The Shape of Water meets The Greatest Showman in this beautifully illustrated queer historical cozy fantasy, as a young Puerto Rican immigrant goes through a journey of love and self-discovery after capturing a merman for a Coney Island sideshow act in turn-of-the 20th century New York.
Abduction, human trafficking (off-page).
Benigno “Benny” Caldera knows an orphaned Boricua blacksmith in 1910s New York City can’t call himself an artist. But the ironwork tank he creates for famed Coney Island playground, Luna Park, astounds everyone, especially the eccentric side-show proprietor who commissioned it. Benny’s work earns him an invitation to join the show’s eclectic crew of performers—his first welcome in the city—and share in their astonishing secret: the tank Benny built is a cage for their newest exhibit, a living, breathing, in-the-flesh merman stolen from the banks of the East River under a gleaming full moon.
The merman is more than a mythic marvel, though. Benny comes to know Río as a clever philosopher, an observant traveler, and a kindred spirit more beautiful and compassionate than any human he’s ever met. Despite their different worlds, what begins as a friendship of necessity deepens to love, leading Benny’s heart into uncharted waters where he can no longer ignore the agonizing truth of Río’s captivity—and his own.
A cage is no place for a merman to survive. Though releasing Río means betraying his new family, bankrupting their home, and losing his soulmate forever, Benny must look within for the courage to do what’s right, and find a love strong enough to free them both.
Don't just take our word for it...
“Steeped in the rasp of metalworks and the salt of the ocean, this novel is a delight for the senses and a balm for the heart. WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON lives evocatively in the intersection of romance and justice, of land and sea.”
– Eliot Schrefer, Two-time National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author
“I can’t believe Venessa Kelley exists. Here is an artist who is not only extraordinarily talented, but she can write too? We are so lucky to be around at the same time as her. WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON may be a debut, but it reads like someone at the top of their game. Lush prose, diverse characters, and a love story to swoon over? This book has got it all. Venessa Kelley is a dynamic writer who understands that little details matter just as much as the narrative itself. A feast for the senses!”
– TJ Klune, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea
“Venessa Vida Kelley’s debut novel proves she can achieve the same effortless luminosity with words as with her artwork, creating a page-turning story which brings 1911 New York and a vivid found family of characters equally to life. This is an achingly fantastical and painfully romantic book; it plunged me deep and took my breath away!”
– Freya Marske, internationally bestselling author and New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick for A Marvelous Light and A Restless Truth
Taste the very first page
Red Hook District, Brooklyn, New York
February 15, 1911
Titi Luz used to tell me, “No hay Mal que for bien no vent,” which was a timeworn proverb for saying every cloud has a silver lining, hurricanes notwithstanding.
She was the reason I’d sailed sixteen hundred miles to get here, a promise she’d pressed out of me on her deathbed. The way she saw it, Nueva York was a stockpile of the freedom American had pledged to Puerto Rico, and she couldn’t rest in peace if I didn’t vow to claim my share. There wasn’t really a choice; Titi Luz could out-stubborn even the tuberculosis that was killing her, and would have kept breathing just to guilt me. So I agreed. Sailing away from the solitude that had hung around me my whole life seemed a decent enough silver lining once she was gone.
Bueno, the joke was on me. Because, in a city of almost ten million people, being boricua in a dingy Brooklyn foundry gets you nothing but solitude.
Speaking nothing by Puerto Rican Spanish, it’s not like I got off the boat expecting to share nightly drinks with the entire…
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