised him, to travel to New York and make something of himself. Working in a dingy Brooklyn foundry on structural ironwork for the planned Woolworth skyscraper, his ability with ironwork was noticed, he was given the opportunity to to design and build a traveling ironwork multi-ton water tank for a coming attraction at Luna Park. Incorporating fanciful elements from the beaches of his homeland, he improved on the structural design, and impressed the sideshow owner enough to be offered a job transporting and maintaining the tank. Benny escapes the Irish-dominated foundry where he is lesser-than because he is a newer wave of immigrant, and becomes part of the found-family of Coney Island 'freaks.' Sideshow owner, manipulative silver-tongued showman Sam Morgan plans to capture a Siren, a real mythic mermaid, believing that will be his ticket to success, having actually seen one as a child. Benny is brought along, and they succeed in capturing a merman and killing his mother in the process. Benny is horrified, recognizing subjugation and domination of a native culture, a being that is a natural phenomenon, a treasure of the Sea. Benny vows to himself to protect, befriend, and release the creature, as the mother implores him telepathically while dying.- This is a love story, not a political tract, but readers will pickup the themes interwoven through this historical romance. Benny has always felt he is 'other', first as orphan, then later as a gay boy in a culture that doesn't abide such, and then as an immigrant to the US, in just another tide of people coming to American shores. He develops a kinship with the beautiful creature, then realizes he can communicate with him in both English and Spanish, and finally in Song. Rio, the merman is cultured and fluent in many land languages, and is a natural being in tune with the 'currents' of the Sea. They find in each other a new language, a friendship and strength that transcends their differences. It is my wish that we as culture will transcend our present limits and find beauty in each other, appreciate out differences and build together a new culture of peace. Perhaps this is a beautiful fairytale that beguiles an old hippie, but maybe not. Be the Change you wish to see.

I envy anyone who gets tp read this book for the first time. It holds you in its arms and doesn't let go. By the time you get to the truly beautiful ending, you're left breathless.Kelley tells a beautiful story underpinned by history and love. Give it a read!

I was worried so much of the descriptions would be lost on me, but the illustrations sprinkled throughout the book are stunning. They made the story accessible to me, but also felt like I stumbled upon photos to someone's life and love story.I've seen others call this a beautiful book, literally and figuratively and I'd have to agree. It felt as though Vanessa Vida Kelley took the proverb, "A bird and a fish may fall in love, but where would the live" and decided to create an answer where love conquers all.

Set against a backdrop of Brooklyn's immigrant and queer communities in 1911, Kelley's WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON follows Benigno "Benny" Caldera and Río, the merman stolen from the East River to feature as a Coney Island freak show's new main attraction.Although the romantic arc is slow to get started, the tension ratchets up nicely once Benny becomes conflicted between his promise to free Río and his desire to keep the merman close and, later, once we begin to see the effects of Río being trapped away from the ocean. Río's caging works nicely as a metaphorical mirror for the ways in which Benny has caged the truth of who he is, even from himself: "I’d lost track of all the times I had melted myself down just to recast myself as someone with a slightly better shot at belonging someplace." And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Kelley's STUNNING illustrations, which add to the mythical feel of the story.Where TIDES really shines for me, though, is its grounding in Brooklyn waterfront history, from Coney Island's freak shows, to references to queer history via iconic male impersonators, to the sinking of the General Slocum, to NYC immigrant history. Kelley has evoked such a strong sense of time and place, and it was such a delightful coincidence that I began reading this book while finishing up Hugh Ryan's "When Brooklyn Was Queer," which tells of the borough's forgotten queer history.A few notable qualms—a somewhat underwhelming depiction of the early development of Benny and Río's feelings for each other and a disappointing lack of character depth for Lulu, whose fatness was not only her defining feature in relation to her act but also, ultimately, as a character—kept this book from being a home run for me.Kelley's choice in epilogue was interesting and unexpected, in part because the shift in perspective shifts the story a bit more in a mythic/folklore fantasy direction. I enjoyed it, and am glad that we got to read some of the memoir Mighty Matthias referenced so many times, but it did leave me with a lingering craving for the emotional satisfaction and HEA conclusiveness a good epilogue provides.Overall, however, the story worked really well for me as a romantic fantasy, and I definitely recommend it for fans of historical romance in atypical, interesting settings; queer romance fans; and readers who enjoy exploring history through fiction.Thank you to Kensington Publishing & Erewhon Books for the advance copy of this title! WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON is out now!